An Empty Chair For American Authors
| Tuesday, May 6, 2008 12:15AM | | | | An Empty Chair for American Writers | Posted By: Gini Alhadeff
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Could we propose, in honor of Pen and this year’s World Voices Festival, an empty chair on CNN and other TV news programs to symbolize the absent voices of American writers when it comes to commenting on politics?
The important question to have emerged Friday night at the 92nd Street Y, after some funny bantering by the Three Musketeers--Rushdie, Eco, and Vargar Llosa was: Why aren’t writers ever asked to comment on politics in America? Why must we listen only to professional commentators (such as the barrage of retired and semi-retired mlitary men we’ve been subjected to)?
“A regrettable thing has happened in America, “ Rushdie said, “the professionalization of the commentariat so voices like those of DeLillo or Robert Stone are not heard.”
The Three... | | | | | | | |
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