ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

by Melodie Johnson Howe

An editor responded to a section of a well-known author’s work by writing in the margin, “Less is More.” The author (alas, I cannot remember his name at the moment) wrote back to her and said, “Less is Less. More is More. And Enough is Enough.”

His words have become my motto for writing and for living. As a writer my life is filled with words. I’m always trying to pick the ones that will help me define my story while discarding the others. I work hard at this.

When I leave my office and walk out into what people now call “real” life, (this is an example of More is More) I have no control over the words coming at me. I can’t rewrite them, I can’t even edit them—and it seems nobody else can either (especially those bleating the words.)

The reactions to the cold-blooded murders and maiming in Tucson are an example of this. The only person who wasn’t talking was the shooter. After rampaging in More is More he quickly understood when confronted with the law that Less is Less.

However, the political class who has never subscribed to Less is Less went on a More is More bender. And the one word they all seemed to settle on like vultures on a wire, was “civility.” We must be more civil in our political discussions, they raged. But I had a sneaking suspicion that when they said “we,” they really meant “you.” Which made me feel Enough is Enough.

Bones and I watched the Golden Globes last night with a writer friend of mine, Jane Heller, and her husband Mike. We sipped wine and ate steaks while a ballroom full of big egos tripped all over themselves to receive an award that had probably been bribed from the Hollywood Foreign Press, whoever they are. Ricky Gervais, an Englishman, who is so full of himself I was afraid he was going to explode and ruin my dinner, was the Master of Ceremonies. He obviously had not heard the screaming from the political class about civility. He ripped his peers in a merciless nasty unfunny manner. Not that they didn’t deserve it. But if one is going to skewer your cohorts then, please, do it with wit. But wit takes a Less is Less sensibility and Hollywood is the land of More is More.

The perfect example of More is Helen Mirren, an actress whom I admire, announce on camera, without being asked by the fawning interviewer, that the Cartier diamonded necklace she was wearing cost, something like twenty billion dollars or the amount of the stimulus package. Why? She doesn’t own the necklace. Cartier is letting her wear it for the night. She didn’t put out her hard earned money to buy it. So why flaunt the necklace? Because Enough is never Enough in Hollywood.

As Steve and James have noted in their columns , two lions in the mystery genre, Ruth Gavin and Joe Gores, have died. Less is Less. The Mystery Bookstore in Westwood (once The Mysterious Bookshop) will be closing at the end of the month. Less is Less. Borders and Barnes & Noble in Santa Barbara have closed. More was More. But now Less is Less.