Archive for the 'has everyone gone mad?' Category

Nietzche in the morning

paperhaus July 1st, 2009

Shortly after getting up I checked my Twitter feed — a weakness, to be sure — and saw that Alain de Botton was Tweeting quotes about anger. Here’s one:

Angry people call poverty on themselves and ruin on their homes, denying they are angry, just as the mad deny their insanity, Seneca -De Ira

de Botton — who is @alaindebotton, if you’re curious — had recently left an angry comment on the blog of Caleb Crain, who (negatively) reviewed de Botton’s book “The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work” in the NY Times. “You have now killed my book in the United States, nothing short of that,” de Botton wrote. “So that’s two years of work down the drain in one miserable 900 word review…. I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude.”

Which is heated, if not nasty. And it doesn’t fit with the Alain de Botton I saw at the Getty in LA just a few weeks ago, who came across as sweet and patient. He stood for hours on a chilly patio in order to speak to every person who wanted a book signed; it was a long queue at the end of his book tour, but he never got frustrated or exasperated.

So he’s either good at fronting, or Crain really pissed him off.

I’m inclined to think the latter, and I’m glad that de Botton said what he said. Not that I hate the review, am convinced this is de Botton’s best work or am even sure that he’s right about the damage done — but I think expressing anger is OK. Don’t like the review — say something! Such reactions shouldn’t leave reviewers cowering, but get them up on their feet, shouting their opinions, their reasons, their refusals to submit!

There is some kind of play-nice mentality going around that I’m not sure I believe in. Maybe we’ve lost our ability to argue without getting personal, or the skill of expressing anger with eloquence. I think that’s why de Botton was pulling what 140-character quotes he could about anger’s place in our lives.

That said, I’m not sure that going to Nietzche on how to live is ever a good idea.

The emotions of envy, hatred and lust are life-conditioning emotions which must essentially be present in every life - Nietzsche

It’s not untrue, but it feels uneasy, unresolved. Nietzche is good for some things — he’s always thought provoking, if not infuriating — but his ego-driven, brittle intellect didn’t make him much of a life coach.

Where’s a linguist when you need one?

paperhaus April 14th, 2009

In response to the controversy over de-ranking of more than 57,000 books on its site, Amazon released an unusual statement today.

The online bookseller’s initial response to critics crying #amazonfail had been, well, terse: the problem was a “glitch.” Details were not forthcoming.

But Monday afternoon an official statement was out, and it was in such non-corporate lingo that I couldn’t quite believe that it was the real, on-the-record company response. Yet it was.

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.

There was more, of course, but I’d like to pause and contemplate this. To apologize for de-ranking titles that appeared to be classified as excessively erotic, Amazon  reaches for a vocabulary word meaning “inept” and came up with “ham-fisted.”

Erotic? Ham-fisted?

Cancel the linguist. Call in a Freudian.

Amazon’s rough Easter

paperhaus April 13th, 2009

While most of the country was knee-deep in Easter baskets, I was home getting a blog post ready and reading twitter and planning a sortie to purchase Cadbury Creme Eggs before they disappeared from shelves.

But something came across Twitter — which is like a combination of passing notes in class and an old-style news ticker — that the journalist Rebecca Skloot was circulating. Something had happened to Amazon’s sales rankings, and it seemed like that something wasn’t good.

Without sales rankings, books can’t appear in Amazon’s bestseller lists. Some — but not all — affected books had been removed from Amazon’s search results completely. To find a book that wasn’t showing up in searches, I discovered, you’d need to search for another title by the same author, or find a used copy of it, and then click on the author’s name for a secondary list of their works and try to dig up the book you really wanted.

The troubling thing about this change was that it seemed, at first blush, to be affecting books with gay and lesbian themes the most (heterosexual erotica and romance were also affected, as were books about sexuality and disabilities). One author/publisher posted a response he’d gotten from Amazon that said his book had been de-ranked because of “adult” content; another pointed out that his book about being a male stripper for men was de-ranked, while Diablo Cody’s book about being a female stripper for men had not.

In the time it took me to write the first post for Jacket Copy at the LA Times, the hashtag #amazonfail had not only popped up on Twitter but climbed to its top spot.

If adult content was the reason for de-ranking, I found, it had been unevenly applied. Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho — which includes a scene in which a starving rat is inserted into the vagina of a live woman and must gnaw its way out — was still ranked. Rubyfruit Jungle, the lesbian coming-of-age novel by Rita Mae Brown, had been de-ranked. In several cases, the same book was both ranked AND de-ranked, in different editions.

Amazon soon responded to Jacket Copy with a message they were sending to everyone: that this was just a “glitch.” Appeals for further detail came up empty. I wrote a follow-up post on Jacket Copy. Talking to my editor, who was leaving for dinner, made me realize I hadn’t had lunch.

By this time, there was a new Twitter hashtag: #glitchmyass.

So far there’s been no more news from Amazon, although there has been plenty of news: 227 reports in the last 16 hours or so, according to Google News (which always misses stuff). I’d say that someone at Amazon — the person who’s got to fix the glitch — is having a pretty rotten Monday.

I eventually had lunch, but those Cadbury Creme Eggs are going to have to wait until next year.

Harlan fesses up feeling up

paperhaus August 29th, 2006

Harlan Ellison admits to grabbing breast, calls unsanctioned breastgrabbing "unconscionable," forgets to include an apology.

Aw, man.

He does say he’s waiting for a call back from grabee Connie Willis, whose take on the proceedings I’m dying to hear. What’s with the silence? Someone must have mentioned Harlangate to her by now.

But even though he’s a turd, I still like his writing, and would still happily listen to him speak. I just would stay out of arm’s reach.

Midnight movie: Picard, acapella

paperhaus August 22nd, 2006

If only Wil Wheaton wasn’t on vacation and could tell us what this video (via Sarah) is all about; as it begins with "Mister Crusher," he was probably in on the joke — or um, video birthday note? get wall card? — that appears to be for Gene Rodenberry.

Wil Wheaton, aside from portraying the unloved Wesley Crusher on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," is also an accomplished computer geek, blogger and poker player. He also tells a really good story, as evidenced by his book of essays Just A Geek.

Slouching towards Broadway

paperhaus December 6th, 2005

The Year of Magical Thinking has jumped the shark: the New York Times reports that Joan Didion’s memoir is going to be a Broadway show.

"I think that the book is not a narrative; it’s about a state of mind,
and I think that will work well," she said of the stage possibilities.

My theater experience is limited, but I think narrative kind of works on stage. "The Producers" is a happy narrative; "The Elephant Man," a tragic narrative. Both won Tonys. Spalding Gray’s one man shows — neurotic narrative. Now picture non-narrativeTYOMT sandwiched between "Spamalot" and "Mamma Mia!"

Don’t get me wrong: I admire Joan Didion immeasurably. I adore her writing.  I’ve read just about everything she’s written, including the way-stinky script of Up Close & Personal.  And I will gladly be the 200,001st person to buy her new book, and I’ll enjoy it.

But Broadway? Oh god, it’ll star Meryl Streep. I can see it now.