“It will be all right. New York Review Classics is careful.” Then I thought, “Maybe I’d better proofread it.”

http://www.believermag.com/exclusives/?read=interview_adler

RENATA ADLER

[JOURNALIST AND CRITIC]

“I NEVER ATTACKED ANYONE WEAK. ONLY BULLIES, SECURE IN THEIR COURTS, BUREAUCRACIES, FIEFDOMS.”

There is also constant misuse of words with an aura of the intellectual. Annabel Davis-Goff pointed out, years ago, the idiotic misuse of “irony,” or “ironical,” for work that has no element of irony whatever. “Isn’t it ironic: for breakfast he had an egg. And the irony is, he had already had bacon.” What? Coincidence, humor, sarcasm, deadpan, any relation or none: it was ironic. It was a perfectly good word. Now it’s nearly always hack non-think, and coming from some of the most highly respected writers of our time.

BLVR: What was the thing you were most scared to write?

RA: It has always been more the fear of publication. The content was never frightening. I never attacked anyone weak—that I knew about. Only bullies, secure in their courts, bureaucracies, fiefdoms. Fear didn’t come into it. Maybe it should have.

BLVR: Is there anything that you regret writing?

RA: No. I mean, sort of. There are things that I would have done a little bit differently, a little bit sharper. I almost never reread anything I’ve published.

BLVR: Really? So these two novels that are coming out, you didn’t reread them?

RA: I thought, “It will be all right. New York Review Classics is careful.” Then I thought, “Maybe I’d better proofread it.”