Call me Ishmael if, as Barack Obama’s gets his peace prize, the possibility of another unlikely award doesn’t arise with the first academic appreciation of “Going Rogue” as a work of art.
In his New York Times blog, Professor Stanley Fish makes the case for Sarah Palin’s mastery of the autobiographical form in delivering “the truth the genre promises…the truth about themselves–the kind of persons they are.”
A liberal arts dean emeritus, Fish deconstructs “Rogue” for its essence, brushing aside mundane matters of fact-checking to get at the heart of the work:
“The questions to ask then are (1) Does Palin succeed in conveying to her readers the kind of person she is? and (2) Does she do it in a satisfying and artful way? In short, is the book a good autobiographical read? I would answer ‘yes’ to both.”
As the debate begins over Palin’s literary artistry, her more prosaic writings are dusting up the usual storms, this time a Washington Post Oped today, urging fellow author Obama to “boycott Copenhagen,” trailing the usual quibbles about factual accuracy.
Such literal-mindedness always summons up a story about the fabled Hollywood producer of the last century, Sam Goldwyn.