New York Post: “Ike ‘Beats’ Tina to Death.”
Month / December 2007
New Guardian Blog Post
In today’s Guardian, you can find a blog post by me on current author correspondence volumes.
The Case Against Xmas
Roundup
- Diana West’s The Death of the Grown-Up, has received a handful of notices: William Grimes mocked it and The New Criterion‘s Stefan Beck was less dismissive, pointing to the Grimes Defense (“If an argument has been exaggerated a little bit for effect, we can throw it out—baby, bathwater, and even the soap scum of lingering doubt.”). Beck appears to be unaware that Grimes’s diluted form of reductio ad absurdum has existed long before Grimes. Indeed, it’s in use by many of today’s critics. And while many bemoan this rhetorical tactic, it is nevertheless a valid form of argumentative response. The problem with Grimes’s review in question isn’t his stance, but the flitting manner in which he declares West “Wrong. Totally wrong.” on the subject of Islam without citing specific textual examples. A good editor would have called Grimes on this and demanded that he strengthen his argument. Grimes really should have been permitted to write a 2,000 word essay instead of having his argumentative column inches diminished. Alas, the days where essays could be expanded to meet their argumentative requirements (as opposed to advertising demands) appear to be long over.
- Heidi McDonald observes that a new Speed Racer comic is forthcoming.
- Yes, I too am worried about David Schwimmer as feature film director, but with Simon Pegg and Dylan Moran on board, maybe — just maybe — there’s a chance.
- Keir Graff has more astonishing numbers about book critics and ethics.
- More demonstrative proof that Katie Couric has all the journalistic prowess of a Vegas cocktail waitress. The CJR‘s Curtis Brainard, however, thinks that such a limp line of questioning is fair game.
- Jonathan Lethem’s “The King of Sentences.”
- This year’s Orange Broadband Prize celebrity dunce jude? Lily Allen. Presumably, Allen will call at least one of the Orange Prize finalists a “cunt” and find a way to blame her slur on Amy Winehouse.
- Bloglines appears to be seriously messed up. I’ve noticed that many blogs have lost scores of subscribers overnight. Between this, the delayed text, and the recurrent appearances of the Bloglines Plumber, I think I’m switching over to Google Reader or something else.
- Alas, I was too swamped in deadlines to offer a few thoughts for this, but January Magazine has released its holiday gift guide.
- Is it possible that the grand horror film company Hammer is using MySpace to make a comeback? (They will be releasing Beyond the Rave, the first Hammer film in 30 years and Ingrid Pitt is in the cast.)
- The Sharp Side on Malcolm Lowry. (via Mark Thwaite)
- Wayne Koestenbaum on Elizabeth Hardwick.
- Joseph Duemer investigates a mystery involving copyright and Bruce Springsteen’s image.
- Normblog responds to Doris Lessing’s Nobel speech, pointing to five ways in which the Internet is beneficial to books. (via Maxine)
- The 100 Great Christmas Bummers. (via Pages Turned)
- Motoko Rich investigates how web work transforms into book sales. (Also related, albeit not particularly penetrating: the rise and fall of blogger book deals.)
- Nicolas Cage and Alex Proyas are teaming up. I thoroughly loathed Proyas’s cinematic bastardization of I, Robot and have hoped since then that the guy who gave us the startling and underrated Dark City isn’t washed up.
- It appears that the Cincinnati Post is dead in three weeks.
- Harold Pinter’s papers are being preserved.
- Also from the Guardian: DJ Taylor argues that authors have the right to say controversial things.
Ethical Transparency
In response to the NBCC’s ethics survey, Quill & Quire‘s Derek Weiler observes that Carlin Romano and company missed out on far more interesting questions like, “Is it ethical to review a book by an author who’s written negatively about you in the past?” But he also points to these reviewing guidelines publicly available to all Quill & Quire readers. I think that Quill & Quire has performed a valuable service here. Quill & Quire readers can see precisely how the publication operates, what is to be expected of its contributors, and can then take up specific charges with Weiler if there are any ethical transgressions. Not even a publication as allegedly august as The New York Times Book Review does this. I suppose that, depending on the editor, ethics are something that you make up as you go along.
But because Quill & Quire has set such a sterling example of transparency, I will be putting up an ethical guidelines page for this blog very soon, so that readers can get a sense of the ethical protocols that I personally adhere to when reporting on a story, conducting an interview, or writing a review. And I certainly hope that other newspapers and blogs will follow in the same spirit.