February 3, 2004
From the desk of Mindles H. Dreck:Nothing worse than an ex-drunk department
The New Yorker has taken a certain confessional tone recently. First, David Denby came out with a book about his unhealthy internet stock-trading obsession. An obsession reached by way of an internet porn addiction, we learn. (more in his Fresh Air Interview last night)
Now Katha Pollitt confesses that she was so annoyed with her ex-lover that she became a webstalker. In the course of her article (not on-line), she reveals enough details to make available the identities of her ex-lover and his new girlfriend. Reading this I began to hum something from the '80s.
When a business partner tells you they are "just simple country folk", hold on to your wallet. When a pundit confesses passage through some dark obsession, get ready for a lecture. Will we be hearing how Ms. Pollitt and Mr. Denby have come to understand and rise above the illness that is afflicting society as a whole? Will they have something to tell us about ourselves? Stay tuned...
I should say I know one recovering alcoholic very well and he has never once used his own personal nightmares as a lectern. But hey, if you went through some monomania about stocks, porn or ex-boyfriends, preach away, right?