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===Dale Peck and Other High-Profile Targets===
===Dale Peck and Other High-Profile Targets===
Romano wrote ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' articles in the 1980s about a dispute between [[Janet Malcolm]] and Jeffrey Kittay. In 1994, he wrote two pieces in ''[[The Nation]]''<ref>The Nation, June 6, 1994, pp.772 and June 20, 1994, pp.874</ref> about [[Dan Moldea]]'s legal actions against ''[[The New York Times]]''. ''The Nation'' editorialized against Romano's conclusions, in the very issue in which they published it:
Romano wrote ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' articles in the 1980s about a dispute between [[Janet Malcolm]] and Jeffrey Kittay. In 1994, he wrote two pieces in ''[[The Nation]]''<ref>The Nation, June 6, 1994, pp.772 and June 20, 1994, pp.874</ref> about [[Dan Moldea]]'s legal actions against ''[[The New York Times]]''. ''The Nation'' editorialized against Romano's conclusions, in the very issue in which they published it <ref>"The libel trap." ''The Nation'' 258.n22 (June 6, 1994): 772(1)</ref> A longer response addressing the legal issues raised in Romano's two-part essay appeared in ''Publishers Weekly''<ref>Kaufman, Henry L, and Michael Cantwell. “Moldea II: are reviews protected?.” ''Publishers Weekly'' 241.n43 (Oct 24, 1994): 39(1)</ref>


In 2004, in ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', Romano asserted about [[Dale Peck]]'s ''Hatchet Jobs''<ref>http://chronicle.com/weekly/v50/i39/39b01601.htm | Full text of Romano Peck review, which may be restricted online to paid subscribers to The Chronicle</ref>. In a panel discussion<ref>http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2004/06/bea_report_blog.html | Eyewitness description of Romano squaring off against Peck</ref> about negative reviews, according to [[A.J. Jacobs]] in ''[[Publishers Weekly]]''<ref>http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA426152.html?q=carlin+romano | Eyewitness report of Romano's attack on Peck from a columnist at ''Publishers Weekly''</ref>
<blockquote>
Despite the power of a Times review to ruin a book, we regard Moldea's libel claim as a greater danger to free expression. The constant threat of libel suits is strangling American journalism and book publishing. To the individual writer or small publication libel is a legal fatwa--so costly and time-consuming to defend as to be professionally life-threatening even when completely groundless. By brandishing libel threats, figures as diverse as the Du Pont family, Katharine Graham and Stephen Spender have squelched portrayals they didn't like. If the general accusation of "sloppy journalism" in a book review can be punished by a court, practitioners of political and cultural commentary--as well as investigative reporters like Moldea--might as well unplug their computers.<ref>"The libel trap." ''The Nation'' 258.n22 (June 6, 1994): 772(1)</ref>
</blockquote>


⚫
A review of [[Philip Roth]] prompted [[David Gates]] of ''Newsweek'' to use Romano's review as an example of "confusing the man with the work,"<ref>http://www.newsweek.com/id/41700/output/print David Gates essay in ''Newsweek'' about Philip Roth, wherein Romano interprets Roth's fiction as a direct expression of Roth's life and assumes Roth's ex-wife's version of reality is the truth</ref> the kind of reception Roth's early work repeatedly got before he was recognized as an American master.
A longer response addressing the legal issues raised in Romano's two-part essay appeared in ''Publishers Weekly'':

<blockquote>
Among the few dissenters to Moldea II was Carlin Romano, a critic for the Philadelphia Inquirer. In the Nation, Romano paints Moldea II as an unjust victory for corporate interests over the rights of individual authors. He argues that reviewer Gerald Eskenazi’s ties to the NFL (he covers professional football for the Times) precluded an objective review of a book exploring links between the NFL and organized crime. Romano also criticizes the Times for refusing to publish Moldea’s response to the review.
Unfortunately, Romano loses sight of the consequences of turning a literary contretemps into a legal contest. How a powerful medium like the Times assigns and publishes its reviews and how it responds to questions that may be raised are suitable subjects for debate within the “marketplace of ideas.” But once the arena shifts to a courtroom they become extraneous to the legal definition of libel.<ref>Kaufman, Henry L, and Michael Cantwell. “Moldea II: are reviews protected?.” ''Publishers Weekly'' 241.n43 (Oct 24, 1994): 39(1)</ref>
</blockquote>

