Will Smith’s Slap: The Final Word

Once again, something unexpected happened and we all engaged in the same old predictable dance.

During the Academy Awards telecast on March 27th, actor Will Smith slapped Chris Rock for joking about his wife’s bald head. Everyone reacted, everyone had an opinion about it, everyone talked about it so much that we all never wanted to think about it ever again. The old 1-2-3 step STOP! LET’S TALK ABOUT SOMETHING ELSE! dance was done. Again. As usual in our swift reaction to opine, we missed a lot of interesting points and information.

For example, no one said anything about how positively atavistic such facial slapping really was. When was the last time you slapped someone in the face when that person said something you didn’t like? Probably never. Even old-timey parents in the 19th and 20 centuries gradually stopped slapping their kids in the mouth because it was too demeaning. Thank God parenting has evolved so that other means of disciplinary action are usually employed in this day and age. In fact, the only facial slaps I can recall now are from old movies and mini-series like “Outlander.” That might explain the genuine surprise many Oscar viewers felt when they actually witnessed this slap. It simply isn’t done any more — except in theatrical productions on Broadway, on TV, in the movies. In real life, slapping is rarely — if ever — done. So when Smith slapped Rock in real time that night, everyone else acted as though this kind of thing had never, ever happened before in the history of the world.

SO. NOT. TRUE. And that’s important to understand if you want to put this Oscar incident in proper context.

While everyone agrees that slapping someone’s face with an open hand at a public gathering is outrageous and inexcusable, everyone is ignoring the fact that this kind of thing has been going on for centuries. We may not like it. We may not be used to it in our 21st century purview. But it has happened before, it will happen again, and it will keep happening whether we like it or not.

What Will Smith actually did was a precursor to a duel — but he wasn’t wearing any gloves. So he couldn’t follow the ritual of taking them off and using them to slap Chris Rock’s face. He couldn’t hand his gloves to a nearby gentleman’s gentleman while he used his bare hand to slap Rock, either.

Oh, so many dreadful rules of etiquette one must follow! And gracious, what a hard, forceful slap Mr. Smith delivered! Egad!

While such misconduct with all its rules and rituals seems unbelievably absurd in our 21st Century world, those “injured” parties who challenged each other to classic one-on-one, life-or-death duels were also unbelievably serious. Their discord inevitably involved the same thing guys always fought about: love or money(sometimes both). Settling their gambling debts and protecting the honor of their fair ladies were always big deals back in the old days.

So important were the things worth fighting about that even when dueling became outlawed in the 18th and 19th centuries, men still dueled to the death. They still fought over what they felt was important to them. And yet, even now men are still physically fighting about love and related money issues. When you look at it that way, Smith’s misconduct actually appears more restrained than your typical run-of-the-mill assault.

But I am in no way trying to excuse Will Smith’s inappropriate misconduct, dear readers. There should be consequences for his bad behavior. He should also make amends to his fellow actors, to The Academy itself, and of course, to Chris Rock. So far, Smith has publicly apologized, with amends(I’m sure) to follow later on. And now The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has banned Smith from attending the Oscars or any other Academy event for the next decade…Which is a lot more than what Theodore Dreiser got after he slapped Sinclair Lewis in March, 1931, at the Metropolitan Club.

Like this recent March 2022, incident, there was the usual requisite shock and disbelief when the slap was delivered, then reported. But there was no talk at all of arresting or punishing assailant Theodore Dreiser. No talk of banning or burning Dreiser’s books, either. In fact, there was more sympathy and understanding for the slapper than there was for the slappee.

I initially came across this story by Edward Sorel in The New York Times Books(12/31/2020) in the LITERATI section under the title “That Time When Theodore Dreiser Slapped Sinclair Lewis in the Face.” Subheading: “At a 1931 banquet at the Metropolitan Club, two literary giants clashed over plagiarism and bruised egos.”

Wow. If only English teachers who made us read Sister Carrie and Babbitt would have told us about this brouhaha, classes wouldn’t have been as boring. How naive we were to believe that Great American Writers always fought with words but never with any other body parts. Even now when you think of writer’s quarrels in the 20th Century, you only remember the bitchy exchanges between Gore Vidal and Truman Capote; or, the diatribes Mary McCarthy and Lillian Hellman inflicted on each other. But the smackdown Theodore Dreiser gave Sinclair Lewis? Largely forgotten.

