Kevin Drum doesn’t think much of Michael Lewis’s latest European dispatch for Vanity Fair — and neither do I. There’s precisely one thought-provoking paragraph in the entire 9,600-word article:
One view of the European debt crisis—the Greek street view—is that it is an elaborate attempt by the German government on behalf of its banks to get their money back without calling attention to what they are up to. The German government gives money to the European Union rescue fund so that it can give money to the Irish government so that the Irish government can give money to Irish banks so the Irish banks can repay their loans to the German banks. “They are playing billiards,” says Enderlein. “The easier way to do it would be to give German money to the German banks and let the Irish banks fail.” Why they don’t simply do this is a question worth trying to answer.
Sadly, Lewis doesn’t bother trying to answer that question. Instead, he returns to the running theme of the article, which might be evident if I excerpt a few words from here and there:
excrement - anality - Scheisse (shit), Dreck (dirt), Mist (manure), Arsch (ass) - The Money Shitter - crapping - rear end - toilets - “shit” - “my little shit bag” - laxative - “Purgation-Calendar” - anal - “As the fish lives in water, so does the shit stick to the asshole!” - scatological - “I am like ripe shit, and the world is a gigantic asshole” - sitting on the john - indulgence in fecal imagery - Scheisskerl (“shithead”) - feces - one of his favorite things to do with women was to have them poop on him - filth - coprophilia - The Call of Human Nature: The Role of Scatology in Modern German Literature - bowel movements - ring of filth - shit - Scheisse - splattered by their mud - a men’s bathroom - urinate - sat in the stall - “shit” - crap - crap - “Lick my ass” - “Lick my ass” - anally obsessed - stewing in their own filth - energetic anality - a blowout with prostitutes - anality - “Kackwurst is the term for feces” - ‘shit sausage’ - Bescheissen: “Someone shit on you.” Klugscheisser: “an intelligence shitter” - “you are said to shit money: Geldscheisser” - Die Kacke ist am Dampfen: the shit is steaming - a secret fascination with filth - “Scheisse glänzt nicht, wenn man sie poliert—Shit won’t shine, even if you polish it” - “Scheissegal: it just means I don’t give a shit.” - stick figures engaged in anal sex - simulating anal sex onstage
Which is not to say that there isn’t a sub-theme here. There is:
Nazi - Hitler’s favorite words - Hitler’s doctors - Hitler - the Nazis’ ambition - provincial Nazis - Hitler - Göring’s Air Ministry - Hermann Göring - the only advantage to the German financial system of having no Jews - the new Holocaust Memorial - Jewish Museum - spending decades denying they had ever mistreated Jews - Nazi-era expropriation of shares in the zoo owned by Jews - Hitler’s bunker - German guilt - “the Jews” - there are no Jews in Germany, or not many - “They never see Jews” -When they think of Jews - their victims - terrible crimes - a Jew whose family was driven out of Germany in the 1930s - Aryan - A Jew’s Life in Modern Germany - HOLOCAUST - Nazis - Hitler - A landscape once scarred by trenches and barbed wire and minefields - another Holocaust Memorial
"Lewis is the best writer in financial journalism by some large margin, and much of what he does when reporting and writing his stories is simply unique."
That's a pretty amazing thing to say about a guy who gets so many things wrong.
Michael Lewis writes beautiful, beautiful, satisfying prose and should pursue a career in fiction. His articles are super fun to read and leave you with an entirely inaccurate opinion of the subject matter.
Michael Lewis:Journalism::Obama:Public Speaking. You feel warm, fuzzy and satisfied while getting screwed. I put the President on mute and Mr. Lewis in the waste basket, and the world consequently makes a lot more sense.
#1 Posted by LorenzoStDuBios, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:03 PM
Ouch. Really sorry for the multiple posts.
Michael Lewis still sucks.
#2 Posted by LorenzoStDuBios, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:07 PM
Well done, Felix. A matter worth careful study. Your comment on "incremental" reporting is interesting. Obviously, many suffer from an inability to get traction on their stories.
By contrast, from the Telegraph's live news blog today:
Latest 15.38 Nouriel Roubini, the US professor and economics guru, gives his take on today's market rally: Homebuilders' sentiment totally depressed, real economy contracting based on Empire State Survey...& myopic markets rallying because of M&As less than a minute ago via web Favorite Retweet Reply
Nouriel Roubini.
In this economic crisis, nobody is getting better traction than Roubini.
This crisis should be a lesson to journalism schools in at least the UK, the US, and Australia, to change their practices in mutually reinforced programs this autumn.
First of all, students need to learn how to dominate a powerful and intuitive international media reading cycle. Grounded in meticulous analysis of three print newspapers, the weekend WSJ, the Sunday NYT, and the Murdoch Sunday Times. There is a tactile power in doing the print papers and spending three months in fully internalizing the cycle so as to enhance cognition. (Every journalism student should confront cognition directly with the most important book in psychology, Mark Ashcraft's "Cognition"). Given that students are so helpless with vocabulary--a trend aggravated by the SAT--they should also read all of the Oxford Dictionary of Psychology. Students should have to master a central 20-source internet news cycle daily, and pass thoughtful exams on it.
There are ways to get traction. Journalism schools often systematically look in other directions. They can't even adopt the COBUILD English Grammar. Too busy being busy.
#3 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:10 PM
Lorenzo:
Would you care to elaborate? What did Mr. Lewis get wrong that so annoys you? Was it in Moneyball? The Blind Side? The Big Short? Liar's Poker? Please share.
#4 Posted by garhighway, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 12:45 PM
You have not captured the content of Lewis's article accurately, Felix.
How many of your readers--at CJR and at your Reuters blog--have bothered to click through the Vanity Fair article page-by-page to assess your summary?
'LorenzoStDuBios' and 'garhighway' are talking past each other. A symbolic Internet encounter. On a matter of this type, readers should post their real name.
I doubt that the editors at Vanity Fair are having second thoughts, because Lewis's article is the most popular. It shows Tweet 587.
What Lewis says tells us more about the evil force, America, than it informs us about Germany. My recommendation is that the US formally change its name to The United States of Distraction. A pure formalization of its hectic and distracted style, which emerges beautifully in Lewis's piece.
In America, we do not bother to read the text. We just run our greasy paws over it and ejaculate something.
#5 Posted by Clayton Burns, CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 01:49 PM
Feces=money, right?
I think it was Freud said it last.
#6 Posted by Edward Ericson Jr., CJR on Mon 15 Aug 2011 at 02:31 PM
I read the Michael Lewis as far as his description of Hamburg, a city I know.
How can anyone describe this chap as any kind of a writer? He's a New York hack,that's all.http://www.facebook.com/mike.roloff1?ref=name
#7 Posted by MICHAEL ROLOFF, CJR on Wed 17 Aug 2011 at 12:18 AM
I am of Greek descent and I find Lewis' writings on Greece offensive. I am puzzled as to why people think he is such a great writer. In an earlier piece on Greece he wrote about how American like and fresh (I don't recall his exact words but that was the gist) the people in the "new" Greek government were. If he were to say that in Greece, he would be laughed out of the country, as the government is neither new nor by any means honest. There is so much that he said that I could critque, but it would take up too much space. In any case, stereotypes are never a good thing, especially when aimed at people who are going through a hard time.
#8 Posted by Mara, CJR on Wed 5 Oct 2011 at 02:26 PM
Some of you should just shut up
#9 Posted by Zack, CJR on Tue 25 Oct 2011 at 03:27 AM