Reviews
The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia by Matt Taibbi, Eduard Limonov, Mark Ames
chalicotherex's review
5.0
Been following the eXile and related projects since maybe 2002/2003/2004, waaay back when I was just a kid in (junior?) high school.
Don't want to get too into it here except to say that yes, this is the book that's quoted from selectively to make Ames and Taibbi look as if they were self-reporting sex criminals. Anyone who's familiar with their work (and not arguing in bad faith) will find this hard to believe, and understand that the sections of the book where they're writing about themselves and their paper are in the tradition of auto-fiction. It's part of the tradition to exaggerate your worst impulses and invent horrible details about yourself. Think about how, years later, Houellebecq wrote a novel in which he appears as a character, slovenly and disgusting ("I have completely relapsed into charcuterie"), only to end up a murder victim.
More recently, Canadian rapper-turned-CBC host Rich Terfry (aka Buck 65) had the same thing happen to him over his book [b: Wicked and Weird|24040555|Wicked and Weird The Amazing Tales of Buck 65|Rich Terfry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436388686s/24040555.jpg|43639859]. Some credulous people actually thought the book was non-fiction, and that he spent two months in a Russian prison cell. But of course, when the book actually hit the shelves, people read it and realized he was telling tall tales. Likewise, no one actually thinks Houellebecq was murdered (although I wouldn't be surprised if he actually moved his bed out into his living room when he realized he was a shut-in and would never again receive guests in his home in Ireland). But the eXile writers never gave their readership those easy Colbert winks, and I can almost understand how people would fall for it, especially when they're being fed only the worst snippets. (I myself was a little put off by the eXile when I first started reading it). But come on–if you apply even the most limited of critical thinking skills, it's pretty apparent that this is fiction. And don't get started on that ISBN small print – that's for bookstores and libraries.
It really is annoying. The Clintonites and the Cernoviches of the world aren't going to argue about this in good faith, fine. But when DSA people and Leftists start accepting these arguments and calling for the authors to be blacklisted, that sickens me.
I don't know, I didn't mean to write this much about it. Give the eXile writers a chance, is all I'm saying.
Don't want to get too into it here except to say that yes, this is the book that's quoted from selectively to make Ames and Taibbi look as if they were self-reporting sex criminals. Anyone who's familiar with their work (and not arguing in bad faith) will find this hard to believe, and understand that the sections of the book where they're writing about themselves and their paper are in the tradition of auto-fiction. It's part of the tradition to exaggerate your worst impulses and invent horrible details about yourself. Think about how, years later, Houellebecq wrote a novel in which he appears as a character, slovenly and disgusting ("I have completely relapsed into charcuterie"), only to end up a murder victim.
More recently, Canadian rapper-turned-CBC host Rich Terfry (aka Buck 65) had the same thing happen to him over his book [b: Wicked and Weird|24040555|Wicked and Weird The Amazing Tales of Buck 65|Rich Terfry|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1436388686s/24040555.jpg|43639859]. Some credulous people actually thought the book was non-fiction, and that he spent two months in a Russian prison cell. But of course, when the book actually hit the shelves, people read it and realized he was telling tall tales. Likewise, no one actually thinks Houellebecq was murdered (although I wouldn't be surprised if he actually moved his bed out into his living room when he realized he was a shut-in and would never again receive guests in his home in Ireland). But the eXile writers never gave their readership those easy Colbert winks, and I can almost understand how people would fall for it, especially when they're being fed only the worst snippets. (I myself was a little put off by the eXile when I first started reading it). But come on–if you apply even the most limited of critical thinking skills, it's pretty apparent that this is fiction. And don't get started on that ISBN small print – that's for bookstores and libraries.
It really is annoying. The Clintonites and the Cernoviches of the world aren't going to argue about this in good faith, fine. But when DSA people and Leftists start accepting these arguments and calling for the authors to be blacklisted, that sickens me.
I don't know, I didn't mean to write this much about it. Give the eXile writers a chance, is all I'm saying.
More...