Review: Deconstructing Fran Liebowitz

Last night we joined a large audience at Philadelphia's Merriam Theater for an appearance by author, social critic and media personality Fran Liebowitz who is on the lecture circuit fresh off the heels of her recent TV appearance with Martin Scorsese in the Netflix documentary Pretend It's A City.

We've known about Fran Liebowitz for a long time. In the 1970s and '80s we read both her books, Metropolitan Life and Social Studies, which are essays now combined into The Fran Liebowitz Reader. Liebowitz has been called an iconoclast, a curmudgeon, and a "modern day Dorothy Parker". She specializes in sardonic humor, insightful quips and edgy, often outrageous observations about everything from peeling an apple to life and death.

Here is some of what she had to say last night:

• Russia. Russia has had the worst form of every type of government -- the worst monarchy, the worst socialism, the worst democracy, the worst autocracy. The reason why Russia is so menacing and such a mess is because it's just too big and thus, ungovernable. Russia needs to be smaller, not bigger.
• Putin. Liebowitz has spoken to quite a few billionaires and they all tell her that Putin is probably the richest man in the world -- he really has that much money. Liebowitz notes that Putin has threatened nuclear war but wonders if anybody with that much money would ever really ignite a nuclear war. "Why would he do it?" she asks. So, she suggests we should not be so afraid of him.
• Getting older. After awhile, it's the repetition that gets to you. Everything reminds you of something else. But you've got to be careful not to embrace nostalgia, which is dangerous. Still, as you get older, the future is less of a concern. Indeed, there's less to worry about because you're not going to be around that much longer.
• Censorship. No. None. And no banning books -- not for any reason, not ever.
• Today's youth. Liebowitz tells young people to basically enjoy themselves. "If you don't have fun now, you never will," she says. Other than that, she has no advice for them because she doesn't really care about them very much. In her view, many of them have been so over-praised and exalted by indulgent parents that they have an overblown opinion of themselves, are self-absorbed, banal and not that interesting. She's basically puzzled as to why they should ask her what they should do with their lives. She has no children. She's not a parent. She doesn't care. 
• Biden. Liebowitz is "delighted" with his first year in office but she "always knew he was a hack" and feels he's way to old to be serving in the job. She admits that he's long past his prime and off his game but supported him because she knew he was the only Democrat who could defeat President Trump. This fact simply points out that there are too many old Democrats leading the party and they should "move on". And that includes Pelosi who Liebowitz feels has deluded herself into believing she'a a lot more popular than she really is.
• Peeling an apple. It's boring, and tedious -- the same with all food preparation. The solution? Eat out. But avoid those temporary outdoor restaurant booths set up alongside city sidewalks. Instead, now that you can, eat inside. It's quieter, more comfortable and cleaner.
• New York City. To her, it's always been her home and is the center of everything she's interested in. But she laments what's been lost as New York has become gentrified and more and more expensive.
• Books. She reportedly owns more than 10,000 of them. Reading is basically her occupation and books are her drug.
• John O'Hara. He was a novelist and short story writer who wrote from the 1930s up into the 1960s. Much of his work was centered in his native Pennsylvania. If you want to know about the middle of the 20th century, you need to read O'Hara. Liebowitz has read and reread O'Hara. She's not opposed to rereading books and thinks much can be gained from it.
• Ukraine. We should support Ukraine any way we can. We shouldn't be afraid.
• Gay marriage and gay military service. Why would anyone want this? Why did they bother fighting for it? Marriage and military service are two of the "most restrictive" activities you can engage in. (Liebowitz identifies as a lesbian and is unmarried).
• Texas and California. Raising children in these states is a form of "child abuse". Ditto, places like Alabama and Mississippi.
• Fly over country (aka as Kansas, Wyoming, Missouri, Ohio, etc.). There's nothing there -- very few people, lots of land. It's basically empty and a good place to send refugees and immigrants who we should be welcoming. To Liebowitz and her friends, all off these places are Ohio, which is to say "not New York" and the people in these places are not worth your time.
• Social media. She doesn't do it -- doesn't own a computer or a cell phone; doesn't text of do Zoom; reportedly doesn't even own a typewriter.
• The South. Lincoln should have let it go. But he wanted to reunite the country. So, we're stuck with the South. We should have let it go. 
• Toni Morrison. She was a dear friend. She thinks about her often and misses her every day.
• Sleep. Not really a popular pastime for her. She's a "lifelong insomniac".  She partly blames her childhood as her mother who insisted on putting her to bed early every night because "she was tired of listening to me".
• Dick Cheney. He's a war criminal. And his daughter ("What's her name?") is not much better. Democrats shouldn't trust her.
• Choosing a book to read. Don't read reviews. Don't listen to the critics -- especially the New York Times which used to be a good source for these kinds of things but isn't anymore. Instead, go to an actual book store and browse. Read a few paragraphs or pages. If you like what you've read, buy it.
• How she got through the COVID lockdown. She read. She walked around the city -- alone, for blocks and blocks and blocks. In the middle of Manhattan, she actually heard her own footsteps! And she talked to a lot of people -- real people -- on the telephone! These were people who hadn't talked on the telephone in years.
• Children on planes. There's no need for it. Children don't ask to fly and don't really want to. It's not for them. If people want children to fly, put them on special children's-only planes. Let them run around on the plane and do whatever it is that children do. Then, upon landing, deposit them in the baggage claim area where someone can pick them up.
• Thinking and feeling. The problem today is that people don't know the difference between these two and confuse what that feel with what they might think if they actually bothered to think about things. Consequently, they act on the basis of feelings instead of careful thought.

In the first half of the program Liebowitz was interviewed by a moderator. In the second half, she held the stage herself and answered questions shouted out from the audience in the theater which holds about 1,800 people and was nearly filled. 

Leibowitz, who describes herself as "insufferable", is a high school dropout who has had no academic training. Her "formal" education has largely been acquired thorough her lifetime of reading.