Chers amis à Los Angeles: mon copain Evan Wright va lire des extraits de son livre, Generation Kill, demain soir (dimanche) à la gallerie Media Rare à Bergamot Station à Santa Monica. Evan a passé deux mois en Irak, incorporé dans le 1er Bataillon de Reconnaissance des Marines, une unité d'élite surnommé: "1er Bataillon Suicide." Il était dans le Humvee de tête, l'un des premiers à être entré en Irak et à avoir vu la guerre de près.
Plusieurs Marines cités dans le livre devraient être sur place pour un questions-réponses. Je suis en train de lire ce livre: c'est extraordinaire (et souvent drôle.) Il raconte l'histoire de la guerre du point de vue de ces Marines d'élite. Vous pouvez vous faire une idée en démarrant avec l'article d'Evan à la genèse du livre, "The Killer Elite" en trois volets, publié dans Rolling Stone et toujours en ligne ici (cette série lui a valu un prix prestigieux, le National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting.)
Dans cet entretien pour l'émission Day To Day sur NPR, il décrit certains des hommes dans son Humvee. Ils donnent l'impression au début d'être des Marines bourrins très pro-guerre, mais ces personnages sont beaucoup plus profonds et complexes, comme ce magnifique, sexy guerrier amateur de yoga surnommé "Fruity Rudy." Le magazine People a publié une courte interview avec Evan:
People: COMMENT AVEZ-VOUS REUSSI A VOUS FAIRE ACCEPTER PAR LES SOLDATS?
EW: J'ai travaillé pour le magazine Hustler et ils étaient là, 'Cool'QU'AVEZ-VOUS RESSENTI QUAND LES TIRS ONT COMMENCE?
J'avais peur que je me retrouverais à faire seulement un article sur ces gars dans un Humvee, en route vers Bagdad. En tant que reporter, quand on vous tire dessus, une partie de vous se dit: "Super!"
AVEZ-VOUS UTILISE UNE ARME?
En terrain hostile, vous ne voulez pas avoir un mec assis autour en train de prendre des notes. Alors ils m'ont donné un fusil, mais je ne l'ai pas utilisé. Je me sentais plus en sécurité avec un carnet dans la main.VOUS AVEZ DES CAUCHEMARS?
Non, mais quand je conduis la nuit, je suis toujours aux aguets pour des coups de feux.QUI DEVRAIT VOUS INTERPRETER DANS LE FILM HBO A VENIR?
Kiefer Sutherland. Son visage projette très bien le stress et la confusion.
People:HOW DID YOU GET THE SOLDIERS TO ACCEPT YOU?
EW:I'd worked for Hustler magazine, so they were like, "Cool!"HOW DID YOU FEEL WHEN THE SHOOTING STARTED?
I had worried I might just be doing a story about these guys in a Humvee on a road trip to Baghdad. So as a reporter, you start getting shot at and part of you says, "Great!"
DID YOU USE A WEAPON?
In a hostile area, you don't want to have a guy sitting around trying to get quotes. So they gave me a rifle, but I didn't use it. I felt safer with a notebook in my hand.
DO YOU HAVE NIGHTMARES NOW?
No, but when I'm driving at night, I'm always on the lookout for gunfire.
WHO SHOULD PLAY YOU IN THE UPCOMING HBO FILM?
Kiefer Sutherland. He has a great face for projecting stressed-out and confused.
Mmm... It doesn't sound like Evan to me, and I'm sorry that it has influenced your opinion about his ethics to this day. You use the word "apparently": have you asked him about this at some point? Just to clarify, as simple as that. The way you tell it, the consequences were not fun to deal with.
I've seen so many people attack writers for things that were included during the editing process, unbeknownst to them. I had a little exchange myself with Mr. Frank Black here who took a piss at me). They don't ask the writer and that's how you get big misunderstandings that can last for years. I have the case of two French journalists in L.A.: they should know firsthand how much shit can be added by editors (especially French editors: they almost never let you reread anything and fact-checking doesn't exist as a concept) and they hate each other's guts because of a silly editing mistake.
What I mean is: when in doubt, ask. It's maybe not what you think it is. And if the guilty writer apologizes fora mistake, it's a good thing done too. The common goal here being avoiding mistakes and lies altogether.
sorry, this is off-topic, but i just happened to click on my bookmark for you and here you are, back again! so happy to see you!
Thanks Beth for dropping by!
Just came back from Evan's reading. This was great. Evan will be on The Politics of Culture on KCRW in and around Los Angeles and on the Web, on Tuesday.
I wish I had spoken to the Marine there, but I got distracted by talking to people, among them, old aquaintances. Heidi Fleiss was in the crowd and bought the book and laughed a lot at the reading, like many of us - and it was about the war.
Listened to Cathy on AM 1540 on the way back: I'm totally pro-stay at home dads, and I suspect, I suspect (and I may be wrong) that Cathy is affected by L.A., a town full of guys trying to live off their girlfriends. You know, those rocker dudes and actor dudes who don't have cars and expect their girlfriends to drive them around and buy them tacos. There are quite a few of them around, including talented ones.
Vampires love the book, and Cubans too apparently
http://forum.vampires.com/index.php?act=ST&f=30&t=17320
I wish Evan the best of luck with his book (the notices have been great) but I have always had grave reservations about his moral and ethical integrity.
In 1999, at the urging of a mutual friend, Evan helped me land my first feature assignment at Hustler. This was just before Evan was about to ankle his post at LFP to go work for Seth Warshavsky, so Evan apparently had no qualms feeding my Hustler editor, David Buchbinder, a complete prevarication for inclusion in my article.
The lie (involving Paul Little, aka Max Hardcore, and too disgusting to regurgitate here) went unchallenged because it came from Evan, made it into print, and led to some serious professional and personal embarrssment for me.
But what did he care? He was no longer working for Hustler and didn't have to answer for his grievous error.