at last read the now-infamous Jian Ghomeshi "Reflections from a Hashtag" in New York Review of Books. problem begins w/ the title: Ghomeshi wants readers to think that his predicament is a consequence of #MeToo , not his own egregious & much-repeated misogynist behavior.
third problem, duplicity: Ghomeshi glides over the myriad charges against him which would be in US aggravated sexual assault, pretending that his "public toxicity" (his word) is not in fact private, much-repeated "toxicity"--sexual assaults against at least twenty women.
fourth problem, dismaying lack of context: no fact-checking seems to have been employed in the preparation of this piece, which badly needs footnotes or an italicized introduction to explain objective facts known generally to readers in Canada but virtually unknown in US.
it's as if NYRB published a self-aggrandizing, self-pitying memoirist piece by, for instance, the late Senator Joe McCarthy bemoaning his fall from power, blaming his victims, & not once mentioning the years of infamous behavior & harm done to countless innocent persons.
astonishing, Ghomeshi asks readers to admire him because he DOES NOT APOLOGIZE as others have in his position; he feels no "contrition"--only just "fear" and "anger"--"in that order." masterpiece of blind raging egotism to set beside the most deranged Dostoyevsky monologues.
(Dostoyevsky's "Notes from Underground" is a work of brilliant fiction, however, the exposure of the "underground" type; Ghomeshi's memoir is a literal, totally unironic, self-preening screed from underground, where it should be allowed to fester.)
not once does J.G. recoil in disgust at his own crude behavior. he does want us to think he cares about his mother, however--(though his care doesn't extend to the mothers of the women he'd victimized)--& worries that the "scandal"--(again, "public toxicity")--will upset her.
in the last several paragraphs J.G. asks the reader to admire him for having, at least once, not taken advantage of a woman who'd (he claims) found him charming; not seducing her, trying to strangle, punch, or rape her. for this, congratulations are due, he seems to suggest.
badly needed, personal accounts by martyred American males like Ted Bundy, Charles Manson, Jeffrey Dahmer including testimonies by women & boys whom they had not gotten around to raping, murdering, or cannibalizing. sure to trend on Twitter.