In 2004, in ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'', Romano asserted about [[Dale Peck]]'s ''Hatchet Jobs'':
<blockquote>
Space constraints do not permit a full count of Peck's sins, but a short list is mandatory: hypocrisy, inconsistency, jealousy, contemptuousness, hyperbole, repetitiveness, self-consciousness, pretentiousness.
...Dale Peck is not the worst critic of his generation. He's simply the worst to have his essays gathered in book form.<ref>http://chronicle.com/weekly/v50/i39/39b01601.htm | Full text of Romano Peck review, which may be restricted online to paid subscribers to The Chronicle</ref>.
</blockquote>
These words echo Peck's famous review of Rick Moody's ''The Black Veil'' that appeared in 2002 in ''[[The New Republic]]'':
<blockquote>
Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation. ...Like all of Moody's books, it is pretentious, muddled, derivative, bathetic.<ref>http://www.powells.com/review/2002_07_04.html?printer=1/ | Full review by Peck</ref>
</blockquote>
In a panel discussion<ref>http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2004/06/bea_report_blog.html | Eyewitness description of Romano squaring off against Peck</ref> about negative reviews, according to [[A.J. Jacobs]] in ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'':
<blockquote>
It got ugly fast. Famously venomous [[Literary criticism|book reviewer]] Dale Peck endured a lengthy attack from Philadelphia Inquirer critic Carlin Romano. Romano said he "hated" Peck's book ''Hatchet Jobs''. He called Peck "disingenuous" and his work "garbage" and filled with "schoolyard name-calling."<ref>http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA426152.html?q=carlin+romano | Eyewitness report of Romano's attack on Peck from a columnist at ''Publishers Weekly''</ref>
</blockquote>

⚫
A review of [[Philip Roth]] prompted [[David Gates]] of ''Newsweek'' to use Romano's review as an example of "confusing the man with the work,"<ref>http://www.newsweek.com/id/41700/output/print David Gates essay in ''Newsweek'' about Philip Roth, wherein Romano interprets Roth's fiction as a direct expression of Roth's life and assumes Roth's ex-wife's version of reality is the truth</ref> the kind of reception Roth's early work repeatedly got before he was recognized as an American master:
<blockquote>
Carlin Romano, writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer, begins his review of ''Exit Ghost'' by harking back to actress Claire Bloom's 1996 memoir of life with Roth, whom she portrays as a monster. "Bloom … remains the only person close to Roth who has defied, in print, his fierce attempts to control information about his private life," Romano writes. She makes the point repeatedly … that while Roth reflexively savages critics … for ineptly reading his books as if they're more autobiographical than imaginative, those critics are often right … A Roth novel is evidence of the mind behind it, and observing Philip Roth's angry, self-indulgent mind gets sadder by the year."
</blockquote>


Romano's most notorious controversy was his November, 1993 review, in ''[[The Nation]]'', of [[Catharine MacKinnon]]'s ''[[Only Words]]''. It involved a rape hypothetical and criticized MacKinnon's positions on artistic representation and [[Freedom of speech|freedom of expression]]. The article generated coverage in ''[[Time Magazine]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]''.
Romano's most notorious controversy was his November, 1993 review, in ''[[The Nation]]'', of [[Catharine MacKinnon]]'s ''[[Only Words]]''. It involved a rape hypothetical and criticized MacKinnon's positions on artistic representation and [[Freedom of speech|freedom of expression]]. The article generated coverage in ''[[Time Magazine]]'' and ''[[Newsweek]]''.

Revision as of 18:42, 18 December 2009

Carlin Romano is a critic-at-large of The Chronicle of Higher Education. He was in 2009 a general assignment reporter[1][2][3] for The Philadelphia Inquirer. In 2006, he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism, cited for "bringing new vitality to the classic essay across a formidable array of topics." He worked for many years as a book critic for The Philadelphia Inquirer. He has taught courses in media theory at the Annenberg School for Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. At Bennington College he taught philosophy and was involved in a controversy there,[4] and has lectured at other colleges.

