Grub Street Printing Newsletter #67, November 2014

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

become. A group known as #Gamergate with a website called Gamasutra was used by some members of the gaming community to belittle a female game creator, Zoe Quinn, who authored a game exploring depression, a subject she was intimately acquainted with.

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