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1991 Iannone, Carol: News Articles (1991): Book Review 01 Jack Miles

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LOS ..\\GELi:S T!\IES • SL'.;D ..\Y. JLLY 1991 --·--·------·--=--=--=-==---~======------,

ghost of controversies past returned to haunt me black. The other four NBA nominees included two recently, a reminder of the day in 1987 when I The 'Dictatorship Latinol. a FilipinO and a white. A attacked a woman of Allian col9r for promoting a Iannone thought they were all third-rate. nominated woman of Afncan color against my own favorite. pale not because of their merit.I but because of their male. Larry Hememann's novel "Paco's Story" had then of Mediocrity' minority-group membership. AJJ for the one white. well, ;ust defeated the smart-money favorite. Toni Morrison's Joyce Carol Oatel' "Because It la Bitter and Because It la "Beloved," for the National Book Award. ~chiko By JACK MILES My Heart" is all about "the life of a wondrous black boy Kairntani. fiction critic of the New York Times. de­ . . . wasted on account of a totally worthless sleazeball of a subject, no~nced what she :;aw as a miscarriage of literary justice. Societies. PE.'! Amencan Center, People for the American white." It waa that Iannone suggested. rather than I wrote in The T'.mes Book Review that ·'Beloved" was a Way, the Wall Street Journal. the Washington Post and the literary merit.I of the book that won Oates her slot good book but "Paco's Story" a better one. There was a such fourth-estate heavies as William F. Buckley Jr.. Iannone didn't stop with this year's alleged beneficia­ iittle more lO it than that. but not much more. Garry Wills. George Will and Norman Podhoretz. ries of literary alfirmative action. however. She harked \\l!y bMl1g •.his up now? Because Tom Morrison's failure Last March Iannone wrote an article in CommentarY back to Alice Walker. whose "The Color Purple" wu to wm the 1987 National Book Award has been a strikingly magazine, disparaslns at 90me length Charles Johnson's awarded the 1982 National Book Award and Pulitzer ~egiected fact in a controversy over critic Carol Iannone "!liiddle Passage," the winner of thi.11 year's National Book Prize. "The amazing honor accorded to it seemed lea a :hat over the past three months has embroiled the Award for fiction. "Though Johnson's larger ambitiona recognition of literary ach!l!vement." Iannone wrote, \;ational Endowment for the Humanities. the Modem are noble," Iannone wrote. "it is hard to take his "than 90me official act of reparation. in thil case lO the '-..mguage Awl.. the American Council for Learned prize-winning book seriously aa literature." Johnson is Plal.u Tum to Page 8

