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Sep 17, 2007 03:49 PM by James Panero
What to make of Michael Hirschorn’s essay "Quirked Around," which appeared in the September issue of the Atlantic? Here Hirschorn set about taking "the unbearable lightness of Ira Glass, Wes Anderson, and other paragons of indie sensibility" down a peg or two in an attack on what he identifies as too much "quirk culture." Well, first off, I can’t argue with the targets. The inert cuteness of "quirk culture" can be traced back to the Talking Heads and indie rock. More recently, Ira Glass and his show "This American Life" have become the darlings of castrato radio. Glass’s annoyance level is just about that of the friend of yours who recently moved to Brooklyn. Then there is Wes Anderson. Could there have been a worse movie of the past several years than "The Life Aquatic"? Soggy garbage. And could there be a movie maker more precious than Anderson? Since "Rushmore," Anderson has constructed one man-boy dollhouse after another. "The Royal Tenenbaums," and especially "Life Aquatic," add up to little more than high-priced twaddle. Okay, so "quirk" may be an easy target. I wasn’t sure what to make of it all until I heard Hirschorn discussing his essay on WNYC’s Brian Lehrer show (never one to stand in the way of innovation, I am embedding a link to the segment).
What a disappointment. Hirshorn’s not going after "quirk," he’s going after "bad quirk." So he didn’t like "The Life Aquatic." But he praises Anderson’s film-making. In fact, Hirschorn has rigged a fixed fight. I should have known. Hirschorn is part of the "quirk" problem. In his Atlantic essay, Hirschorn criticizes Ira Glass (spending a suspiciously long time doing so, going over the plot summaries of a dozen recent segments). He then writes, "full disclosure: two of [the] executive producers [of This American Life] are working with me on another project." Now, if you are going to attack something in print, I mean really do it, does it require a full disclosure? Right. Hirschorn just wants to fly his quirk flag while pulling punches with Ira Glass. And isn’t that the problem with quirk culture? Even in a fight, the quirks never leave the doll house.
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