The Art of Diss, the Art of Recognizing the Art of Diss

• The important art of recognizing when you’re being manipulated by a writer who is trying to manipulate you, the reader, with the art of diss.

Non-fiction Spycatcher, by Peter Wright, spins a tale so interesting that in one week, I read it once, then again, and about halfway through the third reading, I deleted the book. I was being lazy, but I don’t read through a book 2.5 times just because I’m being lazy.

Central to the story about MI5 being infiltrated is the “bad guy,” Roger Hollis, who Peter Wright suspects is a long-time double agent for the Soviet Union, who infiltrated MI5 about the same times as other spies, such as Kim Philby.

In his book, Peter Wright uses particular reoccurring imagery to diss Roger Hollis. The imagery comes from descriptions of Roger Hollis: as Director General, in his office, sharpening pencils, scribbling on a report with a pencil, and having a line of sharpened pencils on his clutter-free desk.

The image of Roger Hollis, that Wright wants to produce in our mind, is that of a bureaucratic administrator. Enforce the rules as required by the government. Don’t make waves. Don’t be a hero. Collect a paycheck. Retire and collect a pension.

I ask a question here. A person being compulsive over details, compulsively eliminating work as soon as it comes in, compulsively keeping a line of sharpened pencils always at the ready, should that reflect poorly on a person? Does that imply some sort of fundamental flaw in the person’s personality?

Here’s how I think “pencil sharpening” stories work for writers, especially for “media types”:

• If the pencil sharpener is a nerdy guy who has risen to great fame for one reason or another, such as a Nobel Prize winner, a tech pioneer who’s gotten rich, a physicist, or mathematician, then if there’s a “compulsive pencil sharpening” story to tell about him, then that’s great. It shows what quirky guys these “compulsive pencil sharpening geniuses” are.
• If the person is the opposition, see the paragraphs above about Peter Wright’s portrayal of Roger Hollis.

Pencil sharpening pencil sharpeners. Insightful people understand when we should loathe them, and when we should love them, for reasons of substance.