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• Thursday, April 20, 2006 06:37 PM

  Who Wants To Be a Millionaire?

  The easiest way to make a killing today is to write a crappy book --- either a crappy self-help book, a crappy polemic, a crappy self-congratulatory "I've made it, why can't you?" book, a crappy memoir made up of gross exaggerations and outright lies ... you get the picture.

  Flanagan wanted to be a millionaire. There are tons of books on how to be everywoman; she simply said "Fuck that, I'm going to write one that's the exact opposite and I'm going to get tons of publicity just on the very nature of the topic itself."

  And she did. She's getting tons of publicity and tons of money for being a contrarian, like so many other people today. She figured "Hitchens and Paglia are cleaning up like bandits, why can't I? I'll pen an antifeminist, pro-1950s housewife load of horseshit and it will sell itself. I'll get to go on a shitload of TV shows. That will get my name in lights and I'll be invited to all the cool publishing cocktail parties."

  The "controversy" is meaningless and the outrage directed at her is knee-jerk. She successfully marketed an idea and people bought into it. She's no more worthy of political or social seriousness than your average motivational speaker appearing at the local Marriot conference room this weekend.

  —USERNAME Read USERNAME's other letters
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