| 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 lamented the absence of D’Artagnan, the Fourth Musketeer. I propose a candidate for the missing Fourth: the empty chair, placed on stage at every recent PEN event, to symbolize the writers, emprisoned or prevented from traveling, who couldn’t be there, whose “voices we were robbed of.”
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2 Comments | Add a Comment |
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| 5-11-08 12:47PM: Boria Sax said...
If the empty chair were filled, exactly who would occupy it? I think that any protest should be specific in order to be very meaningful. Otherwise, the empty chair would come across as just one more complaint from a relatively privileged group that wants more status and influence.
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| 5-9-08 4:21PM: Richard Zink said...
Yes, I agree with the need to include the comments of American writers. Their voices are absent. Once in a Blue Moon, the Public Television news hour will have a poet interviewed. An empty chair is a fine idea.
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