Word: remnick
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...silence now from the other end of the line. John Lennon, Abbie Hoffman, Janis, Jimi...where is everybody? Even the sassiest of them all has fallen publicly silent, which makes it a pleasure to pick up his voice again, or at least its echo, in David Remnick's haunting new book, King of the World: The Rise of Muhammad Ali (Random House; 336 pages...
...Remnick tells it, Clay learned the uses of confusion by age 12, when he tied on his first gloves and discovered that his mother Odessa's serenity combined with his daddy Cassius Sr.'s maddening braggadocio sold tickets, captivated journalists and drove opponents clear up the wall. The phrase "I am the greatest" seems to have been almost Ali's first words, but the joke was that the words were absolutely true. The sweet little motormouth from Louisville, Ky., was about to become the greatest fighter in history, fast as a flyweight, strong...
Like a good dramatist, Remnick centers his whole story on one amazing night when Ali proved his claims, cashed in his chips and changed his identity for good. Up until his epic first fight with Sonny Liston in 1964, Clay and his chatter had been just a good joke. Suddenly he was the heavyweight champion of the world, a position that, like Queen of England and Archbishop of Canterbury, carried certain moral responsibilities. So was Clay planning to be yet another credit to his race, like Joe Louis and Floyd Patterson, or was he going to be the other kind...
Although the powers that be, from the President to Frank Sinatra, prayed for another saint, the public was happy either way. Hating a Liston was just as much fun as respecting a Patterson, and just as painful for the victim-challenger. In brilliant sketches of the archetypes, Remnick suggests Liston was trapped in his badness--people wanted him to be a bum forever--while Patterson lived in constant fear of not being good enough...
...Considered" on National Public Radio. Conversely, someone who wants to read salacious material about Elizabeth Taylor or Elvis can pick up a supermarket tabloid. These media outlets have been relegated to the margins, and hence have freed up the bulk of the media to what New Yorker editor David Remnick has called "infotainment...a fairly weak gruel." That is, all the news that's fit to sell...