If you must provide a platform for the confused drivellings of Germaine Greer could you at least vet the topics about which she is permitted to write? It's not entirely clear to me how I managed to read the whole of her rambling 'column' about Russell Brand (G2 15/01/07) but somehow I did, growing more and more irate at each empty sentence.
Her comment about vegetarian cat owners betrays a somewhat outdated awareness of modern pet foods. It's perfectly possible to keep a cat healthy on a vegetarian diet. Little can be done about a domestic cats extra-curricular snacks but I don't think any but the most extreme veggies are actually lobbying carnivorous animals to mend their ways; just intelligent people. My own parents keep two very hardy dogs on a vegetarian diet as a matter of fact. This isn't particularly relevant but it is a good example of the kind of off-topic anecdotalism and name-dropping that pads out Ms Greer's rather slender piece. If this is an Arts Comment why am I reading about Russell Brands crotch? Fatuous Cult-of-Celebrity Rot more like.
I'm no clearer on the point Ms Greer was trying to make. She claims to like Mr Brand yet devotes an entire page to viciously assassinating his character – and his appearance (his hair, his hips, his wardrobe, his crotch, his sexual prowess…); yet probes no deeper than this superficial epidermis. Furthermore she seems vexed by the medias fascination with him (why then contribute to it?) last year. Shame she didn't think to write this column last year then, or has she only just finished it? I begin to suspect the lady protests too much, is it Germaine Greer herself who is beffudled by the mockney swordsman?
I would have let the whole thing pass without comment but for years I've had people telling me what a great intellect Germaine Greer is with little in the way of supporting evidence; besides her spouting nonsense about irrelevancies on The Late Show. On the other hand the world and its vegetarian dog keeps telling me Russell Brand is a fool when he actually seems quite smart to me. Don't get me wrong I don't really give a monkeys for either of them, I just think that page 28 of todays G2 could have been used for something more valuable… a second column from Mr Brooker for example.
Kind regards (but not to Ms Greer),
Rob Stickler.
