NYT Book Critic: Michael Moore Belongs on Same Shelf With Thomas Paine
The front of Wednesday’s New York Times Arts section featured Dwight Garner’s review of the new book by left-wing documentary film-maker Michael Moore, “Here Comes Trouble -- Stories From My Life.”
Garner, a fan, called Moore (infamous for his anti-conservative conspiracy theories and vicious, purposely misleading mockery of Republicans) a “necessary irritant,” and in one nauseating paragraph suggested Moore’s book belonged alongside works by the revolutionary founding activist Thomas Paine.
In 2001 Christopher Hitchens published a slim, engaging how-to book titled “Letters to a Young Contrarian.” Among its most consequential advice was this: “The noble title of ‘dissident’ must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement.”
Comes now Michael Moore -- the Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker, best-selling writer, right-wing bogeyman, blue-collar provocateur, wearer of baseball caps, necessary irritant -- with a plump, slatternly book that could probably appear under that same title. A better title for Mr. Moore’s new volume, “Here Comes Trouble,” however, might be: The Education of an American Misfit.
....
Mr. Moore’s coming of age as a working-class malcontent is, however, something to behold. It’s the story of a big lunk who learns to yoke his big mouth to a sense of purpose. It persuades you to take Mr. Moore seriously, and it belongs on a shelf with memoirs by, and books about, nonconformists like Mother Jones, Abbie Hoffman, Phil Ochs, Rachel Carson, Harvey Pekar and even Thomas Paine. Mr. Moore -- disheveled, cranky, attention seeking, too eager to pick a fight -- is easy to satirize. But he could nearly get away with branding his camera with the words oncescrawled on Woody Guthrie’s guitar: This machine kills fascists.
In August 2009 Garner enthused about a new biography of founding Communist Friedrich Engels: “Thanks to globalism's discontents and the financial crisis that has spread across the planet, Karl Marx and his analysis of capitalism's dark, wormy side are back in vogue.”
- Clay Waters's blog
- Login to post comments
Comments
Hypocrisy,thy name is 3M(Moronic Michael Moore).
Submitted by buzzkill59 on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 5:19pm.
This guy doesn't need to be on a shelf,He needs to be on Jenny Craig!The man's an imbecile who craps where he eats every day.He rails against America and greedy corporations every day WHILE pocketing millions of dollars doing it! If He would like real credibility,then he should give his money to the poor or the government He seems to love so much!Until then He's just a hypocrite and a douche!
The New York Times
Submitted by kata on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 5:44pm.
Too rediculous to read. Too expensive to be bird cage liner.
The only place a book by
Submitted by tcm14 on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 5:58pm.
The only place a book by Michael Moore belongs is next to the toilet paper.
NO
Submitted by ricklail on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:16pm.
We rednecks still prefer the JC Penney catalog since Sears quit putting out theirs,
And then its purpose
Submitted by Bodini on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:20pm.
is only as a backup supply to the toilet paper. Even then I would be skeptical about wiping with it, to ensure I didn't get some liberal disease on my butt!
I must disagree, tcm. If you
Submitted by MikeB on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 12:38pm.
I must disagree, tcm. If you did that, you would risk papercuts in a very sensitive place that would be subject to some rather nasty infections.
Mooron's books should be placed next to publications by Larry Flynt or Al Franken or Keith Olbermann or Mao Tse Tung or Barking Insane Obama. All of the above have the same literary and intellectual value.
It's not entirely untrue...
Submitted by Flig Narson on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:00pm.
Michael Moore's book DOES belong on the shelf next to Thomas Paine... After all, Moore is a HUGE Paine. In the a$$.
Actually
Submitted by ricklail on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:14pm.
I don't think the big fat slob would fit on the same shelf as Thomas Paine.
The Ramblings Of a Vicious Fascist
Submitted by Avitar on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:22pm.
I once had a High School English teacher march down to the office and demand that I be expelled because I had written as well researched paper that pointed out that Thomas Paine had spent in all nearly fifty years of his life involved in starting or participating in war, in America, Britain, Ireland and France.
I would however, place Michael Moore on the shelf next to Mien Kampf, the sayings of Chairman Mao and anything by Pol Pot, just down the shelf from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. This shelf is in the back of the closet behind the shoe boxes and only exists if I have to research toxic waste.
That shelf better be heavily reinforced
Submitted by Dave. on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:36pm.
...else it might come crashing down.
-Dave
Vote for the American in November
Badda - bing !
Submitted by Galvanic on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 10:14pm.
Very good, Dave.
