Margo Rabb: The Blogosphere Hates Me! Oh Noes!
Written by Edward ChampionPosted on July 22, 2008
Filed Under YA, rabb-margo
Margo Rabb’s now throwing a pity party over the controversy that her YA article generated, even tossing around uncited assertions that bloggers have threatened to punch her. I presume that Rabb, much like her undemocratic cohorts at Paper Cuts, is uninterested in approving dissenting comments. Here is my response:
If you put such a foolish article out, edited or unedited, don’t expect it to be universally loved. Some freelancers, such as myself, work very hard with editors to ensure that clarity is maintained. There’s no need to play Pollyanna here. You were responsible for what you wrote. And if you can’t accept criticism, then you have no business being a writer. Furthermore, I find it irresponsible that you have charged a blogger with commenting, “I wanted to punch the author,” without specifying the blogger. Google Blog Search and Technorati do not reveal any such comment. That are you using an uncited remark to tarnish the blogosphere with an ignoble straw man is highly irresponsible.
[UPDATE: To Rabb's credit, the comment has been approved. And as Brian helpfully points out, the "punch" comment in question is here.]
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14 Responses to “Margo Rabb: The Blogosphere Hates Me! Oh Noes!”
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Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. The famed writers behind Smart Bitches, Trashy Books have written a very funny and thoughtful volume about romances, both Old Skool and New Skool. Here is a book that any smug and humorless literary manboy beating his flabby passive chest over Banville or Bolano should probably read pronto, if only for the distant possibility that he might get over himself. While the Choose Your Own Adventure segment at the end caused me to have a very disturbing dream involving Shelley Long (don't ask), Sarah and Candy did have me rethinking many of my own misperceptions when I wasn't busy laughing. They're not afraid to take on the New York Times Bok Review or even the groupthink within certain sectors of the romance community.
Alice Fantastic by Maggie Estep. This wild and highly enjoyable narrative involves two sisters (presumably, the third one was still being rented out by Chekhov), a hippie ex-junkie mother who lives with seventeen dogs, a murder, gambling, and libidinous Hollywood actresses who live in Woodstock. But this is the wonderful Maggie Estep we're talking here. And what seems at first like a quirky yarn becomes something unexpectedly moving about connectivity. What I love about Estep's work is the way that she'll juxtapose an extremely astute observation (now that you mention it, why do cab drivers always have somebody to talk with on the phone past midnight?) with an often outrageous story development.
Generosity by Richard Powers. It doesn't come out until September 29th, but Richard Powers's latest will have anyone committed to books reconsidering their literary fervor. I foresee some animosity from the vanilla critics hostile to idea-driven novels, but book bloggers, YouTube chroniclers, and MFAs would do well to plunge into this chance-taking narrative, which introduces vital questions about what the reader's relationship is with media, scientific dissection, and "creative nonfiction." Are we rats fleeing to happy cities? Or can we find the humanism within the purported plague?
Pieces for the Left Hand by J. Robert Lennon. Lennon is one of the most underrated fiction writers working today. Much as On the Night Plain proved that Lennon had a lot more in the toolbox than heartfelt (and often very funny) suburban satire, this slim but fascinating volume juxtaposes 100 small-town anecdotes -- arranged by category -- in a manner that reads, at times, like Nicholson Baker's passions for minutiae and, at other times, Stewart O'Nan's concern for psychological detail. The result is fiction that makes us wonder about whether one person's subjective view of particulars can entirely be trusted. This book never found a publisher in 2005. But thankfully, Graywolf has released it in the United States, along with Lennon's latest novel, The Castle.
Wonderful World by Javier Calvo. This wonderfully raucous volume has been completely ignored by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. But it's probably one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had this year. Calvo cavalierly mashes up multiple genres and manages to mix up familial subtext with larger-than-life, almost cartoonish characters. (Indeed, one might argue that one mobster's penis is a character of its own in this sprawling novel.). This is not an easy thing to pull off, but Calvo makes it work. And it's helped immeasurably by Mara Faye Lethem's idiom-specific translation. (See longer post.)
The Means of Reproduction, Michelle Goldberg This thoughtful book tackles the complicated (and little discussed) subject of reproductive rights from numerous angles, which includes a number of unpleasant but necessary ones. The upshot is that there isn't a quick fix solution for declining birth rates and fundamentalist abuses. Just about every political faction has contributed to the friction. But you'll want to read this book anyway to refamiliarize yourself with the topic, but also to understand just what's occurred during the past several decades to get us where we are today. (See also podcast interview with Goldberg.)
http://janni.livejournal.com/486780.html
5th comment down.
