"I have a beard too!"
Attached to a post tagged "Duck Commander" and "Duck Dynasty" in order to draw traffic seeking those topics, one which somehow simultaneously manages to both sneeringly resent and suck up to Phil Robertson's family ("I simply cannot get over that these hirsute, Jesus-loving rednecks are massive rock stars getting filthy rich just being themselves. Sometimes, the good guys really do win."), this Duck Commander Nation-related "update":
UPDATE: Hey, don’t forget to come see me at the Chennault Museum in Monroe today, speaking at 3:30 and again at 6:30, and meeting folks and signing The Little Way Of Ruthie Leming in between (Books-a-Million will be there selling copies). I have a beard too! Not nearly as impressive as some people’s beards, but one does what one can.
Hi, Phil. I'm a pathetic internet dog tick named Rod Dreher. Can I live in your beard and suck blood from your face? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeezzzzzzeeeee?
The American Conservative: becoming even more so any day now.
(You didn't expect me to insult the Robertsons further by adding a "duck" tag to this post, did you?)
This beard obsession of his is a psychological case study.
ReplyDeleteIt's ironic to find Dreher obsessively strapping on after the fact these superficial manifestations of the very masculinity he derided his father fror trying to instill in him, whether in the form of adopting ever more supposedly "masculine" religions like Orthodoxy or by presenting himself in ever more disheveled states of hairiness.
DeleteMore than one person has wagered that they expect his next religious hop to be from Orthodoxy to Evangelical Christianity, but based on his behavior to date I'd look for him somewhere on some Eurasian plateau, looking like a Yeti and ascetically hanging by his nipples from eagle claws, his eyes put out by his own hands to rid himself of his own peculiar porn on the brain, the apotheosis of neurotically obsessive hairy masculinity.
Keith
That piece is more carefully written than Dreher's usual output. He took great care to hide his sneering resentment, as you put it, but still leave as much distance as possible between himself and the Robertsons. So as not to offend his few remaining readers.
ReplyDeleteTo wit, he makes the point that Lucas and Nora (not he) are the huge fans of the show, that "they" (not he) were dazzled by the shop, the allusion to the price of the sodas, and that "the kids" (not he) want to eat at Willie's diner, all give the same message.
And the part you quoted, Keith, really brings out the ten-foot-pole that he's using. "I simply cannot get over . . ." (neither approval nor disapproval), and his choice of words ("Jesus-loving" instead of godly or religious; "filthy" rich), are dead giveaways, too.
The piece comes off just like Obama saying in 2008 that he believed marriage to be between a man and a woman. It gives the desired impression to the casual listener or reader (in Dreher's case, the local fans of DD or maybe even a Robertson), but those in the know (i.e., Wick and the Dreher combox faithful) know that he doesn't mean it one bit.
Pathetic.
It must be rough as a narcissist dad to have your kids think anyone is cooler than you are.
DeleteDreher using the word commercialism makes me throw back my head and laugh uncontrollably. It's a dead giveaway that he does begrudge the Robertsons.
If your kids don't think that everyone is cooler than you are, you're doing it wrong.
DeleteYeah, even wearing Ruthie as a cape few people are finding him commercially interesting, so now he's reduced to dragging his kids and his poor old Mam along on gigs as conjuror's props.
DeleteAt the Chenault Air Museum in West Monroe, sponsored by Fletcher's Financial.
Next stop: signing books as he serves desserts at Luby's, Furr's, or Golden Corral.
Keith
Well exactly. Being respected is definitely not the same as being cool. But we're not "public people" so we probably don't understand the immense pressure that super-blogger-dads are under.
DeleteNot just your run of the mill West Monroe Fletcher Financial, as it turns out.
DeleteKen Fletcher is his cousin.
How nice of another Dreher family member, this one still alive, to help Our Working Boy cover his million dollar advance.
Sort of like Mom & Dad buying all of little Janie's Girl Scout cookies.
Keith
Beard envy?
ReplyDeleteHe previously tried to more subtly ingratiate himself with the Robertson phenomenon first here, then more generally here.
ReplyDeleteWhen that didn't work, it was time to bring out the Mallet of No Doubt About It and go full retard Daffy Duck on the association he was tried to create.
I think he finally succeeded.
Keith