An Open Letter For the Bubbas

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/arts/harpers-letter.html#commentsContainer&permid=108012836:108012836

Rich writers telling Trump Suporters that the rest of us idiots need the voices of the stupid.

We do not. We already know what they think.

These are rich writers. With money. Are they hungry. No. Are they in hospital. No. Are they in jail. No. Did they join marches and have their heads bashed in. Never.

They have faced adversity, threats, rejection of writing.

The rest of us slogs, slugs, and slurs do not merit an article in the New York Times about an open letter we signed. How brave.

That is the thing about publishing. It’s irrelevant. It’s elitist. It’s a good old boys bubba club the likes of which makes the Heritage Foundation look like the Weather Underground. These people make millions. They get six figure advances. Are they being evicted from their homes.

Do bears shit in the woods. Yes, but the stores are out of toilet paper. Lions, tigers, and writers.

They have reduced publishing to a posh, ostentatious, high-toned, luxury Ritz Hotel, escape destination. Begin your spa journey now. They are propped up by a business that pampers them, protects them, and markets them by a bevy of publicists who have the focus of a forest shrew.

I am being uncivil. It is exactly what the definition of civil is that defines them with the chivalrous odor of a cigar. Meanwhile, the rest of us hacks out here are writing as fast as we can. The royal household these writers write in reinforces their images of themselves as the kings and queens of the so-called civilized world.

And they complain we need Trump supporters to voice the voices of hate. Most of the people who live on the street I live on, here in the Appalachian South, belong to the Ku Klux Klan.

Tim Barrus

Tim Barrus Blog

Posts tagged with open-letter

Tim Barrus: New York Times