Charles P. Pierce: His Plagiarizing Self

I’m thrilled that the Globe finally gave Charles P. Pierce a home deserving of his wit and literary talent: Namely, his own blog . But I was bummed to see that the first thing Pierce does with it is ape one of my favorite writers: Charles P. Pierce. In his initial post (which includes HTML glitches when clicked on, so it may be better to just go to the blog’s home page and scroll down), Pierce writes an introduction that’s clever and erudite but which also includes the following passage: “My blog is my house. You’re more than welcome to visit, and I hope you do, but I decide what gets hung on the wall. I decide what gets served for dinner. I decide what gets played on the sound system.” Hmm. That sounds awfully familiar to

another Pierce piece, an old GQ story about the former Tennessee Volunteers wide receiver Peerless Price. From that introductory paragraph: “As I once explained to an editor friend, my column is like my house. I decide what gets hung on the walls. I decide what gets served for dinner. I decide what gets played on the stereo.” This story, titled “Legends of the Fall,” appeared in 1996, and is included in Pierce’s anthology, Sports Guy . Of course, if I hadn’t spent so much time studying that book over the years, committing some of Pierce’s prose to memory, I wouldn’t have noticed the passage. I wish the blog well. I just don’t want to see Pierce become this guy .

Read the rest here:
Charles P. Pierce: His Plagiarizing Self