The Easy Narrative

by Zoe Pollock

Tom Bissell defends Virginia Quarterly Review editor Ted Genoways and expresses disappointment that a true tragedy, the suicide of managing editor Kevin Morrissey, has been turned into a trend story, which seems to be a popular thing to do these days:

I would like to believe that I know enough about human nature to be able to sense within someone to whom I am close a monstrousness capable of tormenting a colleague into the dark embrace of suicide. What I do sense in the VQR tragedy, unmistakably so, is a far more complicated story about people who grew to despise one another, worked terribly together and had access to too much money and not enough support systems, whether personal or official. But "workplace bullying," like the "ground zero mosque," is a narrative so easy and pleasing it practically fits you for your toga.