Rod Dreher said this about Anthony Lane: “If you want to be a writer, read him. Start with his report from the Beijing Olympics. And don’t stop.”
Naturally, I had to check it out.
He’s not bad that’s for sure. He made the a subject that I am not very interested in (The Olympics) interesting. But he did not quite manged to justify the demigod status that Mr. Dreher tried to ascribe to him.
Still his essay was interesting and I do not regret the time it took to read it. I think what made it interesting is that Mr. Lane was bored by most of the sporting events himself and so wrote about other things. Such as little red cars remote control cars….
The best thing about the shot put was the cars. After the shot landed, and the distance had been measured, the precious sphere would be retrieved by an official and placed in the cockpit of an automobile: two feet long, bright red, with a tail fin—in short, the idealized vehicle that I drew during chemistry lessons when I was nine years old. Now it exists, for real, and there are two Chinese fellows with the best job in the world, who get to steer it back to the shot-putting circle by remote control. (It can also bring a hammer, or even a javelin, which slots neatly into the fin.) I followed the gaze of the spectators around me, and realized that most of them had entirely lost interest in what was happening on the track, so urgently were they tracing the progress of the cars, and so hastily were they revising their list of what they want for Christmas.
Underlying the whole essay is a touch of knowing snark. I suppose that could become obnoxious if that is the style he writes in all the time, but I found it amusing in this piece. I actually laughed aloud at this bit…
The other mystery weapon in Lyon’s quiver was Phil Towle, a performance coach back in the States, whose online messages had been an inspiration. “He’s also been a psychologist for Metallica,” Ryan said, as if to justify the gentleman. I had to steady myself against a passing volunteer. Metallica has a psychologist? What, exactly, is it repressing in its sylvan melodies?
The most memorable Lane pieces to my mind are always his take-downs of bad movies.
Dreher commenting on Lane surprised me as they seem wholly different in terms of writing style.
Dreher writes like a newspaper man. Which is to say that he has a bland boring style that is easy to understand.
It is understandable that he dreams of upgrading to a non- boring style. We would all like to be a little better then we are.
Me, I would settle for being able to write in bland boring style that was easy to understand. But that is only because I can’t write in a comprehensible manner.