‘HIPPER-THAN-THOU’

Lawrence S. Dietz’s Aug. 19 review of John Gregory Dunne’s “Crooning” reveals more inadvertently about contemporary magazine writing than its author actually says. From his 10-ton name-drop lead (“. . . Tom Wolfe and I got to talking . . .”) to his oh-so-knowing asides about “a 1979 Lafite Rothschild” being “too young to drink,” Dietz airs only the views of the hipper-than-thou.

Who’s in? Who’s out? Or, “Who’s hot--Who’s not?” as US likes to put it--that’s the preoccupation of most current magazine writers, and of most current magazine publishers. Fame, L.A. Style, Vanity Fair, Entertainment--what’s all this about? How long till somebody publishes Ego, the Journal of Contemporary Self-Aggrandizement?

For their part, the writers for these magazines regularly sacrifice thought, inspiration, instruction and enlightenment to a higher authority: the Bitchy Quip. No matter how stylish, no matter how ephemerally entertaining, such a writer ends up nothing but a quippy bitch.

And yes, Dietz is right. It’s a terrible way to make a living.

LAWRENCE HENRY

BEVERLY HILLS