Month / August 2006

by Edward Champion

The Bat Segundo Show #52: Dan Wickett & Kellie Wells

segundo52.jpg
Guests: Dan Wickett and Kellie Wells (LBC Nominee, Summer 2006)

Condition of Mr. Segundo: Absent, avoiding his family lineage.

Subjects Discussed: Interdependent stories, the perception of a “novel in stories,” “Compression Scars” as the launching pad for the novel, building community consciousness within fiction, setting down distinct vernacular, preserving Midwestern cultural details, Sherwood Anderson, the publishing industry’s prejudice against the Midwest, cap guns, finding the right brand name referential balance, Spirographs, novelists as chroniclers, the adaptive nature of human behavior as expressed through fiction, The Pickwick Papers, writing about abuse, the origins of What Cheer, punk culture in Kansas, and the propinquity of magical realism to personal experience.

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by Edward Champion

Surely, They Acted In Their Best Interests Here and Didn’t Wait Two Weeks for Political Gain

Times Online: “Although reports that Mr Bush was woken at his ranch in Texas yesterday morning by a call from Tony Blair were denied by the White House, the two leaders had been in regular touch — as recently as Sunday — about British police efforts to track and capture those behind the aircraft plot. American authorities were told about a fortnight ago of an ‘accelerating plan’ to target US airlines flying from Britain to Los Angeles, Washington and New York. One official was quoted yesterday as saying that British authorities would not have arrested the suspects ‘if they hadn’t thought these guys were ready to go — the trip line had been reached — they dropped the hammer when they did because they thought they were out of time’.”

At the risk of coming across as a paranoid looneytune, this is damn fishy. Even if you’re waiting for the right moment for the terrorists to congregate so you can nab as much of a ring as you can, surely nabbing these guys as early as possible makes more sense — particularly when you have them all in your crosshairs. Either the British police are dumbasses or there’s clearly something else going on here. Why else would the White House deny that Bush and Blair had great morning phone sex? Unless, of course, Blair mumbled his suggestive imagery and begged Dubya to be his bottom.

by Edward Champion

Liesl Schillinger: Putting the Petty in Lori Petty

Re: Liesl Schillinger (hereinafter referred to as “Floozyl”), what Mark said, but with one major difference. The blogger who allegedly “grumbled” actually had a more dimensional take than what Floozyl imputed. Observe the final paragraph from Sarah’s post:

(Btw, for the humor-impaired, it’s not that I am mocking Ms. Pessl’s appearance or writing ability, just the publishing world’s almost masochistic desire to let attractive packages, so to speak, dictate their buying guidelines — even if the prospect of earning out is rather limited, to say the least.)

Further, Jessa Crispin penned her piece not on her blog, but in an article for the Book Standard. Meaning that it was a bona-fide piece of journalism that just happened to be available online, but that it was not part of the Bookslut empire. It’s idiotic enough to paraphrase an opinion based on a headline, but in this case it does a disservice to the blogger in question, who was functioning as a journalist. Further, it is quite likely that a copy editor penned the headline, not Jessa.

So beyond Floozyl being inaccurate, bafflingly combative towards litbloggers, and as perspicacious in her thinking as Dick Cheney handling a shotgun, Floozyl’s reading comprehension skills and ability to contextualize are more amateurish than a raccoon-eyed undergraduate with a bad case of the munchies trying to figure out how to divagate through the stacks.* If an entire team of fact-checkers and copy editors at the world’s allegedly foremost newspaper is this lazy, this petty, and this rushed, then Sammy T and the team are truly silly individuals who don’t even have the basic bonhomie to realize that the relationship between litbloggers and mainstream sources is two-way and symbiotic, that we have much to learn from each other, and that there is no autocratic cultural gatekeeper here, there, or anywhere. Particularly when Tanenhaus fails on a weekly basis to realize that there are books that go beyond bloated biographies of ponderous intellectuals and the collected works of John Updike.

Here are some questions to Sammy T and Floozyl: Are you really that oversensitive? Are you really having sleepless nights thinking about literary enthusiasts who have the temerity to express their passions in their spare time?

Sammy, Floozyl: Grow a spine, for fuck’s sake. Hell, maybe some humility on your end might help. After all, there’s room in the literary world for everyone.

* Hey, if Floozyl’s going to give us unpardonable run-ons, I’m going to mix my fucking metaphors.

[UPDATE: Ron has more.]

[UPDATE 2: More from Levi and a hilarious response from Scott.]