I don't intend this to be
a criticism of criticism. I agree with Churchill when he wrote,
“Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary.”Learning
from criticism requires the ability to ignore the critic and judge
the veracity of the criticism.
That all sounds so quaint
in this digital age.
One of the unfortunate
side effects of “social media” is that it supports a very nasty
strain of “anti-social media”. And sometimes worse.
Before there were LCD
screens to hide behind, criticism was generally not anonymous.
Newspapers cautioned that unsigned “Letters to the Editor” would
not be printed. No printed media would bother acknowledging an
anonymous critique of a painting or drama; critics needed to be some
sort of authority, someone educated in the given field with broad
knowledge of the form. They didn't need to be nice people (many
Broadway critics were said to be quite vile) or as gifted as the
artists whose creations they scrutinized.
Many authors have bristled
over harsh criticism, sometimes rightly so. Even the opinion of an
expert is just an opinion. But knowing the identity of the critic can
either turn their criticism into a learning experience or understood
to be just so much unfounded rubbish.
My how things have
changed.
Consider Kathleen Hale,
author of No One Else Can Have You.
The book was generally
well-received by Publishers Weekly, Booklist and others.
But someone posted ongoing
criticism on Goodreads, panning it as she read. The comments were
described as “derisive running commentary”. And the commentary's
author was protected behind a pseudonym.
Many, if not most, believe
Hale responded inappropriately. She trolled the internet to discover
her critic's actual identity, finally going so far as attempting to
speak with the writer at her home.
Hale confessed her
obsession in an article in the British newspaper Guardian.
Reaction to her pursuit has ranged from horror to accolades.
Some months ago I may have
joined the shocked and disgusted camp.
Recently, however, I
became aware of just how insidious anonymous criticism can
The game clearly was on a
different level than the popular “kill or be killed” games and
when some contributors pointed out that it would fail in the angry
young male audience which gobbled up bloodier fare, her game was
defended by others, and the critics were described as angry old men.
The battle began. Instead
of posting with familiar user names identifiable in the gaming
community, new anonymous identities sprang up and the vitriol began.
Twitter also offered anonymity equal to the forums and email. Quinn
moved out of her apartment and has yet to return.
All of this action soon
drew the attention of those who study gaming, including Anita
Sarkeesian who posts regularly on the Feminist Frequency web site
about the sexist depiction of women in video games. Sarkeesian was
scheduled to speak at Utah State University in mid-October, but a
torrent of threats on her life induced her to request an additional
security presence, including barring firearms at the lecture. When
her request was turned down, she canceled her presentation.
Not only did the director
of the Center for Women and Gender “receive an email threatening a
'massacre style attack' if the talk proceeded”, Sarkeesian herself
was forced from her home after receiving threats through posts that
included her home address.
Four days prior to the
event's cancellation, game creator Brianna Wu was also forced to
leave her home after receiving threats.
The gaming community
vehemently denies it supports those who make the threats, but another
gaming site “Kotaku has banned
its writers from contributing to developers on Patreon, a
crowdfunding website popular with women in games—notably Gamergate
targets Zoë Quinn and Anita Sarkeesian”.
My first reaction was, “My
god people, you're talking about GAMES here. Games!” But when it
was pointed out that these games haul in $70 billion each year I
understood that there's considerably more at stake than defending
their morbid misogyny.
The fact that this
brouhaha is occurring is not particularly surprising. What does
surprise me is that threats of death and violence can be posted so
nonchalantly in cyber-space. I see no challenge to first amendment
rights here. A death threat can be freely made but can also be freely
prosecuted.
Some of the articles I
read about Gamergate claim that many in the gaming community are
fighting for recognition as real writers and journalists.
Dudes, that is seriously
not going to happen. So far as I know, sublimation can produce great
art, but in and of itself is just a mental work-around.
Amazon
About to be Attacked?
Seemingly
strange bedfellows Apple and Chinese uber-middleman Alibaba
believe working
in concert they could beat Amazon at its own game in the US (as
well as Walmart, BestBuy, etc.).
O2O?
They
say that the main battlefield to be contested in the Apple
Alibaba
vs Amazon
war will be O2O commerce. I'd never heard of it either but it
involves web retailers setting up brick and mortar stores, then
selling their wares and shipping them to the customer, Online
to Offline.
Learning
From Borders
A
lot of people and businesses were devastated when Borders closed in
2011. And while many helpful, literate employees ended up flipping
burgers, the top brass finished with extra cash in their wallets.
While the executive suite had a revolving door on it, it's
clear that Borders' wounds were self-inflicted.
Matt
Iglesias Doesn't Get Publishers. So?
Apparently
a neo-liberal (whatever THAT is) had a free market hallucination and
determined that publishers
are an unneeded drag on society and the arts... all the while
recommending books from a number of publishers.
Amazon,
Hachette, and Iglesias in Context
While
Iglesias argues that the Amazon vs. Hachette is a money spat, others
argue that the
broad spectrum of book selling itself is being tested.
New
Punctuation Marks
Have
you considered that additional punctuation marks could add precision
and clarity? An example would be these
13 new punctuation marks, like the “question-comma”.
Best
Reading Device
Apparently,
using the word “device” eliminates consideration of actual books.
Smart phones are the best because you
can hold them in one hand? Wait until the writer gets his new
Apple Smart Watch and he can “read” with no hands!
If
eReserves Aren't the New Coursepacks, What Are They?
While
reversing a lower court decision that seemed to allow professors to
assign unlimited reading of copyrighted material in league with the
school's library, the court also advised that the
old copyright rules used to create photocopied coursepacks no
longer applied.
Talk
About a “Rush Job”
The
San Francisco Giants won the World Series on Wednesday night and on
Friday morning Dome
Printing delivered 4,500 copies of the commemorative book
detailing their season.
The
Golden Age of Books
Over
the years I've discussed the possibility that some of us were
fortunate enough to have participated in the Golden Age of Books with
a number of established publishers. While there are no firm dates to
mark the beginning or end, I tend to think that the arrival of
soft-cover books in the 1930s marked the beginning and it continued
roughly to Y2K when big box retailers were killing the indies,
digital book production was a necessary evil requiring enormous
investment, and Amazon was a money losing web start-up. Today's
younger pundits think
the Golden Age of Books is now, thanks to Amazon!
Print
Trade Show Uneventful
Admittedly
the yearly Graph Expo Chicago trade show has suffered from
diminishing attendance, but apparently the glitz is gone too. Back in
the day, there were dozens of 20 ton presses throughout the show
displaying their ever increasing capabilities. This years show had
exactly one running offset press.
Final
thought
“I
would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can
do to an author is to be silent as to his works.” - Samuel
Johnson
