Sunday, February 06, 2005
Stop Philip Johnson before he kills again!
Every so often, the NYT will sink its talons so deep into a story that the average reader will often be left muttering, "Did I really just read the 17th article on Newt Gingrich?" It is no dream. The self-perpetuating machine of inevitability and -- well, who knows what? -- drives editors and reporters and, quite possibly, the graphics people to an all-consuming Leave No Angle Unflogged mania, creating a slash-and-burn path of destruction across Styles, Escapes, and Westchester Weekly (see, Roth, Philip; Male, Pale).
Which brings us to this week's topic. And now don't get us wrong. The trained monkeys and me truly heart the gay dead architects almost as much as we heart the Jews. But Philip Johnson, we surrender.
We understand the need for a full Philip Johnson section devoted to your life and works. Really we do. We know that, for many, the retrospectives, the multimedia presentations, the misty recollections of your fascistic and anti-Semitic leanings, will not nearly be enough.
But the Connecticut Weekly doing the "Philip Lived Here!" piece. Oy. Arts and Leisure posthumously quasi non-outing the man and his eyewear? ("Over the years, Johnson's design would become a prime signifier of brainy, creative and often gay male eccentricity.") It is a bridge too far. The grim toll so far in the last week: Six articles, 7,600 words.
As a sage friend of mine once pleaded: Make the bad man stop.
(A final note of confession: the philistines at Blogoland had never heard of Philip Johnson until his timely passing.)
Which brings us to this week's topic. And now don't get us wrong. The trained monkeys and me truly heart the gay dead architects almost as much as we heart the Jews. But Philip Johnson, we surrender.
We understand the need for a full Philip Johnson section devoted to your life and works. Really we do. We know that, for many, the retrospectives, the multimedia presentations, the misty recollections of your fascistic and anti-Semitic leanings, will not nearly be enough.
But the Connecticut Weekly doing the "Philip Lived Here!" piece. Oy. Arts and Leisure posthumously quasi non-outing the man and his eyewear? ("Over the years, Johnson's design would become a prime signifier of brainy, creative and often gay male eccentricity.") It is a bridge too far. The grim toll so far in the last week: Six articles, 7,600 words.
As a sage friend of mine once pleaded: Make the bad man stop.
(A final note of confession: the philistines at Blogoland had never heard of Philip Johnson until his timely passing.)
Permalink posted by Jonathan : 8:38 AM
