Matt "Hunter S." Taibbi

Johnny Depp's on the cover. Issue 1004/1005, cover date July 13-27.....

 

Having read it, Xanny, I disagree with you, and pretty emphatically. Which, as you stipulate, doesn't mean I don't like you. I like you fine, and always will.

I'm just not sure that the comparison to Dr. Thompson is quite right. Not only as a matter of stature, or originality, but style.

While Mr. Taibbi is clearly fingering some of the grace notes of the Gonzo style, I think the more obvious model for what he's trying to do here is Michael Herr. If you haven't yet read Dispatches, I urge you, and everyone on the board, to do so.

Though I commend Mr. Taibbi's work in general, and his efforts here in particular, this piece needed a much better edit than the one he got. It would have been a better, stronger piece at 3/4 this length, and with the weakest figurative language made right. I think it ends badly. I think Mr. Taibbi, wittingly or unwittlingly, makes himself too much the focus of the piece, which Dr. Thompson, despite his use of the first person, never did. I won't prattle on here about what I think could be improved in the piece, which is excellent in many ways, but will instead suggest this:

If you were inclined to do so, maybe you could have one of the Mods move this thread over to the Writers' Workshop sub-board and we could talk about it in terms of craft for the next few days. No hard or hurt feelings, just a purposeful deconstruction of the piece and why it works for you (and many others), but not for me. No harm, no foul if you don't care to do it, either.

Best,

jgmacg

 

I've thought about the piece all day. The one crit I do have is wanting to see more hard factual reporting. There was probably a lot of things he saw he could've written about, but didn't. In that regard, I was let down.

And you are right about the overuse of "I" in his narratives. That's why I say he's not within 50 miles of Hunter. I just got sucked into the series. Your idea of breaking it down on the other board seems like a good one.

 

Isn't Taibbi's father the NBC correspondent, Mike Taibbi?

I like Matt's writing ... a lot. His "Bush Like Me" piece in Rolling Stone during the 2004 election, when he worked as a volunteer with the GOP campaign in Florida, was tremendous.

But his suck-fest of Sean Penn and their PR stunt while trying to rescue people in New Orleans last September (remember Penn's boat sinking?), WTF was that?

Let's wait awhile before tossing out comparisons to HST. 

 

I may have misstepped in implying Taibbi is everything like Hunter. Some of the the things in the piece just reminded me of him, that's all.