New York magazine does admirable work here in deconstructing the New Yorker’s merciless take-down of nerdy billionaire loser Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and impending victim of Andrew Sorkin’s presumably eviscerating film The Social Network. Being booted around the New Yorker for seven pages for being, among other things, a short, socially challenged, back-stabbing little snot is no one’s idea of a good time, but what really puts the icing on the cake is New Yorker author Jose Antonio Vargas’ description of the dudes that Zuckerberg ripped off on the way to the top when he was still an undergraduate at Harvard—the Winklevoss twins, Cameron and Tyler, who ended up suing Zuckerberg for stealing their ideas and won a settlement of sixty-five million dollars, which they are now contesting on the grounds that Zuckerberg misled them regarding the value of Facebook stock.
OK, twins who get into Harvard, that’s not too shabby. But that’s just the start. Get this: “Tall, wide-shouldered, and gregarious, the twins were champion rowers who competed in the Beijing Olympics; they recently earned M.B.A.s from Oxford.” Which forms a bit of a contrast with poor Zuckerberg, who is not tall, wide-shouldered, or gregarious, was not a champion rower who competed in the Beijing Olympics, and has not been to Oxford.
I myself am not tall, wide-shouldered, or gregarious, nor was I a champion rower who competed in the Beijing Olympics, and I have not been to Oxford. And I do not have sixty-five million dollars. Unlike Zuckerberg, I did not go to Harvard, nor was I the captain of the Phillips Exeter fencing team, and I do not have a billion dollars. But, somehow, I ended up disliking the Winklevoss kids more than I dislike the Z-man.
Afterwords
Was Vargas influenced at all by the fact that, as he tells us, he is more interested in men than women? Probably not.
