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Following yesterday's outing of ex-gang member/ Love and Consequences author Margaret Jones as middle-class private school grad Peggy Seltzer, cultural critics are punditing all over the place about what the rash of fake memoirs means to America. To the LA Times' Tim Rutten, the publication of these first-person misery memoirs is a reflection of a deeply ingrained American culture of narcissism: "The only unchallenged moral authority has become that of victims. This should not be read as an expression of sympathy toward the injured; instead, it's really an extension of the culture of narcissism's influence into the world of letters. It's a view that asserts that only those who have experienced pain or torment have a right speak of it, though others may participate vicariously through their eyes." More »
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