You may have forgotten Monica Lewinsky, but she has not forgotten you. She's back with a Vanity Fair interview that re-ignites the whole debate about her.
The more I think about Lewinsky, the more confused I get. On the one hand, she seems to have suffered for one youthful episode of very bad judgment, the kind of punishment one associates with Greek mythology - hounded across the face of the earth by unrelenting furies - and at that level, I do buy her argument that a lot of powerful people expended energy protecting both Clintons, and hardly anybody stuck up for her. She's absolutely right that women who self-identify as feminists said cruel and dismissive things about her.
On the other hand, like so many people associated with a huge national news event, she seems oddly trapped back in that time in a way that works to her disadvantage. Accompanying her 4,000 word essay in Vanity Fair is a layout of photos in which she looks, at 40, remarkably as she did as a college intern. So, who won't let this matter drop?
We'll also talk about why the television shows that you read about in magazines by high-profile critics, are not actually the shows that people watch in droves? The enduring power of uncool television.
What do you think? Comment below, email Colin@wnpr.org, or tweet @wnprcolin.
GUESTS:
- Jim Chapdelaine is a musician, producer, composer, and recording engineer
- Rand Cooper is an author, essayist, and restaurant critic for the New York Times
- Rebecca Castellani is a scholar of modern literature
