The big discussion currently wending it’s way through the book blogosphere (I can’t believe I just used that neologism; someone please give me heavier medication) has to do with Bad Authors™. Authors such as Alice Hoffman and Alain de Botton who groused about reviews of their work on Twitter and the reviewer’s personal blog respectively. There are numerous other examples of authors having what I’ve seen referred to as meltdowns
over the years.
Before I get into my opinion, let me tell you a story. In 2006, I quit my job at Expedia where I had done various things over the years, one of which was managing a 15 person team of developers. I had a pretty good record as a manager there, but I screwed up occasionally. One such instance where I failed to supervise my team well resulted in our group’s portion of the web site being down for half a day, losing the company a half million dollars in revenue. I took some flak for that. Shortly after leaving Expedia, I started a minimum wage part-time job as a shelver for Barnes & Noble. My first day, I told my fellow wage-slaves that if something goes wrong, they should blame me. I don’t think anyone ever took me up on it, but I did get chewed out semi-publicly by managers a couple of times for minor transgressions like sitting at a meeting when I should have stood. Having made some big-time mistakes in a high stress job, I didn’t get too worked up about things as a shelver. It’s not that it wasn’t important, but my life wouldn’t end, nor would my self-esteem take a hit. Sometimes you have to take one for the team.
So, back to book blogging and reviews; I’ll make the connection to the previous story in a moment.
From what I can tell, most writers take their writing very personally. It isn’t something they can completely separate from themselves. Consequently someone with the New York Times or the Boston Globe or sometimes even a chowderhead like me rips on their book, it can hurt. I have some hot button issues where if I get criticism, my initial reaction isn’t going to be how I would act if given some time and consideration. I understand a writer lashing out quickly.
Here’s where I differ from what I’ve seen of the discussion on many of the book blogs and on Twitter and elsewhere: I’m totally okay with an author ripping back. Go for it! They opened themselves up for public criticism by publishing a book or article or story. But so did the reviewer. A review is just as much a target for criticism as is a novel.
And here’s where I differ even more: tear it up! As long as it’s what you really believe, I’m all for it!
I don’t believe in fairness
in the review game. Screw John Updike’s six rules of fairness. He believed in fairness to the author. I don’t. I believe in fairness to yourself. For instance, this blog is foremost about me and my interaction with books. The New York Times is a little different case, because a reviewer is working for a corporate entity that has a group mind sense of self governed by their management structure. But not this blog. I don’t pull punches out of a sense of fairness to the author or to a P.R. flack on whom I depend for review copies or publisher or whoever. I’m not even here to sell more books.
I don’t expect fairness in return. I’m out here on the internet critiquing books with my uninformed untrained brain almost 100 times a year. Every published author out there has multiple people doing this to each of their works. Some reviewers are better than others, but yet the jerks like me still are publishing crap reviews all the time. If you think I messed up, or have been unfair, or that I’m merely a moron with an electronically enabled typewriter, or whatever, by all means let everyone know! I’ve been doing the same thing to you and what you write for 7 years on the internet. That’s a long time to put up with my shit. I totally understand if you are angry about it. (I don’t understand why anyone would consider me important enough to read in the first place, but I understand being hurt/angry once you’ve read me.)
Making the connection to the story above: I can take it. Doesn’t mean I won’t get angry in return, or call you a moron, or whatever. But after it’s all written and done, Earth will continue its merry way around the sun. And I will wake up tomorrow morning whether I’m called an idiot or not. I do request one thing if you take issue with my writing: please make it interesting. It’s merely a request; no one has to follow it. I just love being entertained.
I don’t think book discussion is hurt by people being passionate about books. I do not want to return to a Victorian age of mores, where an unwarranted desire for civility stifled several generations’ passions. I have season tickets to the Seattle Sounders FC. There’s where you can feel passion in the stands! Even discussion of stats brings out the fire in people there. And then there’s booing opposing players and the referees all with horns blowing and a marching band and chanting! No one thinks soccer is hurt by letting loose the emotional! I’d love to see book discussions have people who get into it that much!
