Letterman's Lack of Class
Letterman is empty; heâs inert; he stands for nothing except disdain for people foolish enough to stand for anything - aside from rote obesciance to all the things Decent People stand for, of course, all those shopworn assumptions passed around in the bubble.
This posture was fresh in â80; it even had energy. But it paralyzes the heart after a while. You end up an SOB who shows up at the end of the night to reassure that nothing matters. I think he may have invented the posture of Nerd Cool, an aspect so familiar to anyone who reads message boards - the skill at deflating enthusiasm, puncturing passion with a hatpin lobbed from a safe distance. The instinctive unease with the wet messy energy of actual people.
Yes, reading too much into it. Really, itâs just a rote slam: If your mother is a loathed politician, and your older sister gets pregnant, famous old men can make jokes about you being knocked up by rich baseball players, and thereâs nothing you can do. Thatâs the culture: a flat, dead-eyed, square-headed old man whoâll go back to the writers and ask for more Palin-daughter knocked-up jokes, because that one went over well. Other children he wonât touch, but not because heâs decent. Itâs because heâs a coward.
Oh, one more thing: itâs okay for David to say that because someone said something else about someone, and since I didnât write about that, Iâm a hypocrite. Just so weâre clear.