Look at it this way: I suppose it's possible that Ann Coulter was earnestly advancing a proposal to simultaneously invade 20 nations and then present the entire Muslim world with the choice of the cross or the sword. But somehow I doubt it.
It seems, rather, just barely possible that the fault lies in your reviewer's flat, literal reading of Coulter. The reasonable conclusion is not that Ann Coulter is an infamous warmonger but that Sara Rimensnyder is (at least in this instance) a "tone-deaf" reader.
Finally, does your assistant editor really think Coulter's book sales depend primarily on those who "have the pleasure of hating her"? I and many others bought and read Slander because we love Ann Coulter. And we love her because she smites the Philistines, hip and thigh.
Steve Smith
Kirksville, MO
Sara Rimensnyder replies: Whether you like Ann Coulter and her inflammatory M.O. is largely a matter of taste and, to some degree, politics. But that wasn't the focus of my article, which was not a review of Slander. I wanted to dissect (and yes, lampoon) the spectacle Coulter so successfully creates with her bomb-throwing rhetorical style. It thrills her fans and her opponents -- all the while bringing out their worst.
Tongue in cheek, I suggested that Coulter's worst enemies are the ones who keep her book atop the bestseller list. This was intended to illustrate my belief that people who dislike her may get the most pleasure of all from her performance. As I said in the piece, everybody loves a straw man to make them feel better, smarter, and righter -- whether or not they actually buy her book.
To Steve Smith and others who were irritated that I don't get Coulter's jokes, believe me, I empathize.
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