Tizzy in teacup at L.A. book panel

Courtesy Violet Vixen comes a link to a strange Susie Bright posting about a panel she was on with Karen Finley, Dennis Cooper and someone named Craig Ferguson, who seems to be some kind of television personality who has just written a novel -- the kind of person people in L.A. would be very impressed with, sort of like if one of the Google founders had written a novel and then appeared at Kepler's. Apparently Ferguson made a few obnoxious comments timed to irritate the gals -- a tactic that annoyed Susie and, she says, Finley and the audience in general.

Addressing Ferguson after the fact in the form of an "open letter," Susie writes:

We three knew who you were, but I don't think you got the memo on us. You were sitting next to the contemporary equivalent of Brecht, Jean Genet, and Dorothy Parker -- artists whose cultural influence and impact have made them a legend among their peers...

Let's pause to let that sink in. If, as I suppose, she means that Finley = Brecht and Cooper = Genet, then the only possible conclusion one can draw is that Susie Bright is calling herself the Dorothy Parker of her generation.

I will leave that judgement to others, but I wonder if Susie realizes that it's fine to claim some kind of exalted standing for others whom you wish were more highly regarded, but when in the same breath you include yourself in the same boat, you instantly sink the whole comparison, not just for yourself but for the others whom you intend to elevate. Because otherwise someone might mistake you for a self-important twit who makes grandiose claims for herself.

I'm sure the TV fellow misbehaved, but that is no doubt part of his shtick -- perhaps he wants to be known as the Normal Mailer of his generation -- and three or four years from now he will be one of those has-beens on The Surreal Life. Susie getting her panties in a bunch is probably just the kind of reaction he hoped to provoke.

As for Cooper and Finley, they probably just shrugged, went home and got back to work, vowing not to agree to appear on any more panels.

Craig Ferguson, Susie Bright, Karen Finley