Actually, both can be done, and have been done. I haven’t said that “You’re Only Allowed To Dislike Something If You Spend A Lot Of Time Explaining Why You Dislike It.” This is not a question of free speech or censorship. I criticized the content of Jordan’s commentary, not his right to say it.
Tracy Lucas said:
Not getting into who I agree with or don’t, because I’ve already typed that too many times in other places, and nobody probably cares what I think, anyway.
But I love the length of this blog post.
Brian Carr said:
John, I know. I kid. I have fun. I have fun kidding.
Three writers who get exactly the attention they deserve:
1. Mel Bosworth: once asked me to write him a blurb and a few weeks after I wrote it he sent me his book to read. The book was called Grease Stains and something. It was maybe a story about food, or cooking I guess. From what I gather, Mel is a pretty good writer. He gets interviewed by people like Roxane Gay and Ben Tanzer (see below) and he has like three books and has published a bunch of stories online. He read at this Annalemma/Pank/Mud Luscious event during AWP, and that seems pretty big. Really I feel like Mel Bosworth probably gets exactly the amount of press he deserves.
2. Ben Tanzer: runs This Blog will Change Your Life, which I think is a pretty great name for a blog. He writes a lot of books too, and some of them look like the kind of stuff I like to read, but I haven’t been reading much lately outside of super-old academic medical journals, like War Medicine, which are pretty crazy, really, the way they used to think about treating diseases. Being from Chicago, Tanzer is in a city with a good literary scene, which could mean that he should get more press coverage than he does, but maybe he gets more and you just have to live in Chicago to hear about it. I saw he got interviewed by a magazine or website called The Chicagoist, so there’s something. In short, I would say Tanzer seems like a nice guy and a hard-working writer, and a lot of links come up when you google his name, so I’d say he’s getting his due. If I were him, though, I’d probably feel differently.
3. Kim Gek Lin Short: she’s a writer in Philly who I used to see at readings a lot when I was going to a lot of readings. I think we read at the same bookstores a couple of times. One time after a reading Kim said to me, “Hey! Mickey! I’ve seen you read like a million times so I should say hi.” That was good because sometimes I forget to say hi to people. So Kim writes poetry, which probably makes it harder to get attention, but her last book got a bunch of reviews and some thing on Bookslut, which is awesome. I even sent her a facebook message that went something like “Hey, Kim. Congrats on the bookslut thing. That’s awesome!” and she replied with something like “Thanks, Mickey!” and I don’t think we’ve communicated since then. Her book is called The Bugging Watch. It’s supposed to be really good, and I think I’ll probably read it, judging from how the poems sounded out loud. And, yeah, she seems to deserve the attention she’s getting.
[...] how he wasn’t fond of how Jason Jordan talked about writers he wasn’t fond of. Then Mickey Hess put a fork made of unicorn tears into it. And now the tussle continues in the comments on M. [...]
You can do both and the world will continue to spin.
John Madera said:Actually, both can be done, and have been done. I haven’t said that “You’re Only Allowed To Dislike Something If You Spend A Lot Of Time Explaining Why You Dislike It.” This is not a question of free speech or censorship. I criticized the content of Jordan’s commentary, not his right to say it.
Tracy Lucas said:Not getting into who I agree with or don’t, because I’ve already typed that too many times in other places, and nobody probably cares what I think, anyway.
But I love the length of this blog post.
Brian Carr said:John, I know. I kid. I have fun. I have fun kidding.
Mickey Hess said:Three writers who get exactly the attention they deserve:
1. Mel Bosworth: once asked me to write him a blurb and a few weeks after I wrote it he sent me his book to read. The book was called Grease Stains and something. It was maybe a story about food, or cooking I guess. From what I gather, Mel is a pretty good writer. He gets interviewed by people like Roxane Gay and Ben Tanzer (see below) and he has like three books and has published a bunch of stories online. He read at this Annalemma/Pank/Mud Luscious event during AWP, and that seems pretty big. Really I feel like Mel Bosworth probably gets exactly the amount of press he deserves.
2. Ben Tanzer: runs This Blog will Change Your Life, which I think is a pretty great name for a blog. He writes a lot of books too, and some of them look like the kind of stuff I like to read, but I haven’t been reading much lately outside of super-old academic medical journals, like War Medicine, which are pretty crazy, really, the way they used to think about treating diseases. Being from Chicago, Tanzer is in a city with a good literary scene, which could mean that he should get more press coverage than he does, but maybe he gets more and you just have to live in Chicago to hear about it. I saw he got interviewed by a magazine or website called The Chicagoist, so there’s something. In short, I would say Tanzer seems like a nice guy and a hard-working writer, and a lot of links come up when you google his name, so I’d say he’s getting his due. If I were him, though, I’d probably feel differently.
3. Kim Gek Lin Short: she’s a writer in Philly who I used to see at readings a lot when I was going to a lot of readings. I think we read at the same bookstores a couple of times. One time after a reading Kim said to me, “Hey! Mickey! I’ve seen you read like a million times so I should say hi.” That was good because sometimes I forget to say hi to people. So Kim writes poetry, which probably makes it harder to get attention, but her last book got a bunch of reviews and some thing on Bookslut, which is awesome. I even sent her a facebook message that went something like “Hey, Kim. Congrats on the bookslut thing. That’s awesome!” and she replied with something like “Thanks, Mickey!” and I don’t think we’ve communicated since then. Her book is called The Bugging Watch. It’s supposed to be really good, and I think I’ll probably read it, judging from how the poems sounded out loud. And, yeah, she seems to deserve the attention she’s getting.
Brian Carr said:Mickey. I’m laughing fairly uncontrollably.
Mel Bosworth said:yes, Hess = hysterical
Ben Tanzer said:And Mickey, I am sobbing uncontrollably, but I think they are tears of joy. Also, Mel with your blessing, can we just say “Hessterical” going forward?
What matters is that we talk about what matters. « It's Between a Fish and a Dog said:[...] how he wasn’t fond of how Jason Jordan talked about writers he wasn’t fond of. Then Mickey Hess put a fork made of unicorn tears into it. And now the tussle continues in the comments on M. [...]
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