After my brother-in-law Rob continued his full-throated espousal of Walter Isaacson's Elon Musk I decided to go ahead and read the copy Rob gave Graham for Xmas or birthday or something. Isaacson's book on Steve Jobs had been good (though the Ben Franklin got gummed up a bit in the details -- Isaacson can string along a good narrative but he is no Robert Caro).
Anyhow, I've never been a big Musk fan, as I have likely shared somewhere here on the blog. Musk seems too devoted to being a big hairy ape dedicated to demonstrating that rules don't apply to him, to being above the law. Not my people. I have too much experience with that type.
A hundred pages in, I don't yet hate Elon. The guy had a hard life in many ways and, though already having demonstrated many of the genius/asshole features that are so prominently on display, there's a boyish earnestness to the guy and a sheer bursting ambition that he channels effectively enough to get things done that has an appeal.
4 comments:
Cleric Mikhailovich, as someone who adores Caro, the literary success of Isaacson confounds me.
They both write long books about flawed people, but Isaacson is such a boring writer. Such club-footed, charmless, joyless prose. I tried The Wise Men, I tried Kissinger and despite the fantastic subjects it was like a dreary endless movie your hungover teacher put on to fill up third period. Or maybe ChatGPT iced of its humanity. (I want to work in "clitoridectomy" as a metaphor here but I'll aver to spare the reader.)
By what literary alchemy does he turn gold into lead? Not all magic is magical.
I remember Kitty Kelley getting all kinds all kinds of shit for her biographies of big people and yet she wielded her pen like a scalpel. I can't shake the comparison between the esteem the two authors managed to get. American biographer versus gossip lady.
At the end of the day, though, are the pages. So many of them, and so heavy to turn. . . in this, as in so many other things, I blame society.
(close tag rant)
Sorry for the rant, on second read not a great look :(
It's all good, no harm done.
I think Isaacson is successful because he gets exclusives on guys like Jobs and Musk due to his time spent at top of things like CNN and the Aspen Institute. And once he had done Jobs you know Elon saw his attention as a stamp of approval. I don't hate his writing, though it is not great.
And in fairness to him vis-a-vis Caro, it is the latter who produces more pages. There is just more insight and thought on them. Isaacson's bios progress pretty quickly which is part of their virtue. The just jam through episode after episode.
Fair enough!
If you haven't read it yet, Caro's Working is truly a short, special read. May Caro finish his life's work on the times of LBJ...
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