Just sayin’
and i’m just sayin’ back the f___ off. who is irresponsible here? as Brain F. points out, you are obviously WRONG. if you want to maintain even a shred of credibility (or maybe you gave up on that a long time ago), acknowledge your mistake and apologize.
a shame i no longer live in brooklyn as i so want to meet you. maybe next time i am in town! good thing i have your address!
signed, really big husband
You know, real men know how to type “fuck.” They also know how to read updates, in which I acknowledged that the comment had been approved. Maybe you might want to use that small organ inside your head before you resort to muted bluster. I’ve seen more convincing displays of bravado at fashion shows.
I consider myself lucky that Claire Messud hasn’t offered to put my lights out…
I think it’s interesting that you find Margo “irresponsible [to] have charged a blogger with commenting, ‘I wanted to punch the author,’ without specifying the blogger.”
My take was different – I actually thought she was being responsible. Since Margo states that the blogger publicly apologized, and that she accepted the apology, I felt she was being polite to not cite the blogger and further the dispute.
Interesting how people can read different intentions from the same thing.
Margo has also offered a reasonable explanation in the comments on her blog as to why she didn’t identify the specific blogger.
I was pretty shocked by that punch comment as well, Ed. You can be annoyed by someone’s essay but wanting to punch an author who’s writing about the difference between a couple of writing markets? It was way out of line. That whole comments thread at Janni’s was a little on the angry side though, more so than I think the essay warranted.
Ed,
I don’t know if you realize it, but you’re abusive pretty much all the time now. I used to be a regular reader of The Return of the Reluctant and have, regrettably, only been popping in here occasionally, and the change is remarkable.
Well, Andrew, there’s always Paper Cuts for you. Have fun!
Yup, those are the alternatives: Ed or the Times. With or against. Ever occur to you that that binary mentality might be part of what’s wrong with the way you approach things? Or that the abusiveness I mentioned is not, nor is it a substitute for, media criticism, let alone literary criticism? It’s difficult to see past, Ed. That’s all I’m saying. I’d like to hear what you have to say about the NYTBR, but when you call the people who work there “pigs” you lose me. It’s hard to consider what you have to say about Margo Rabb’s article when you attribute motivations and feelings to her that aren’t reflected at all by the piece, and then insult her husband’s (I gather) masculinity and intelligence.
Andrew: It is your own tunnel vision which is drawing forth the dichotomy, just as it is your own perception to claim that my writing here is abusive. I’m just saying that if you don’t care for this site, fuck off and go elsewhere. Spare yourself the grief. Unless, of course, you’re some kind of chronic masochist. Some of the readers here are. I figured that Paper Cuts, which has never taken a single chance in its entire existence, might be more your speed because it can’t possibly be described as “abusive.” I was doing you a favor. The same way that a video store clerk recommends a Lifetime TV Movie box set over a Guy Maddin box set to a customer who likes their movies safe and unthreatening. No harm, no foul. More your speed. That’s all.
But you’re acting like a real chump here. Was I the one who wrote that I wanted to punch Margo Rabb? No. Her husband came in here, wanted to start some shit with me, and I put him down like I would any two-bit asshole in a bar. No sweat off my back. You fuck with me at your own peril. Thankfully, being smart enough to recognize that I am ALSO a reasonable man, Margo responded thoughtfully to my points and without this kind of machismo, and I acknowledged this both here and at her place. Nevertheless, I am very troubled that Margo would in our supposed age of gender egalitarianism choose to play the “I’ve got a big husband who will threaten you” card. That would see to run counter to the hopes of the Equal Rights Amendment.
[...] Segundo Show will return to the airwaves. The bad news is, is that in the interim Ed is starting to pick petty fights and lose his [...]
Wow it’s so unfortunate that all of this bickering back and forth is over an essay. What ever happened to agreeing to disagree? Why do you all have to try and prove how manly you are, when what you are fighting over is an essay?
Yeah, the “Really Big Husband” thing is pretty douche-baggy. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to read this person’s work now without thinking of some sort of ass-whuppin’ Neanderthal reading over my shoulder. Definitely going to avoid.