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Sunday, June 6, 2004
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 Sunday, June 6, 2004
started 6/6/2004; 12:48:43 PM - last post 6/13/2004; 2:43:33 AM
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Doc Searls - Sunday, June 6, 2004 
6/6/2004; 4:48:43 PM (reads: 3477, responses: 1)
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Out of Dutch 
| | The other week at a thrift shop I picked up a hardcover copy of Dutch: a Memoir of Ronald Reagan, by Edmund Morris. I remembered that Morris had been commissioned to write Reagan's official biography, and that the book had been panned when it came out. |
| | The pans were right. It sucks. |
| | Morris inserts a fictionalized version of himself into the text, along with other wacky moves. The whole thing is weird without reason other than, reportedly, Morris' own frustration with the opacity of his subject. |
| | Worse, it fails to satisfy the reader's simple curiousity about the facts of Reagan's life. What's true? What's not? How can you tell? |
| | Funny, though. One reason I bought the book was that I sensed Dutch was close to his end. Turns out he was. |
Blammo
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Scott - Re: Sunday, June 6, 2004
6/13/2004; 6:43:33 AM (reads: 643, responses: 0)
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I think you are missing the point of Dutch; I think Morris chose to put in his fictional character to attempt to explain something of how Reagan thought of himself and looked at life. A creative attempt to explain someone who is difficult to explain through a conventional biography. I think Lou Cannon's work plus Morris' Dutch together make a nearly full explanation of the man.
Scott Tousley
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