Feedback II

I've also had an exchange of several emails with a leading lit-blogger-- one whose role is to hype and legitimize the system. In his emails he gave rationalizations for staying uninvolved, and for PEN's stonewalling; he focused not on the staggering control and corruption I've outlined, but on the one or two things PEN and Random House get right; and he shows a striking inability, like most status quo writers and sycophants, to see the publishing houses within context within gigantic media empires. Finally, this blinkered individual states that he too has on occasion spoken up against the literary establishment, giving as his example that he protested the registering of IDs for PEN's yacht parties.

Wow. IDs at yacht parties. YACHT PARTIES!!!

Can anything else better show what PEN has become-- or the insularity of establishment literary people in New York?

(A revealing look at one of PEN's yacht parties is at
www.nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/03/pen_american_center_world_voices_fest.html )

The Petition to PEN is at
www.penpetition.blogspot.com

Note the differing perspectives.