She Hate Me director Spike Lee is very upset with New York Times film critic A.O. Scott. Scott, you see, mentioned Lee in an essay on gentrification after Lee himself went on a lengthy rant about the evils of the practice. As Vince Mancini over at FilmDrunk ably details, Lee's complaint doesn't really seem to be with Scott, who seems largely sympathetic to Lee's point. Scott was just providing context.*
I'm not terribly interested in the whole kerfuffle. What I am interested in is the ... unorthodox ... grammar employed by Spike Lee. You should really check it out. Were I to republish it in full, I'd probably wear out my s, i, and c keys. So allow me to simply highlight the introductory paragraph:
Dear Mr. A.O. Scott, I have chose the platform of my Social Media to respond to you. I do not want the New York Times editing, rearranging my words, thoughts or even ignoring a letter to you. I’m writing what I feel and there is no need for somebody else at The New York Times to interpret it.
Lee thinks he doesn't need an editor—doesn't need someone else to "interpret" his work—but I can assure you, as an editor, he does! He really does. So, as a personal favor to Mr. Lee and at no expense whatsoever to him, I am offering my professional services as an editor to trim and tweak his letter so it fits the guidelines of the New York Times' letters to the editor page ("letters should preferably be 150 to 175 words [and] ... may be edited and shortened for space").
After the jump, check out my remix. I think you'll agree that this is much easier on the eyes.
TO THE EDITOR:
Re "Whose Brooklyn Is It Anyway" (arts, March 30):
The truth is gentrification is great for the new arrivals in Harlem, South Bronx, Fort Greene, and my beloved Bedford-Stuyvesant. However, contra Mr. Scott, it’s not so great for the minority communities that, for decades, have been forced out of the city and into the suburbs—or out of our fair state entirely.
My residency in the Upper East Side neither negates my point nor renders me a hypocrite. Your argument is foolish. My family was one of the first to move into the once heavily Italian-American neighborhood of Cobble Hill. My father still lives in a Fort Greene brownstone—a brownstone that suffered vandalism following my comments on gentrification. I’m curious as to why that fact was absent from your essay.
A Brooklynite could live anywhere—the Upper East Side, L.A., even the moon—and retain the spirit of Brooklyn. From Big Daddy Kane to Barbra Streisand, we represent our borough with pride.
SPIKE LEE
Upper East Side, March 31, 2014
The writer is a director, screenwriter, and producer
I think this reads much more coherently. Don't you?
*Get that man a job at Vox Dot Com!