Garrison Keillor, semi-jerk

I, too, remember Keillor's column after his trip to Dallas. He looked about two feet tall. Apparently it did not occur to him that people who were familiar with his work, and liked it enough to turn out for him, would probably not be torture aficionados. I have never enjoyed him as much since.

This comes from the same Mr. Keillor who derided "those who believe in the Virgin Birth" in the last cycle in 2004.

I used to just love listening to Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon" as a geeky teenager in the 1980s. But now I view him as in the same category as Anne Lamott, who pretty much referred to Palin as evil incarnate a few weeks back.

They both enjoy posing as gentle souls who yearn for simpler times, but you can only pose as something you aren't for so long. The older one gets, I believe, the harder it is to maintain whatever false pretense of identity any of us has built in our younger adult years. The true soul starts poking through the facade, and we have a harder time maintaining the energy needed to keep up the pretense.

So more often than not the bilious leftist hate leaks out of people like Keillor and Lamott.

well, you can always be judged by the company you keep.

I was supposed to play a festival gig with Keillor's musical director from "A Prairie Home Companion" over the summer, and at practically the last possible minute, the guy had us pulled from the gig (we're a pretty high energy afrobeat/jazz/jam band) because we "weren't what we represented ourselves to be."

This stuff is usually learned behavior. So, Keillor's jerkiness doesn't surprise me in the least.

Why is Garrison Keillor news?

Maybe it's a hangover from his drinking problem. A lot of former alcoholics have serious problems keeping an emotional even keel.
Doesn't excuse it, but there are probably a lot of chemicals involved for which he's stil paying.
Surprised to read that he thinks that the virgin birth is stupid; he's episcopal, isn't he? Maybe he just likes the upscale atmosphere, something better than his old fundie days.

Maybe if the media had debunked the Bush is a Texan story. Bush's birth and life in the northeast- his deep family connections- were never written about. Meanwhile Democrats were not authentic- while the phony Texan was able to parade about while the media took no notice.

Semi-jerk?

I just don't know.

Maybe it's because I'm not from the South, and so don't identify with Southern culture and norms. Maybe it's because I'm a Californian, and therefore view things through a different lens. Maybe it's because my family is largely from midwestern Scandinavian stock, and Keillor's rhythms and cadences are those of my extended family, like hearing the voice of a beloved uncle telling stories after dinner. Maybe it's because I travel to southern Oklahoma every couple of years for a family reunion on my wife's family's farm, something I look forward to eagerly despite an awareness of the differences between her cousins' outlook on life and our own. Could be any of those things, but I read his column and I'm just not seeing the sneering condescension that others seem to be reading into it.

First, you have to remember who Keillor is. He's a Minnesotan, a Democrat, whose career is largely based on a show he started in the 1970s on public radio, and the books that have flowed from it. Given that background, I'd be mightily surprised if he liked George W. Bush (the "Current Occupant," as he puts it), and of course he doesn't.

Second, you have to remember who he's writing for--Salon, whose subscribers likely tilt substantially to the left. To some extent, he's explaining Red America to Blue America, and Red America may be uncomfortable with its depiction, which is actually somewhat affectionate.

Affectionate? Yes. Go back and read it again. He talks of the civic virtues of the citizens of Abilene, "fine upstanding people," their pride in their community and the admirable qualities they evince, things like their firmness in their beliefs, their self-reliance, and their steadfastness of character. He writes of it being a lovely evening overall, with an implied recognition that we are all Americans, all part of the same tribe in the end despite the divisions in our culture and society.

What he's saying is really no different than how I feel about my wife's family in Oklahoma. I love them, although we come from different places and don't agree on everything, and I am baffled by some of their politics. I'd love to argue about it with them, but like Keillor I was raised by midwesterners and there's something inside that says, "Don't be rude." So I'm not. Instead, I enjoy the barbecue and lavish praise on the rhubarb pie. But in the end, we're all family, and that's what really matters--and that's what I heard Keillor saying between the lines in his column.

With a couple weeks to go in this election campaign, and things getting somewhat hysterical as we race towards the finish line, I wish more people would realize that.

Can we please just call the man by his legal and birth name? It's Gary Keillor. "Garrison" is purely a putatively 'literary' affectation he started back in the 70s when he got to the Big Apple. Since the man has made himself into an object of ridicule with his antics, I see no reason to indulge his pretensions.

