December 19, 2002

DICKENS WROTE ABOUT A SCROOGE'S REDEMPTION. James Lileks, on the other hand, subjects a scrooge to a savage and altogether merciless Fisking.

I never did like Dickens all that much.

UPDATE: Reader Roy Jacobsen emails with a point that several people made:

Actually, couldn't you say that the three ghosts in Dicken's story
delivered a Fisking to Scrooge? Didn't they go back through his life
and show him point by point how he erred? Thus, you could say that it
was Fisking that led to Scrooge's repentance and redemption.

Yes, the golden cloak of redemption often comes after the Iron Fisk of Truth.