Thanks to author and illustrator Edward Sorel, however, this story has been succinctly told and enhanced with his caricatures of Dreiser smacking Lewis. After the Oscar slap seen round the world, I researched further in the archives and found the news story dated March 21, 1931, also from The New York Times. Then I compared the two narratives. Sorel did a great job of using essential information in a detailed yet shorter, easier-to-read version of events. Any bias he had took a back seat to the actual facts he’d uncovered in his research. The newspaper, on the other hand, provided a longer, more detailed narrative but reported events with a greater bias that protected assailant Dreiser as the wronged party.

I mean, the newspaper headline actually read “Lewis is Slapped by Dreiser in Club,” then “Author Acts at Metropolitan as the Nobel Winner Charges Plagiarism From Wife’s Book.” Beneath that, however, is another editorialized sub-headline, in caps: “LEWIS PROVOKED INCIDENT.”

Remember, Sinclair Lewis was the injured party. He was the one who got slapped by Dreiser. He was the victim, not Dreiser. And yet, The New York Times reported the incident in a pro-Dreiser way — as if poor, aggrieved Dreiser was really protecting his name as a great writer “falsely” accused of plagiarism. Even later in the reported new story, Dreiser is quoted as saying, “It was the proper retort to any insult.” As if any one who upsets Theodore Dreiser — even if what’s said is true — deserves to get smacked?

FYI, here’s some background, along with the rest of the story.

Writers Theodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis were both favored to get The Nobel Prize in Literature. But it was Sinclair Lewis who got the 1930 prize and became the first American to be awarded this honor. Many people believed Dreiser should have gotten it, including Dreiser who became irrationally peeved at Lewis for winning this honor.

Sinclair Lewis and his wife Dorthy were also peeved at Dreiser, but for another, more rational reason.

Two years earlier, Mrs. Lewis nee Thompson, had accused Dreiser of plagiarizing her work, The New Russia, in his book Dreiser Looks at Russia. Although the newspaper downplayed her charges, she was genuinely concerned enough to hire a lawyer to confront Dreiser. According to Sorel, Dreiser shrugged it off by accusing her of stealing his notes when she had visited him in his hotel room in Berlin.

Needless to say, the Lewises were not on friendly terms with Dreiser when they attended this big banquet at the Metropolitan Club that was given to honor Russian writer Boris Pilnyak. The gathering was hosted by Ray Long, then Editor of Cosmopolitan magazine. NOTE: this was back in 1931, long before Helen Gurley Brown took over and filled the publication with Cosmo girltalk, astrological forecasts, and articles about finding your G spot. Long was editor of what used to be a classy literary, cultural magazine and made sure all the established and celebrated writers were invited that night.

After dinner, Long asked Lewis to say a few words. According to the version of The New York Times, Lewis stood up and said, “I am very happy to meet Mr. Pilnyak. But I do not care to speak in the presence of one man who has plagiarized 3000 words from my wife’s book on Russia. Nor do I care to talk before two sage critics who objected to the Nobel committee’s selection of me as America’s representative writer.” Then Lewis sat down.

According to Sorel’s version, though, “Lewis stood up and announced, ‘I feel disinclined to say anything in the presence of the son of a bitch who stole 3000 words from my wife’s book.’”

Whatever quote you believe, dear readers, it’s safe to say Dreiser’s slap came after the remarks Lewis made. According to some eyewitness accounts at the club, Dreiser later had words with Lewis and demanded that he repeat what he’d said about the plagiarism. Lewis did. Dreiser slapped him. Then he slapped him again.

According to the account Lewis gave to the Associated Press later on, before he left for a lecture date in Toledo, Dreiser slapped him first. But he couldn’t properly defend himself because someone else then grabbed his arm. He also added that Dreiser was “a pretty big fellow and must weigh pretty close to 200 pounds…Still, he’s pretty old…”

The real irony here, as Sorel deftly points out, is how forgiving and magnanimous Lewis remained towards his assailant:
“Lewis had always championed Dreiser’s genius, and he continued to even after the slapping incident. In 1944 Lewis succeeded in getting the American Academy of Arts and Letters to give Dreiser a special award for distinguished achievement. But it was hardly a substitute for a Nobel.”

Ah, to be an old literary white guy who can get away with slapping another, younger literary white guy because the other white guys in power think you’re a better writer than the younger white guy.