Flick your hand

Award nominations are generally occasions for exaggerated compliments and air kisses, so it was something of a surprise when Eliot Weinberger, a previous finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, announced the newest nominees for the criticism category two weeks ago and said one of the authors, Bruce Bawer, had engaged in ''racism as criticism.''

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For Mr. Bawer, the condemnations are more evidence of liberals' one-sided blindness. ''One of the most disgraceful developments of our time is that many Western authors and intellectuals who pride themselves on being liberals have effectively aligned themselves with an outrageously illiberal movement that rejects equal rights for women, that believes gays and Jews should be executed, that supports the coldblooded murder of one's own children in the name of honor, etc., etc.,'' he wrote on his own blog, www.brucebawer.com/blog.htm. In an e-mail message yesterday he said he did not have anything to add to his posts.

Mr. Bawer's book jacket is covered with admiring blurbs from well-known conservatives, but he does not fit the typical red-state mold. An openly gay cultural critic from New York who has lived in Europe since 1998, Mr. Bawer has published books like ''Stealing Jesus,'' a harsh critique of Christian fundamentalism. ''Some people think it's terrific for writers to expose the offenses and perils of religious fundamentalism -- just as long as it's Christian fundamentalism,'' he wrote on his blog.

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J. Peder Zane, the book review editor and books columnist at The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., was on the eight-member committee that nominated Mr. Bawer's book. He said it ''was not a contentious selection.'' Mr. Zane was furious at the way Mr. Weinberger used the nominating ceremony on Jan. 20 as a platform for his views. ''He not only was completely unfair to Bruce Bawer,'' he said in a telephone interview, ''he's also saying that those of us who put the book on the finalist list are racist or too stupid to know we're racist.''

Mr. Zane said he and four or five others booed when Mr. Weinberger, who was nominated last year for his 2005 collection of essays, ''What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles,'' made his comment to more than 200 people from the publishing world. Mr. Zane then threaded his way through the crowd to tell Mr. Weinberger he thought his comments in that setting were ''completely inappropriate.'' Mr. Zane recalled, ''He flicked his hand at me like I was a flea and walked away.''

Mr. Weinberger could not be reached for comment.

By the bye, Eliot Weinberger has also published books on Chinese poetry. I can't figure out whether he actually knows Chinese.