When PostSecret first made the rounds several years ago, I enthusiastically signed up for the feed. It’s a fine idea. People get to unburden their secrets, though I can’t really see how anonymous posting of these secrets is really an unburdening. And readers like me got to experience voyeuristic gossip without the schadenfreudistic guilt of knowing the subjects. Sometimes it wasn’t as good as at others, particularly when the secrets were generic.
But over the last year I’ve come to loathe PostSecret. It’s changed from a community art project
into a vehicle for Frank Warren to suck publicity for himself. The man had a good idea. Since then he’s sucked the tit for all the publicity it’s worth. I no longer follow the site, nor do I wait for the books to be released.
Since when did Frank Warren become the chief analyst of the meaning of secrets? Sure, he selects which ones to be published. But I keep seeing him pop up elsewhere as well as if he’s got some insight that no one else does. I call b.s. And why is he still selecting the secrets? Personally, I think the selection should be made differently. By the secret givers themselves, or the secret readers, or something.
Particularly galling to me are the four books sold under the PostSecret moniker. He and his publisher have decided to put Frank Warren down as the author! Seriously. Frank Warren is not the author. He did not create the post cards that are sometimes very brilliant. The man is a curator, or possibly an editor. But the author of PostSecret should really be Anonymous
. Perhaps I am unduly influenced by the policies of the group Alcholics Anonymous. Their work, though not intrinsically a work of authorship, espouses the ideal that it is the collective that matters, not the star individuals. Their main book, Alcoholics Anonymous, though the author is now known since he died, is still credited to Anonymous
.
Frank Warren should take heed. Not that he need be anonymous, but he ought to step back and let the secrets speak for themselves. They should be front and center, not Frank Warren. He has not become their owner by virtue of being the recipient. He holds them in trust.
Photo taken by Jofre Ferrer used under a Creative Commons BY-ND license
I remember when someone wanted to buy me the first copy of that. I thought the same thing about the author! It just really bothered me, especially since…is there anywhere letting people know where the money is going from the sale of the books? There might be, I haven’t followed the project in years, but I remember wondering about it and being particularly skeeved out over it.
However! That project is almost the lesser of two (three? five? 78467272?) evils. I’m constantly bombarded by talk about the spin-offs. For instance, on LJ, there’s two: one a direct clone and the other for fandom. If you ever need to work up a good froth, LJSecret and FandomSecrets are available for all rage producing needs.