The Literary Fighting Irish

On more than one occasion, we've noted the risk involved when American news outlets pick up a story from British outlets, forgetting the very slack accuracy standards that often prevail at the latter. Of course, for the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, this is precisely the advantage, a way of getting dubious stories into domestic circulation [look for rumours of a John Kerry affair to be attrbuted to "London's Daily Something" over the next couple of days].

But here's an example where the New York Times is among the outlets that should have been more careful. The NYT's Arts Briefing on Tuesday carried this item, which had been on the BBC website the previous day:

James Joyce's birthday present from the Irish writer Roddy Doyle was a figurative slap in the face. " `Ulysses' could have done with a good editor," Mr. Doyle told a gathering in New York to commemorate the birthday of Joyce (1882-1941), the BBC reported. "People are always putting `Ulysses' in the Top 10 books, but I doubt any of those people were really moved by it." As for "Finnegans Wake," Joyce's successor to "Ulysses," Mr. Doyle called it "a complete waste of time," though he said he had read only three pages.

We had thought the story seemed a bit odd, and surely would have generated more publicity in Ireland had it been true. In today's Irish Times, writer Colum McCann, who was at the gathering, explains what really went on:

Doyle had an enormous amount of praise and respect for Joyce and his work, and he mentioned this several times. He talked about Ulysses being one of the finest books of the century. He said he had read it twice and he cited Leopold Bloom as one of the most fascinating characters in world literature...It doesn't make much news that Doyle had all sorts of praise for Joyce, that much of what he said was in banter, that often his comments were presented with a wry grin, that he was operating with a small audience in mind, and that other topics he confronted were presented with sparkling intelligence...

I find it shameful that Doyle is left to the behest of tabloid journalism, the seekers of soundbites. That the comments were further filtered down by the British media which latched on to them with a sow-eating-her-own-farrow mentality is really no surprise. Their reports were a lens filtered through a lens filtered through yet another lens - and the only intention was to cause flame.

You could almost hear the rattle at the news desk: Let's go watch the sport. It's an Irishman - a famous one - stabbing another - a really famous one - in the back.

Perhaps the original story will be defended as a Joyce criticism-related program activity.