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Blog: Crazy For Kids Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Cybils, children's picture books, welcome 2008, winners, children's picture books, welcome 2008, Add a tag
Blog: ThePublishingSpot (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: style, Web Journalism, Gawker, n+1, web writing, Choire Sicha, Add a tag
When will people start treating the most talented bloggers like real literary figures?
The journal n+1 has a smart look at the rise of the website Gawker, giving each of the founding authors a critique that would make any literature professor proud. It's a valuable lesson on the evolution of webby style of bloggers like Choire Sicha:
"Like a Method gossip, Sicha had a natural fluency in spin and slipped almost lyrically into the voices of the subjects he intended to critique. When he felt that these subjects, out of restraint or lack of imagination, hadn’t pushed their blurbs far enough, Sicha obligingly did it for them ... At times his insults and his humor, in the language he imitated, were so subtly placed that they could be missed completely."
Still, not everybody can be as mean as they are. Myself included. Dan Blank has an interesting article about a kinder, gentler model for web writing, the enthusiasm-driven approach.
He uses stereo equipment writers as his model, showing how amateurs and experts share the stage in this bustling web community. Check it out:
"Never lose site of the key elements that the audience is passionate about. To build community, start small and focus on the one item that gets people excited. For all the time I spend with my stereo “hobby,” it is still all about the music." (Thanks, Chris Webb)
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Blog: A Fuse #8 Production (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: n+1, Blog Legitimacy, Add a tag
Ah me. It's nice to live in an age alongside people who dig trashing new technologies and modes of communication. Recently, the literary journal n+1 went on an anti-blog reviewer tirade of a particularly curmudgeonly bent. The piece takes issue with the fact that now any old joe on the street can criticize whatsoever they chose to. Names are not named (more's the pity) but it brings up some worthy points. Does an increase in critics cheapen the notion of criticism itself or democratize it? The question here is whether or not criticism as an art is in danger particularly when we're still dealing from the repercussions that came when, "argument in the academies gave way to 'respect'". One might point out that this self-same "respect" is alive and well in the blogosphere. Is there something to be said for out-and-out unapologetic fire and verve? For bloggers that tell the truth even when it isn't nicey nicey? Or is that just an excuse to be rude?
This all applies to the kidlit reviewers out there. Which is to say, it's a slightly rehashed version of the eternal Should a Blogger Post Negative Reviews question that keep popping up.
Thanks to Jen Robinson for the link.
Annie, I enjoyed working with you on the Cybils panel, and I love how you describe the books arriving at the door as close to nirvana. It does feel like that!
Thanks, Cheryl. Ditto right back at you. And it seemed like a great reason to jump back into blogging after weddings and holidays and such. I was amazed at how different all the books were and found myself wondering about people who published each title. It is definitely not for the faint of heart. Thanks for commenting.