Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Tim Noah   [Jonah Goldberg]

From a reader:

Jonah:

You’ve been pre-slammed! Timothy Noah (http://www.slate.com/id/2162318/) builds some sort of argument that we should ignore your book because it hasn’t come out on schedule. But he’s sure it’ll suck, because it promises to speak ill of liberals.

Obviously, your book isn’t out yet, so Noah’s review violates the laws of time displacement. To complain about his pre-review forces me to mangle verb tenses. Will you have had a response to him?

Happy Birthday – I will be buying your book when it appears.
I think. Or I will think. Or will have thunk.

Me: Frankly, I find Tim Noah to be a bore and a fairly nasty and humorless fellow. And he's been whining about me ever since I called him a journalistic hall monitor years ago.

But I will say this. He has absolutely no idea what he's talking about, which he basically admits. His assertion that the book's delayed for marketing reasons would be a flat-out lie if it weren't flat-out conjecture. As my wife, various friends and colleagues and sundry others can attest, the book is delayed because it's not done yet. The reasons for that have to do with any number of things (revisions, work distractions, my father's death, the birth of my child, etc etc) and, as far as I'm aware, marketing isn't even on the top ten. Noah, who hasn't read it, is invested in a theory and simply imagines facts to substantiate his usual sneering schtick.

But look: If I could be done with this whole process tomorrow even if it meant releasing the book on the day after Hillary Clinton cured cancer, walked on water and saved a box of puppies from a fire I would leap at the opportunity. My book isn't like Dinesh's latest book. It isn't like any Ann Coulter book. It isn't what the Amazon description says or what the Economist claims it is. Or what Frank Rich imagines it is. It is a very serious, thoughtful, argument that has never been made in such detail or with such care.

To sum up: Cool your jets Timmy, there'll be plenty to get your panties in a bunch about later when you actually have the opportunity to know what you're talking about. Though I'm sure your review will be as careful and unbiased as we've come to expect you.

03/21 04:43 PMShare