Oops, meant to say "early 1990s" (not "early 1900s") in my previous post (8:56 PM).

Regardless, surprised the guy is still on the air or taken seriously by anyone. At the time I listened in I thought of him as a fad that would fade, sort of like the Pet Rock, bell-bottom jeans and the lip-synching rock singers Milli Vanilli.

The man has a fertile and somewhat funny imagination. His whole life is mostly about fiction.

And you expected reality from him?

I just read the column and have to chime in with Lazarus. I don't see any bile tossed at Texas at all - he is pointing out the different culture of Abilene to Salon readers all over the country. (Don't know exactly the demographic of Salon readers, but I'm going to guess that the greatest readership does not come from Texas.) And he does it in a style that is familiar to me, coming from the same general culture, as more self-deprecatory than anything else.

Rhe guy handed Texans plenty of compliments. Trusting and trustworthy, generous and self-reliant, friendly and gracious. This is acting like they are barely out of the caves?

Being from the midwest, and at one time a Lutheran to boot, I really appreciated Keillor's schtick. But yeah, he's an ass outside of his program. Been married three times, which is a hint; also tried to usurp Robert Altman's prestige when they were doing publicity for the movie Prairie Home Companion -- upstaging him, taking over questions from him, etc.

Funniest thing ever, though, from several years back: "George Bush's lips...where words go to die."

Dreher - thin skinned or what?

Well I was going to ask Dreher if he got up on the wrong side of the bed, but canucklehead stole my thunder, and said it better anyway. And you guys call Keillor bitter? You ought to read your own comments if you want to see bitter.

As I read this, I was mulling over the comments in the Trig Palin section below. There's an interesting contrast between how hard people are on Garrison Keillor for some words that can be taken two ways, and some possibly questionable actions, and the nice soft place to fall that they provide for God, who is responsible for letting kids be born with horrid genetic malfunctions, and whose angry words have egged his followers on to outbreaks of mass murder. Y'all seem to be a lot harder on a fallible, finite fellow human being than you are on the immortal and omniscient deity, who surely should know better and be able to do better. Is that really fair?

Good point Sig. I guess nobody can't criticize nobody no more...

Memo to all critics: Stop criticizing other people's views or statements until you start heaping it on God first. He's the real fiend anyway because he made all of us.

David, I'd be in quite a fix if criticism were banned. ; ) I don't usually object to people voicing their opinions of the actions and statements of public figures, especially if it's done in a courteous and rational way. "I think he was too snide about Texans" is a perfectly acceptable statement to me. What I don't like is watching people dogpile on anyone who rubs them the wrong way, impugning his motives and character and globally condemning him.

Keillor has been called "asshole," "jerk," "nasty piece of work," "pain in the butt," "arrogant" and "bilious," and compared to a hemorrhoid. Good heavens. That's pretty nasty payback for the crime of attempting to amuse people on the radio. You're certainly entitled to not like his show. But why the big hate for the man behind the show? Let it go.

Maybe I'm just sensitive to this because I'm in the entertainment biz myself in a minor kind of way. Critics love to dump on artists, even though they themselves can't create anything. Or perhaps because they can't.

I'm a proud resident of Abilene who wonders why Keillor decided to frame us in reference to GWB and other nonsense. Does he think that Abilenians spend most of their time discussing/defending Bush? We don't. Does he even realize that Texans don't register a party affiliation? And has he considered that many Texans would likely consider themselves independent? Probably not.

I suppose that calling our area as a "khaki-colored desert" was the best fit for his "Bedouins" reference but it's not reality, either, in either respect. Abilene isn't khaki-colored or desert-like, and West Texans tend to stay put, not wander.

We'll accept his back-handed compliments with a public smile and a private shake of our collective heads that people like Keillor just don't get it. West Texans don't need a political party to promote common decency, hospitality, neighborliness, compassion, and concern. That the Democrats apparently do -- and that they only bestow those qualities on people they need to win elections and those who agree with them is telling. That they want to foster dependence on the government foremost and dismiss real relationships and community as Republican-area oddities is rather scary.

As a West Texan, however, the upcoming election doesn't make me fearful, even if the far-left candidate wins, which is likely. And that's a tribute to "quaint" Abilene and our way of life here.