Life

Romano was born in Brooklyn. N.Y., and received a B.A. in philosophy from Princeton University, an M.Phil. in philosophy from Yale University, and a J.D. from Columbia University. He was one of 815 Fulbright Scholars in 2002; he lectured at Smolny State University, Moscow.[5] He was a Joan Shorenstein Center fellow in Fall 1993,[6] a Gannett and NAJP fellow at Columbia, and an Eisenhower fellow to Israel. He is a fellow of the New York Institute for the Humanities at New York University and was a Milena Jesenska fellow in 2009 at the Institut für die Wissenschaften vom Menschen in Vienna.[7] He served as president of the National Book Critics Circle in 1994.

Career

Romano reviewed books about philosophers in The Village Voice Literary Supplement starting in 1981. For example, "in punchy conversational style" (his characterization of Wittgenstein's later work).[8] Romano's writing has appeared in The Nation, Harper's, International Herald Tribune, Tikkun, Book Forum, Salon, Slate, Lingua Franca, Columbia Journalism Review, and Die Welt.

He contributed an item on Umberto Eco to Oxford University Press's The Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. In 1993, Basil Blackwell Ltd published Danto and His Critics (edited by Mark Rollins) and included an essay by Romano entitled, "Looking Beyond the Visible: The Case of Arthur C. Dantwo," about Arthur Danto, who won the Book Critics Circle Prize for Criticism, 1990.[9] In his essay, Romano sets up a dichotomy between "pragmatism" and "Hegelianism" and finds statements in Danto's books that he claims fit into one of these two boxes. In The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis? (published 1989 by Open Court, edited by Avner Cohen and Marcelo Dascal), Romano proposes a World Court of Philosophy in which appointed philosophers would stipulate philosophical conclusions.[10][11]

Romano wrote about G. C. Lichtenberg in the July 2004 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education. [12]

Romano also wrote a book review for The Weekly Standard in October, 2001,[13] a book review of The Future of Reputation: Gossip, Rumor, and Privacy on the Internet for Times Literary Supplement,[14] and a three-paragraph book review for the March 13, 1995 issue of The New Yorker.

Reactions to Reviews of Philosophy Books

His performance as a reviewer of philosophy books and his understanding of the kind of philosophy taught in British and American universities has come under critical scrutiny by academic philosophers,[15] as highlighted in The Chronicle of Higher Education itself[16][17] [18][19][20] His crusade against tolerance or sympathy for fascist ideology in the administration of higher education,[21] Catholic leadership,[22] and the teaching and publication of philosophy[23] has been under scrutiny.

Jalavits and the Nature of Newspaper Reviews

In 2007, Heidi Julavits, referring to newspaper reviews, said, "I think a 650-word review is bullshit... Reviews are not criticism. I see them as essentially Consumer Reports guides." To which Romano retorted, "We're on the same side. I could say that The Believer is McSweeney's on McSweeney's, Eggersphere on Eggersphere, that it's public relations. But that wouldn't be fair."[24][25] In a roundtable discussion in 2002, Romano, speaking about his own experience at The Philadelphia Inquirer.[26]

Dale Peck and Other High-Profile Targets

Romano wrote Philadelphia Inquirer articles in the 1980s about a dispute between Janet Malcolm and Jeffrey Kittay. In 1994, he wrote two pieces in The Nation[27] about Dan Moldea's legal actions against The New York Times. The Nation editorialized against Romano's conclusions, in the very issue in which they published it [28] A longer response addressing the legal issues raised in Romano's two-part essay appeared in Publishers Weekly[29]

In 2004, in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Romano asserted about Dale Peck's Hatchet Jobs[30]. In a panel discussion[31] about negative reviews, according to A.J. Jacobs in Publishers Weekly[32]

A review of Philip Roth prompted David Gates of Newsweek to use Romano's review as an example of "confusing the man with the work,"[33] the kind of reception Roth's early work repeatedly got before he was recognized as an American master.

Romano's most notorious controversy was his November, 1993 review, in The Nation, of Catharine MacKinnon's Only Words. It involved a rape hypothetical and criticized MacKinnon's positions on artistic representation and freedom of expression. The article generated coverage in Time Magazine and Newsweek.

