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April 22, 2005

Free-trader leg-humping that passes for thought

Sorry, but I must post this review of Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat, by Matt Taibbi, for its hilarity. From the New York Press:

Friedman300(Friedman never forgets to name the company or the brand name; if he had written The Metamorphosis, Gregor Samsa would have awoken from uneasy dreams in a Sealy Posturepedic.) Here's what he says:

I stomped off, went through security, bought a Cinnabon, and glumly sat at the back of the B line, waiting to be herded on board so that I could hunt for space in the overhead bins.

Forget the Cinnabon. Name me a herd animal that hunts. Name me one.

This would be a small thing were it not for the overall pattern. Thomas Friedman does not get these things right even by accident. It's not that he occasionally screws up and fails to make his metaphors and images agree. It's that he always screws it up. He has an anti-ear, and it's absolutely infallible; he is a Joyce or a Flaubert in reverse...

You have to read the rest here.  And there's also this at Crooked Timber.  [Thanks Husain and Robin.]

Posted by Abbas Raza at 03:18 PM | Permalink

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