Photo Finished
Wil S. Hylton tells the tale in GQ of Joe Darby, the soldier who blew the whistle about Abu Graib:
But coming forward would change his lifeóas well as his family'sóforever, and for the worse. Because back in his own community and in the small towns of America, handing over those photos didn't make Joe Darby a hero. It made him a traitor.
(via Metafilter)
Amy --
I wish I could read as quickly as you can. There is SO MUCH padding in that piece, for example:
"As soon as Maxine stepped in front of the first camera, she could feel the quicksand at her ankles."
"Bernadette stood alone in the apartment, blood pounding in her head."
When I read lines like that, I don't get swept away in the drama of the story. I get annoyed. How the hell does the writer know anything about Maxine's "quicksand" or Bernadette's blood? Is there a name for this kind of bullshit journalism?
Lena
Lena "Just the facts, ma'am" Cuisina at August 17, 2004 9:19 AM
Fiction. It's in GQ, a place where journalism died long, long ago. Hylton sures imagines what's going on in the minds of small town folk, despite having never been in a small town nor spoken with anyone who lives in one.
Rachel at August 17, 2004 1:44 PM
GQ is also, unfortunately, a place where photos of cute guys in speedos died a long time ago. There is simply no good reason to look at that magazine anymore.
While we're complaining about garbage non-fiction, here's something that appeared in Bruce Nussbaum's seering expose (ie, bargain basement book) on the commercial release of AZT and other HIV drugs:
"Sam Broder, MD, sat back, drained of his anger for the moment. His dark brown hair curled around his collar. Broder cocked his head to the right, breathed deeply, gathered up steam, and plunged on with amazing accusation. This was going to be one of the greatest scandals ever to hit medical science."
The only scandal here is that Nussbaum was able to peddle 300 pages of this crap to a publisher. It's more than bad. It's insulting.
Bitch-a-Leen at August 17, 2004 2:56 PM