Round Two
Posted on 24. Mar, 2006 by Brian Reid in General
Now that the Leslie Morgan Steiner mommy wars story has played itself out, I’m gearing up for the next onslaught, which is going to be Caitlin Flanagan and her new book: “To Hell with All That.” (Because linking on the web is intepreted by Google as a vote of confidence, I’m not linking to the book’s profile on Amazon. I’m sure you can find it if you look.) Flanagan’s already been booked on the Today Show, there’s no hope of her going quietly into the night.
Her book is a rewarming of her five-year career as a magazine essayist/reviewer/bombthrower, and reports are that she’s toned it down a little in re-editing those pieces. There’s also a new piece on her breast cancer.
If you want to prepare to jump into the Flanagan fray in the coming months, please, please read this profile in Elle magazine. The author, Laurie Anderson, paints a brilliant,damning portrait of Flanagan: her compelling writing, her apparent hypocrisy, her aversion to logic.
… thinking hard about what Flanagan is actually trying to say — ?what her work stands for beyond the succor of sparkling prose — may be something she should hope her readers will avoid ……
What is so stunning about Flanagan’s writing are conflations such as these, only specious upon reflection, as well as her sudden reversals, as if she’s willing to say whatever’s most convenient, most clever, and damn the consequences.
Flanagan has always fascinated me. I have never understood how a great writer and could come to such loopy conclusions, and I’m grateful to Anderson for doing a great job of trying to answer that.
(Instant update: Flanagan is officially bait for the blogosphere, and I won’t be able to keep up with what will no doubt be some wonderful posts. But Amanda at Pandagon probably has the title for best Elle/Flanagan analysis at this point. Update: In terms of vitriol, Gawker’s Flanagan posting is also in the running.)
Stephen
24. Mar, 2006
I agree that Flanagan may be a big hypocrite. Moms who stay home and have a nanny really are living a life of luxury that doesn’t hold many lessons for us regular folks.
But she may be right about a few things too, so I think it’s a mistake to demonize her too much.
I know plenty of kids who care as deeply for their nannies as they would for a parent. (I had a nanny as a kid, and I still remember her vividly.)
Stay at home parents may not be “better” parents. But they may literally be more devoted. The very definition of the word implies being dedicated to loving personal care. And always being there when needed.
I also think it’s true that the economics of two income couples wouldn’t be feasible for many people if they weren’t paying nannies under the table. The dependency of middle class working parents on illegal aliens is an under-publicized shameful secret. You don’t really think about it until you meet professional nannies who have been on the job for 15 yrs, without any money being put away for retirement.
jen
24. Mar, 2006
I will listen to what Caitlin Flanagan has to say about primary caregiving the day she actually serves as primary caregiver to her children. Likewise she can talk to me about keeping house the day she changes her own sheets.
Sandy
25. Mar, 2006
I like this perspective on Flanagan:
http://kiersten.blogs.com/
(the two most recent posts)
devra
27. Mar, 2006
I tried to go visit Amanda’s post on her blog and I landed on a page which reads the account has been suspended. Anyone know what happened to Amanda’s blog?
devra
28. Mar, 2006
Update, it’s back. Not sure what was going on earlier. Party on…
amy
29. Mar, 2006
y’know….
It seems to me it’s time to whip out the bullshit detector & do a self-scan when you start taking the likes of Flanagan, and her critics, seriously. I mean for God’s sake, it’s like worrying about whether espadrilles are making a comeback. There’s an inescapable college-girl masochism-is-a-compelling-party-game tone of “but she’s being mean about _me_, which is shocking, because I’m (litany of wide-eyed upper-middle-classness), therefore I hate her, and will express it by wrapping one ankle around the other and pretending to seek wisdom what she’s saying, before concluding (sadly) that she’s horrible,” in some of these critiques, incl. the Elle one.
If you’re beside yourself about the gerbil, then for fuck’s sake, tell the mean lady to go to hell and go home. Then go have a look at yourself in the mirror, and ask yourself if this is what you had in mind when you were twelve and more sensible.
I mean really. This is just not serious stuff, even when the tony magazines run it, and I think it can be safely skipped.
Rebel Dad
29. Mar, 2006
Amy -
Like it or not, Flanagan is taken seriously. She writes for two serious magazines (the New Yorker and the Atlantic). And she’s about to launch into the largesr culture with her book and the PR push to follow (Today Show, etc. etc.). She is promoting a neotraditionalist agenda that would limit choices for parents, and her critics are pushing back. I think that’s a perfectly fair debate to have. I just wish we could do it without accusing anyone of gerbil-cide.
amy
29. Mar, 2006
RD, with all respect, your argument for taking Flanagan and her critics seriously sounds a little lemming, a little fashionbound. OK, so she’s in the NYer and Atlantic. So what? It doesn’t make her or her critics any brighter or more insightful. A handful of stylemakers like her, for now, and maybe a few thousand semi-influential surface-action people spend actual minutes thinking and talking about her, for now. I think this is froth that will go away, and that there are more profitable ways to spend the time.
If Flanagan starts building an actual political movement and hanging around in those scrubby little offices where real action happens, then OK, I think it’s time to pay attention.
I don’t see the Atlantic or the NYer as required reading, btw. Though I really like the caption contests lately in the NYer.
amy
29. Mar, 2006
Whoops. Look at it this way - compare her with Camille Paglia, who is at least an actual scholar with some intellectual heft, the kind that lasts after the style guys decide they’ve had enough of you. Paglia also made a career out of poking people in the eye, and of finding societal sore spots, then showing we yell “ow” when you kick them. I don’t think this takes great talent. But if you read her, then even if, like me, you don’t much like what you read, you have to admit there’s a serious mind there to reckon with. This is not the case with Flanagan, who’s a dilettante.
You can still be dangerous as a dilettante if you’re willing to do the political work, but I don’t see it here. Will neotrads use her? Sure. With joy. But they don’t need her.