Moore is nothing but a joke, and a bad one at that
Submitted by Clericus on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:42pm.
If there is any shelf he should be sharing, it’s the one next to Joseph Goebbels for his propaganda films masquerading as documentaries. A “blue-collar provocateur?” I don’t know many blue-collar folks who live in multi-million dollar penthouse apartments.
Really Dwight?
Submitted by telecaster on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:46pm.
To bad Michael Moore is a hypocritical liar who cuts and pastes his fakeumentary's. He couldn't pack Thomas Paine's lunch. Next time I see him I'm gonna stick him with a pin and watch him fly around the room. Please tell me your joking Dwight.
Michael Moore belongs in the
Submitted by rbosque on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 6:48pm.
Michael Moore belongs in the toilet.
Good idea
Submitted by Tjexcite on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 8:23pm.
The more people that read Tomas Paine the better. He has been tossed into the trash bin with nothing but MM and the like books taking all the shelf. If the only way people read Common Sense and the Federalist papers are to have to also look at MM book at least it is there. If people have there choice to read one or both Tomas Paine's book from 1776 will do better that MM books any day and the reader will gain more from it as well.
both of which are in PDF form
Submitted by kata on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 8:30pm.
and fit nicely on an e-reader. I know this kind of innovation may scare the likes of Chris Matthews but we can't please everyone.
The same shelf
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 8:58pm.
Moore's work should be on the same shelf as the other deceased writers. Just as with Paine himself, Moore's originality is dead. They do share a common bond, though, a hatred of Christianity.
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
First of all...
Submitted by stage9 on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 8:46pm.
The only thing Michael Moore "belongs on" is Jenny Craig....and second of all........where was I going with this?
"If God is dead, somebody is going to have to take his place. It will be megalomania or erotomania, the drive for power or the drive for pleasure, the clenched fist or the phallus, Hitler or Hugh Hefner." — Malcolm Muggeridge
Speaking of Paine....
Submitted by CobraMan on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 8:52pm.
Speaking of Paine, I was just reading his introduction in "The Rights of Man" and this statement leaped out at me:
"If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised to furnish new pretenses for revenue and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey, and permits none to escape without a tribute."
Does this remind us of anyone? Moore, perhaps?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States. The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus. The US Supreme Court
Or Anwar al-Awlaki.
Exactly CM,
Submitted by Boudin on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 9:08pm.
I was wondering if they could find a bigger contradiction to Paine, with-out citing Marks or Mao
Good work,
Submitted by killa37 on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:15pm.
Good work, Cobra..............if Thomas Paine ever met Michael Moore, and then figured out the Moron's viewpoints and opinions and attitudes about America, freedom, liberty, and the rest of those subjects that Paine so eloquently defends - he'd probably pick up the damn shelf and crack Moore across his big fat ass with it!!!! And he'd probably wonder what this country has come to when a tub'o'lard commie phony punk like Moron is being compared, in ANY way, to his own intellect and sense and vision.
He belongs on the shelf...
Submitted by Kitsapbass on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 9:32pm.
next to Major Payne, not Thomas Paine. Michael Moore's movies are bad comedies at best.
I mean - nobody's THAT stupid...well, that isn't a liberal.
Keep writing
Submitted by LoosMoose on Wed, 09/14/2011 - 11:02pm.
Moore needs to keep writing, because when the newspapers are all gone, they will still need something in which to wrap the fish down at the wharf.
yo mike
Submitted by D'saredumbpeople on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 7:42am.
is that your fat face or your fat ass with a hat on.
Puke inducing headline
Submitted by JayVee on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 8:34am.
"NYT Book Critic: Michael Moore Belongs on Same Shelf With Thomas Paine"
Nearly threw up when I read that one!
There is another reason to
Submitted by jessieH on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 9:46am.
There is another reason to drop the NYT. Their book critic is nuts. That's why everyone calls it a Rag-Mag.
New York Times, really is
Submitted by UncleDirtNap on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 11:04am.
New York Times, really is that rag still being published? Why nobody reads it any more.
And Thomas Paine is buried where?
Submitted by Jarhead68 on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 3:38pm.
That's the shelf they were talking about, right? Moore, as behemoth as he is, wouldn't make a pimple on Paine's ass. Moore is a small, petty, uninformed dunce with no love of country in his heart. Is he even an American? Where was he born? Kenya, right? Have we seen Moore's birth certificate yet? Just askin'.
The shelf won't hold
Submitted by ChuckySchmucky on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 10:37pm.
He's not fit to sit on the same toilet as Paine. And besides, he'd break the shelf if he tried to force his way onto it.