Like a Bit of a Distraction, Even an Anachronism

March 23, 2023 12:23 AM

His is a temperamentally conservative vision, in which youth culture—hippies and beatniks, “kids gone feral,” kids who never fought in a war and lack respect for their elders—is an absurd and pathetic sort of menace. Where this could easily become curmudgeonly or censorious in a less imaginative writer, however, Portis always seems bemused; the disappointment is too vast to be taken all that seriously, it is foregone and always cut with an instinctual swerve toward the comic. from Signs and Wonders [Harper's; ungated]

Charles Portis, previously

posted by chavenet (1 comment total)

The author has written some good things for the Arkansas Times, including more about that gala.

I wasn't expecting a story about Charles Portis to end with a reference to this guy, but Arkansas is a small state, and Little Rock a small town, that way--thanks for posting.
posted by box at 9:07 AM on March 23, 2023 [2 favorites]