Lee Siegel (cultural critic)

Lee Siegel (born 1957) is an American writer and cultural critic who has written for multiple publications. He has authored multiple books of nonfiction and received a National Magazine Award.

Early life and career

Siegel was born in The Bronx, New York. He received his BA from the Columbia University School of General Studies and his MA and MPhil from Columbia University's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

He worked as an editor at ''The New Leader'' and ''ARTnews'' before turning to writing full-time in 1998. Siegel has been the book critic for ''The Nation'', art critic for ''Slate'', television critic for and senior editor of ''The New Republic'', staff writer for ''Talk'' magazine, staff writer for ''Harper's'', contributing writer for the '' Los Angeles Times Book Review'', associate editor of '' Raritan'', senior columnist for ''The Daily Beast'', and weekly columnist for ''The New York Observer''. He is a contributing editor of ''City Journal''. In 2011 Siegel served as one of three judges for the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award.

Siegel has authored multiple books of nonfiction starting in 2006.

Reception

In 2002 Siegel received the National Magazine Award in the category "Reviews and Criticism". Jeff Bercovici, writing in ''Media Life Magazine'', quoted the award citation, which called the essays "models of original thinking and passionate writing... tough-minded yet generous criticism is prose of uncommon power—work that dazzles readers by drawing them into the play of ideas and the enjoyment of lively, committed debate".

In 2007 Caryn James, commenting on ''Not Remotely Controlled'' in the ''New York Times'', said that "at their best, Siegel’s scattershot observations offer a kind of drive-by brilliance," but that he often "wildly overstates his case or ignores inconvenient evidence."

Siegel's 2008 critique of Web culture, ''Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob'', was called by Janet Maslin in the ''New York Times'' "rigorously sane, fair, and illuminating". Maslin noted that, with occasional lapses, it "brings dead-on accuracy to depicting the quietly insinuating ways in which the Internet can blow your mind".

In 2011, Donna Rifkind, writing in ''New York Times Book Review,'' reviewed ''Are You Serious? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly,'' calling Siegel "a tireless adversary, battling wrong-headed people and worn-out ideas" but also saying "there is little practical counsel here." Print version July 31, 2011, in the Sunday Book Review.

Siegel's 2017 memoir, ''The Draw'', was praised in the ''New York Times Book Review'' by Jerald Walker as "brilliant." Walker went on to say, "An assortment of lively characters, hard-edged humor, rich psychological portraits and searing social commentary, ''The Draw'' is spellbinding, a coming-of-age tour de force."

Controversies

Deceptive posting and suspension

In September 2006, Siegel was suspended from ''The New Republic'' after an internal investigation determined he was participating in misleading comments in the magazine's "Talkback" section in response to criticisms of his blog postings at ''The New Republics website. The comments were made through the device of a " sock puppet" dubbed "sprezzatura", who, as one reader noted, was a consistently vigorous defender of Siegel, and who specifically denied being Siegel when challenged by another commenter in "Talkback". In response to readers who had criticized Siegel's negative comments about TV talk show host Jon Stewart, 'sprezzatura' wrote, "Siegel is brave, brilliant, and wittier than Stewart will ever be. Take that, you bunch of immature, abusive sheep". ''The New Republic'' posted an apology and shut down Siegel's blog. In an interview with the ''New York Times Magazine,'' Siegel dismissed the incident as a "prank". He resumed writing for ''The New Republic'' in early 2007.

Student loan default op-ed

In June 2015, Siegel wrote an op-ed piece for ''The New York Times'' entitled "Why I Defaulted on My Student Loans", in which he defended defaulting on the loans he received for living expenses while on full scholarship and working his way through college and graduate school at Columbia University, writing that “ e millions of young people today, who collectively owe over $1 trillion in loans, may want to consider my example.”

Economist Susan Dynarski wrote that Siegel is not typical of student loan defaulters both in that the typical student-loan recipient attends a public university and in that only two percent of those borrowing to fund a graduate degree default on their loans. Conservative political commentator Kevin D. Williamson, writing in ''National Review'', called it "theft," saying that "an Ivy League degree or three is every much an item of conspicuous consumption and a status symbol as a Lamborghini." Senior Business and Economics Correspondent for ''Slate'' Jordan Weissman called it "deeply irresponsible" to suggest that students should consider defaulting on their loans and said that ''The New York Times'' should apologize for the piece. Siegel's original article was also criticized in '' Business Insider'' and MarketWatch. Siegel appeared to further discuss the article on Yahoo! Finance.

Personal life

Siegel lives in Montclair, New Jersey, with his wife and two children.

Bibliography

* ''Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination'' (2006)
* ''Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television'' (2007)
* ''Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob'' (2008)
* ''Are You Serious? How to Be True and Get Real in the Age of Silly'' (2011)
* ''Harvard Is Burning'' (2011)
* ''Groucho Marx: The Comedy of Existence'' (2016)
* ''The Draw: A Memoir'' (2017)
*

References

External links

Video Interview: Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob
at LIVE from the New York Public Library, April 10, 2008

Review of ''Against The Machine'' in salon.com

{{DEFAULTSORT:Siegel, Lee
1957 births
Living people
American cultural critics
Columbia University School of General Studies alumni
Journalists from New York City
People from Montclair, New Jersey
The New Yorker people
Writers from the Bronx