When authors have their so-called meltdowns, it’s the kind of passion I want to see about books. Both because it shows their own passion, and because the critique they responded to had something to say. Bland reviews (and bland novels for that matter) don’t inspire responses, generally. Whether right or wrong, full of crap or full of awesome, I’d rather there be passion than blandness.
So if what I’ve written about something moves you or pisses you off, by all means, make me or what I’ve written a target. I’ll take one for the team.
Image by Catherine M D used under a Creative Commons By-Nc-Sa 2.0 license.
Hear hear. Let us all have strong opinions and loud voices!!
>>>I do not want to return to a Victorian age of mores, where an unwarranted desire for civility stifled several generations’ passions.
Oh god yes, let’s NOT do that.
As an author, I’ve been learning to deal with reviews of all kinds, lately. I’ve been pushing harder and harder for more and more visibility, and as more people become aware of my work, more people find they have something to say about it. What I’ve been trying to do, when possible, is engage reviewers in a further conversation about the work. Whether the review was positive or negative or, in some cases, a quick and thoughtless grammar-free personal attack – I try to consider it reasonably and respond thought-provokingly.
If my book riled you up so much you felt the need to spew profanity, I’d love to discuss what so emotionally engaged you about it. If you felt the book was misrepresented by the marketing (my biggest problem, I believe), I want to know how you think I could represent the book better. If you missed the point, I want to point it out!
We live in an age of communication – authors shouldn’t be expected to remain silent, and reviewers shouldn’t be upset when they don’t. Instead of authors and critics residing in their separate bubbles, let’s make a conversation between authors and readers (professional or otherwise) a part of the so-called “Author 2.0″ model. Back and forth. Passionate, interesting, and engaging conversation, between the people on both sides of the book.
I understand, to a point, Alice Hoffman’s meltdown: she’d invested a great deal of time and energy into a book only to have its plot laid out thoroughly on the Internet and then negatively reviewed.
I read the review: personally, it didn’t affect my feelings for the book as I still intended to check it out of the library. However, I found her need to post the contact information of the reviewer disturbing. Would she have tweeted the reviewer’s cell phone? Home address? Where would she have drawn the line?
When I read reviews, especially blog reviews, I always take into consideration my tastes. My favorite authors do not always receive great reviews…but I still buy the book in hardcover and I still drive hours to get the book signed, in person. I’m not just a reader of books, I’m a fan of certain authors (yay Steve Hockensmith!) and I never allow a blogster to change my own take of a certain book.
Do bloggers/critics change my intention to purchase or read? No and yes. For unknown authors, I do pay attention, but I still want to preview the book for myself. However, I would appreciate if reviewers did not give away major plot points (please!) and try to not make the review personal (I loathed a reviewer who called a new author an “obvious idiot”).
Just my two cents…and not well-written at that.
As far as I’m concerned authors can have as much of a hissy fit as they like. Encouraging stalking by giving out email, phone #, or addresses crosses the line though. I think Hoffman was okay until she did that (whiny, bitchy, and over the top–but otherwise okay before that).
And if authors are going to take a reviewer to task, they should at least be able to stand the heat when someone disagrees with them. After all, they’re criticizing someone else for disagreeing with them so not allowing the same is hypocritical.
I don’t condone harassment, such as posting someone’s private phone number.
:)
I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but in “authors’ critiquing groups,” there is a thing called the silent review. The gist of it is that the other memers of the group can (and do) say anything they want – true or false; nice or naughty; good, bad, or indifferent, it doesn’t matter – and the author is allowed to say . . . NOTHING AT ALL! Well, you’re supposed to say “Thank you.” The belief seems to be that the author has had his say, and if he can’t simply shut up and take it, then he hasn’t “learned how to accept criticism.” Then you’re supposed to go and make all the changes that were suggested.
This is actually a primary reason why I stay away from such groups. I hope my fiction incites passion, yes, but I hope that passion inspires a discussion. Any reviewer who says anything at all about my fiction has, by that very action, invited a response from me, and will get it as I see fit. Sometimes their passion is met by a passion of my own, and sometimes it might get ugly.
That’s called “Life.”
Yes! Even those of us with “trained” brains (I have a PhD in English literature) can use a reality wake-up call every now and then. Otherwise we become like the stereotype, disengaged from the rest of the world, making pronouncements that no one cares about.