Why Can’t Johnny Read? A Bunch of Men on How Janet Malcolm Is Awful

“I’ve never read Janet Malcom [sic], and I doubt I ever will.”
— That’s journalism professor Matt Tullis, who follows this comment with 581 words on how awful she is. I guess he would know! GOOD FUN. So wouldn’t you love to read a bunch of dudes writing really poorly and really very angrily about Janet Malcolm? One guy is incensed that she has taken “a grand run at my profession.” (They are talking about a book that came out 21 years ago?) Anyway, sure you would! You could also read Tom Junod on the topic, who writes, in Esquire: “Janet’s [sic] Malcolm’s a self-hater whose work has managed to speak for the self-hatred (not to mention the class issues) of a profession that has designs on being ‘one of the professions’ but never will be.” This is a pretty amazing case study.