References

  1. ^ http://www.philly.com/inquirer/about/staff/5805751.html | Official roster of The Philadelphia Inquirer
  2. ^ http://www.local-10.com/blog.html | In May, 2009, The Philadelphia Inquirer denied reporter Romano's request for unpaid leave of absence.
  3. ^ http://booksinq.blogspot.com/2009/09/todays-inquirer-reviews_13.html | Subject claims, to the National Book Critics Circle, to be writing about European intellectuals for The Philadelphia Inquirer when he was, in fact, not
  4. ^ http://chronicle.com/weekly/v46/i34/34a02001.htm | Extensive report on Bennington firing
  5. ^ http://www.cies.org/schlr_directories/usdir01/us_dir_name.htm | 2001-2002 U.S. Scholar Directory for the Fulbright Scholar Program
  6. ^ http://www.hks.harvard.edu/presspol/fellowships/fellows_former_semester.html
  7. ^ www.iwm.at/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=664&Itemid=649
  8. ^ "The Wittgenstein Industry: Saving Ludwig from His Friends" by Carlin Romano, Voice Literary Supplement, August 1982
  9. ^ http://www.columbia.edu/cu/philosophy/fac-bios/danto/faculty.html
  10. ^ http://autodidactproject.org/blog/culture/index.php/2008/08/the-institution-of-philosophy-2/ | Ralph Dumain’s review of Romano’s contribution to The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis?
  11. ^ http://autodidactproject.org/blog/culture/index.php/category/intellectual-life/ | Ralph Dumain’s four-part extended review of The Institution of Philosophy: A Discipline in Crisis?
  12. ^ http://chronicle.com/article/A-Hunched-Back-a-Searching/13184
  13. ^ http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=361&R=1625D36664 | October 22, 2001 "Semite and Anti-Semite: Hatred of Jews in the Arab world"
  14. ^ http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article3978179.ece
  15. ^ http://chronicle.com/article/What-If-Life-Were-Logical-/16964/ | Sophistry dissected
  16. ^ http://chronicle.com/article/Leiter-vs-Romano-Round-1/43814/ | September 10, 2007, Leiter vs. Romano, Round 1
  17. ^ http://chronicle.com/article/Richard-Rorty-1931-2007-the/2105 | June 29, 2007 Romano’s Rorty essay
  18. ^ http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2007/09/carlin-romano-t.html |September 9, 2007 Leiter’s line-by-line examination of Romano’s Rorty essay, a demonstration of the subject's attributed incompetence in the history and practice of philosophy
  19. ^ http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/10/carlin-romano-does-it-again.html | Leiter on the October 2009 Chronicle of Higher Education article Heil Heidegger! by Romano
  20. ^ http://leiterreports.typepad.com/blog/2009/11/why-is-brian-leiter-so-mean-to-me-asks-carlin-romano.html
  21. ^ http://chronicle.com/article/The-Shame-of-AcademeFa/47938/
  22. ^ http://chronicle.com/article/The-Popes-Sins-of-Omission/4852/
  23. ^ http://chronicle.com/article/Heil-Heidegger-/48806/
  24. ^ http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2007/06/the_book_expo_top_ten_madelein.html | New York Magazine report of live exchange between subject and Julavits
  25. ^ http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/lit_crit/jumping_on_the_mattress_of_the_book_reviews_deathbed_telling_it_to_get_up_60429.asp | Another account of Julavits encounter
  26. ^ http://www.najp.org/publications/ajfull.pdf | Transcription of roundtable discussion
  27. ^ The Nation, June 6, 1994, pp.772 and June 20, 1994, pp.874
  28. ^ "The libel trap." The Nation 258.n22 (June 6, 1994): 772(1)
  29. ^ Kaufman, Henry L, and Michael Cantwell. “Moldea II: are reviews protected?.” Publishers Weekly 241.n43 (Oct 24, 1994): 39(1)
  30. ^ http://chronicle.com/weekly/v50/i39/39b01601.htm | Full text of Romano Peck review, which may be restricted online to paid subscribers to The Chronicle
  31. ^ http://marksarvas.blogs.com/elegvar/2004/06/bea_report_blog.html | Eyewitness description of Romano squaring off against Peck
  32. ^ http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA426152.html?q=carlin+romano | Eyewitness report of Romano's attack on Peck from a columnist at Publishers Weekly
  33. ^ http://www.newsweek.com/id/41700/output/print David Gates essay in Newsweek about Philip Roth, wherein Romano interprets Roth's fiction as a direct expression of Roth's life and assumes Roth's ex-wife's version of reality is the truth
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