says. "So can I. So can any man,'' Village Voice. the Boston Globe, inconveniently for that theory, have raised her to prominence. 'Dictatorship' answers Hotspur. "But will they and the New Yorker as well as a Crouch happens to' have it in for come?" number of extremely well-estab­ Spike Lee. a black male whom he No one called the question by its right name un\il Joel Conarroe. Continued From First PQl}e In a backhanded, insultingly lished free-lance critics. If politi­ compares in one scathing essay to black woman in her capacity both condescending compliment to cally motivated mediocrity rules, serial killer John Wayne Gacy Jr. president of the John Simon Gug­ as author and as literary charac­ Johnson, Iannone says that he the NBCC would be the ideal place geMeim Foundation, and current I mean to suggest that black ter.'' "holds the profoundly heterodox to see it in action. Do chairman of the National Book And there were other un1ustly belief that black artists should be Three black writers were nomi­ writers are at each other's throat.I? Foundation, did ao in a letter to No more than white writen. truth celebrated :ilacks. she said: allowed lO write as indiViduals nated in this year's NBCC competi­ Cheney which was later quoted in be told. But that's the point Blaclu ··Around :he same time, another rather than as 'spokesmen for the tion: Johnson in fiction; Stanley the Wall Street Journal. The WSJ are conservative, liberal. radical; ~:ack ·Neman novelist, Gloria Nay­ race.'" If this is heterodoxy, who Crouch-long a jazz and culture dellOUilced Conam>e for callin8 '0:-. ·Non a .\iational Book Award are the black writers who defend critic at the Village Voice. now a alao mystical and dreamy. like Iannone's story about Toni Morri­ Alice Walker; dry and sardonic, .;cd 1n American Book Award for the orthodoxy? Find me a black contributing editor at The New son and the 1987 Pulitaer Prise like Stanley Crouch; earnest and li: ev~n less accomplished novel. writer who believes that he or she Republic-in criticism; and Shelby "Inflammatory nonsense." ·r:ie Women of Brewster Place.' should not be allowed to write as Steele-a literary critic and pro­ concerned. like Shelby Steele; and Witty and determined to whistle Iannone may very well be con­ ""d .rn 1987. a group of black an individual. Neither Naylor nor fessor of literature famous for his into the worst gale, like Charles firmed in her Council posttiQD, xme.~s demanded and obtained the Walker nor Morrison would es­ opposition to affirmative action-in Johnson. How sad it is that a critic despite the fact that Ted KeMedy ~·~i1tzer Prize for Toni ~orrison's pouse that position. nonfiction. like Iannone, who want.I to stand chairs the committee that does the :1cvel ·Beloved.'" Coilect1vely, This year's National Book Critics Steele won; Johnson and Crouch up for the conservative belief that confirming. But Conarroe-a for­ :::ese cases proved :o lannone that Circle Awards are highly relevant did not this mean that the Does _it is merit and merit alone that mer Pulitzer, NBA and NBCC A::-,er:car. i•terature had become a data for the question of whet.her a NBCC is less politically co-opted judge-is right: "Infiammatory ··aemocra:•c dictatorship of medi­ dictatorship of mediocrity guaran­ than the NBA? No, it does not deserves reward. should have been deluded into seeing a popular front nonsense" is euctly what her JcntY" tees honors to minority writers. I What it means is that there is no of neo-tribal activiltll and white belief in a conspiracy again.st quali­ M~morv is so selective when would note first that the NBCC such conspiracy afoot, anywhere. radicals where none eiData. ty in American letters amounts to :.-ou've got an agenda. It's true that Awards are the moat representa­ Carol Iannone is denouncing a And the more her paranoia pene Toni Morrison won the Pulitzer tive literary awards in the country, chimera. Shortly before she published her tratea the deliberations of the Na ?me for "Beloved,'' but it is also much more so than the National Reality is simply always more attack on black prise winners. tional Endowment for the Humani true. as noted above, that. to the Book Awards. complicated· than ideologues-or Iannone was nominated to the ties. the more the air will b< great shock of many in New York The small permanent staff of the sometimes overzealous de­ National Council on the Humani­ poiloned for thole of 111 who wan publishing, she was denied the National '9ook Foundation names nouncers of ideology-are willlng ties by Lynne V. Cheney, chairman to see black writers 11 the free National Book Award Which deci­ five distinguished writers and crit­ to allow. Yes, Shelby Steele oppoe­ of the· National Endowment for the unpredictable and politically inde sion reveals more? ics to serve aa judges in each NBA es affirmative action in hla boolr. Humanities. The Ml.A and the pendent individuala that they are Yes. a group of blacb took an ad category, and there the judging "The Content of Our Character." A~ have objected to the nomi­ The real American literary worl< in the New York Times calling on rests. The NBCC, by contrast. polla An obvio111 right-wing pawn. But nation. claiming that they find will ao on. doubt!-. more or les: the Pulitzer Prize judges to make nearly 600 reviewers around the then Shelby Steele voted for J­ Iannone'• scholarly bibliography u It bu, but the NEB will be for 1 amends by awarding Toni MorrilOn country, and final decilionl are Jackaon in 1988. Hmmm. Stanley ( 20 articles and revieWI. bait al wbile llld to an ment in the pip 01 that prize. But when have the made by a 24-penon board tbll Crouch in hll collection "Notel al a them in Commentary llllpilne) a lllnderoul and daDprOUI over· white male power~ al Amer!· reprelllltl the literary establllll­ HallliDI Judp" dtlplna- lfmi· jnMecpat.e. tllouP cllarJ.y - ...... I can newspaper Publilblnl ever di· ment fir - clolely Ullll ID1 --·· "Bekmd" but pni. Jolm. 1111 ... to - ,._ CblDl1 ferred to writen al 1111 kind, audl oUllr lllld:J ID tM CGWltrJ. 1'1111 _., ...... ,,.,.• .n .. ftdllll --tiUft ...... _I_ bl8ck writen? '1 eu ._ ,.., tM ... IDdudlll ...... \ppnDdee." Mt& ..... puUllll, ...... ~ .... ,...... "- die Wllldnitm ,_, New­ ...... -17, ... ..,...... tMllP...... It II .... Odllilr, 1'fl, fl~' ~;It ~.;.11\J,;,=~ ....., - ...... 1!11&_ ...... lla1. tM Lii ...... 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