Who IS "Your Typical Dirty-Book Writer," Chip?

Ed sums up most of what I would've said about the NYT profile of Toni Bentley, though I probably would've had made some "scummy little" comment about the "no less a highbrow than Leon Wieseltier" line. It's rather amusing, actually, to read through what one imagines as the struggle between Charles McGrath's infatuation with a not unattractive woman writing unabashedly about her anal sex adventures and his refined critical sensibilities, which find her "a throwback" in "the old tradition of hyperbole and overwriting" "nonsense, of course, but it's sometimes splendid nonsense." "Ms. Bentley is not your typical dirty-book writer," he assures us, but frankly, apart from the ballerina gig, she sounds a lot like every "dirty-book writer" I've ever met: well-educated women who aren't afraid to redefine sexual expression in their own terms, as entertaining or as informative as they want it to be. Maybe he should go catch a Rachel Kramer Bussel reading sometime so he can find out what today's "dirty-book writers" are really like.

Jamie Rector/NYT