Friday, February 19, 2016

Paul Theroux Shows His Infinite Wisdom by Naming Noam Chomsky as Required Reading


What’s the … last book that made you furious?

When I read anything political and polemical by Noam Chomsky, I think (angrily): Why isn’t anyone listening to this man?
Perhaps, Paul Theroux, because Chomsky is a far-left kook who believes in elaborate fairy tales? The author, most recently, of “Deep South”, Theroux answers questions by the New York Times.
Whom would you want to write your life story?

No one. I will put every obstacle in the way of any future biographer. I have described this noncooperation in detail in an essay in Smithsonian magazine. My life belongs to me — do not interfere or presume. I have used it continuously in my work, and that indeed is my life story. But if you insist on a biographer’s name, I would suggest Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen, a.k.a. Baron Munchhausen.