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James Kunstler is a well-known critic of suburbanism, among other things. He can also be fairly controversial. I thought my exchange with him in April 2004 was worth preserving.

Here's how it started. In Kunstler's Eyesore of the Month series he says:

Behold the new $30 million Ontario College of Art & Design classroom and studio building by British architect Will Alsop -- a totemized retro-futuroid coffee table joined umbilically to its Soviet-style predecessor below. The message, apparently: art and design are nothing but fun fun fun. Nothing to get serious about. A playful spirit of induced hazard will keep students wondering when the checkered box might wobble free of its cute swizzle-stick legs and come crashing down on their heads. This exercise in hyper-entropic avant garde faggotry is so cutting edge that it is already out of date. The only question: which of the two conjoined buildings is more cruelly ridiculous?

 I then wrote to him:

On this page of yours:

http://www.kunstler.com/eyesore_200311.html

May I ask what you mean by "faggotry"? It is not in my dictionary. Is it the gay slur that it sounds like?

Kunstler replied:

You must be a member of the thought police.  I am not subject to the censorship of political correcktniks.

I responded:

After reading your condescending diatribes on Eyesore of the Month, your reply is entirely predictable. Contrary to your suggestion, I have no intention of policing your thoughts or censoring your views, much as you wish to believe I do. I simply inquired as to whether you intended to be as insulting as it sounded like you were being. I certainly have my answer now.

-MBJ-

P.S. That you equate being offended by insults with being "politically correct" is sad, but not surprising.

Kunstler replied:

Did you really want to know, or were you registering your disapproval?  Look, sometimes humor is uncomfortable.  All comedy is about unhappiness. 

 I responded:

I did really want to know. I couldn't have registered disapproval even if I'd wanted to because I wasn't certain of your intent. And once you all but confirmed your intent to me you will note that I referred to it objectively. I did not say that it was wrong of you to say what you did -- much less attempted to censor or control what you write. Had your only response to my inquiry been, "Yes," I wouldn't have written to you again to say, "Well, in that case, I disapprove." I would have left it at that.

I simply found it surprising that you would use a term that sounded like an epithet, so I wanted to see if I understood you correctly. When you say, "This exercise in hyper-entropic avant garde faggotry...," it seems that you're suggesting that the design is a result of negative aesthetic preferences characteristic of homosexuals, but I wasn't certain. I would have been similarly surprised if you had used language that insulted some other group -- such as, "This building's design is so bereft of creativity it might as well have been constructed by a nigger." Of course, in that case one might suppose you were using sarcasm, though, I don't see any sarcasm in the language that's actually on your site. However the wording on your site is less clear to me.

As I said last time though, given your response to me, I can guess your intent.

Regards,   -MBJ-

Kunstler replied:

Well, gosh, it is an epithet.  But, hey, I don't see anyone protesting because Chris Rock uses the word 'nigger."  You know, sometimes comics and comic writers use very touchy language to make a point.

    I give lectures at a lot of colleges and once in a while i will employ the word 'fuck' to wake them up in the middle.  I use it very sparingly and for a purpose.  I've had faculty members come up to me afterwards full of gall and opprobrium.  And you know what?  I'm sure they go home afterward and watch Quentin Tarantino movies.

     My use of the term 'faggotry' is intended to mean a kind of extreme dilettantism.  I know that homosexuals even use the term faggot in the sense of gaucheness.

     I use these words partly because I refuse to be constrained by the self-appointed guardians of debate such as the Correctniks of the universities -- mostly people of my generation and typically hypocrits.

     You can take it.  If Chris Rock's audience can understand what he means by 'nigger,' then you can handle my use of 'faggotry' without having a PC whack attack.

I responded:

Maybe people do protest Chris Rock's choice of language, I don't know. However there is a rather obvious difference between Rock saying "nigger" or you saying "nigger": Rock is black. Likewise, when you, as a heterosexual, use a term that is historically insulting to gays, it's hard not to notice.

Your explanation about your use of vulgar language is disingenuous. Of course I noticed your frequent use of terms such as "clusterfuck", but I did not write to you about that. I wrote to you because of the term you used that sounded like an insult. "Fuck" is simply colorful while "faggot" is demeaning. I am surprised that you apparently do not see the distinction.

Again, your throwing the PC label at me is sad, though not surprising. It's a cheap attack. It is certainly convenient to be able to defend any insults you might make by claiming that anyone bothered by those insults is PC. I can see that you revel in dismissing any of your potential critics in this manner. In any event, as I said, my initial inquiry was simply to discover whether you truly intended to be as insulting as it sounded like you were being, and given the nature of your responses, I certainly have my answer.

Kunstler replied:

It's a well-understood feature of American life that free speech means you have to tolerate even some things that are disagreeable. I'm sorry you are exercised to an extreme by my language, but in the final analysis it's just tough noogies for you.

I responded:

You misunderstand me. I don't disagree at all that free speech means that we have to tolerate the disagreeable. The fact that you have the *right* to insult others does not mean that it is honorable to do so.

Kunstler replied:

It's not necessarily or automatically dishonorable either.

Look, do yourself a favor and grow a thicker skin.  American life offers you many more insults than the ones I am throwing at you.

I responded:

>>Look, do yourself a favor and grow a thicker skin.

Takes one to know one.