Hater by John Semley

Author:John Semley
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Canada
Published: 2018-10-22T16:00:00+00:00

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Here’s the thing about Armond White: it’s pretty much impossible to prove, but speaking with him, drinking with him, dining with him, I got the sense that he was being wholly disingenuous.

When asked if he was playing the role of the troll, or the proverbial Frankenstein’s monster, he denied it: “That’s a popular response. But it’s not even a response. It’s a defense against what I’m trying to say.”

When asked if he was writing against fans, or other critics, or the culture of filmgoing and cultural appreciation writ large, he was similarly obstinate: “If I thought there was good criticism out there, I wouldn’t need to write criticism. That’s absolutely true. I wouldn’t write criticism if I didn’t have anything special to say. There’s no point praising another Marvel movie. There’s no point in writing another good review of a Paul Thomas Anderson movie. Why become a film critic if you have nothing to add beyond nodding your head? Why do it?!”

When asked if he bears grudges against other critics, he lied to my face: “I would welcome anyone to challenge an idea I write, rather than attacking me. I would never attack a person. Only their ideas. And if you can’t defend your ideas, you’re in the wrong profession.” (For evidence to the contrary, I would encourage you to look up White’s quarrel with fellow critic Georgia Brown, which culminated in his calling for the abortion of her fully adult son, the filmmaker Noah Baumbach.)

Armond White can hammer, like a heavy metal drummer, the idea that criticism has slouched into enthusiasm, that professionalism has been supplanted by amateurism, that freethinking has been replaced by groupthink. He can defend himself. Or at least the idea of himself.

But some things can’t be defended. In the weeks after the 2018 school shooting in Florida, White took to his sometimes-used twitter account @3xchair (a reference to his being the three-time chair of the NYFCC before being canned) to snipe at what he called the “Parkland Puppets,” survivors of gun violence who mobilized to challenge American gun laws:

Sick of the Parkland Puppets yet? Why their ubiquitous presence on TV news shows? Who’s their publicist? Obviously not just being picked up off the street, no 16-year-old has quick access to network news producers. Clearly, some PR exec is handling these Alt-Left kids.

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