Tuesday, February 15, 2005

Love in the Time of McSweeney's

Being acquainted with both parties but taking no particular side, I first direct your attention to Ada Calhoun's Nerve.com piece on the "Men of McSweeney's." Her essay uses self-regret over an unrequited crush to excoriate the afforementioned men for being cleverly detached commitment-phobes. "The promise of disapproval just doesn't turn me on like it used to," Calhoun writes. "I no longer revel in the upturned nose of the frigidly pompous that used to get me so hot."

In the other corner, we have McSweeney's alum Neal Pollack defending his posse and rebutting Calhoun for what he calls her "full-frontal assault on group sexual potency." He goes on to say his closest compatriots were unlike anything Calhoun described. Moreover, they all grew up to marry women "who don't display any of the neuroses that make their sad parade across Calhoun's article."

Will that be the final word of this juicy little online dust-up? I guess we bystanders will just have to wait and see.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What the fuck is McSweeneys? Some of us don't read Beets!

Anonymous said...

You don't read Beets, son...you eat 'em! Actually, you can learn more about McSweeney's at www.mcsweeneys.net or at your local public library (cue NBC "The More You Know" logo).

jennifer said...

Nice "Sixteen Candles" reference there, Greg. Kudos! Well-played, sir.

And even though I can relate to what the Nerve lady is saying about the McWeenies, I think Neal Pollack is right when he says that post-collegiate men in their early 20s tend to be pretentious commitment-phobes...

I didn't know McSweeney's still existed! I'm getting '90s nostalgia already...

Anonymous said...

Doesn't saying she only liked snooty McSweeney's guys make her a snooty McSweeney's gal?

Terri R.