Comments on: Prigs with Web Hits

By: Emilia

Emilia — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:06:02 +0000

Yes, they really are. I have a facebook friend, a well-known critic, who actually opined publically that she never reads anything that isn’t from the ‘majors’.

However, we reviewers also need to move to the non-major, Goodreads and its ilk. Most book editors at e.g Guardian, FT, Telegraph and even the Independent won’t look at reviewing small press books either.

By: Squeaky

Squeaky — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 21:44:52 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing that! it actually accomplished a rare feat and made me snort with laughter. XD

By: Remittance Girl

Remittance Girl — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 16:36:51 +0000

yes! Exactly.

By: Annabeth Leong

Annabeth Leong — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:48:01 +0000

I actually really enjoyed that Guardian article. It was the one I was thinking of when I said they’d been drawing my traffic lately. But note that this author has actually spent time reading and thinking about the book she’s writing about.

By: Annabeth Leong

Annabeth Leong — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:47:04 +0000

By “without sufficient time to investigate them,” I mean, without sufficient time to challenge one’s preconceived notions. That’s the step that’s really missing, I think. She came back in response to you and posted the plots of the erotic books she’d mentioned, but nothing in her tone had changed.

By: Remittance Girl

Remittance Girl — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:45:57 +0000

Oh my god… it’s the FOOD PUSHING! I knew there was a subtextual reason I was so creeped out. Hehe.

By: Leah Ridgewood

Leah Ridgewood — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:26:32 +0000

Great post, RG. The tone of this piece, as you excerpt it, is preposterous. As if sex weren’t important to the human condition. Literature about every other drama and appetite is acceptable, but stories of sex are somehow indulgent. Last I checked sex was a basic human drive as inextricably intertwined with our psyches as eating, and staying alive.

I’ll go say the same thing on the article itself.

I will also offer this hilarious analysis of why people love 50, also at the Guardian. Glad she could finally explain it to me: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jul/29/victoria-coren-fifty-shades-of-grey?INTCMP=SRCH

By: Remittance Girl

Remittance Girl — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 15:19:08 +0000

Er… she managed to find the time to provide synopses of the other non-erotica titles, though, I notice.

By: Remittance Girl

Remittance Girl — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 14:35:53 +0000

Hi Anon, Hi Valerie:

I think you’ve probably both put your fingers on why digital and indie publishing has taken off so successfully. Because the big publishing houses are not longer the source of good writing (they publish some unmitigated crap) and because critics seem to be too lazy to really consider the world of indie publishing at all.

By: Annabeth Leong

Annabeth Leong — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 13:46:23 +0000

Thanks for calling this out!

Here’s a snip from my comment to the article:

“Do you really need to know the plots?” has a dismissive, contemptuous undertone that offends me as a reader and writer of erotica. What I pick up from the tone is the idea that people don’t read books like this for plot or any sort of literary enjoyment. Arousal is absolutely part of the package with an erotic book — but that doesn’t mean every reader or writer is a sweaty-palmed fiend with no sense of taste. It’s possible to choose your arousal the way you might choose your dinner. You can eat because you need to eat with no sense of distinction, or you can cook or buy food with an eye toward the aesthetic pleasure of it. In this way, “Do you really need to know the plots?” sounds a lot like mentioning a bunch of restaurants, and then saying, “Do you really need to know what they serve?” (Yes, food, but that suggests the speaker has no idea how to choose one restaurant over another).

In a past life, I was a journalist, and I recall an unfortunate pressure to “have opinions about” whatever people were talking about. This often came with a healthy dose of groupthink. Sadly, in journalism, there isn’t much time to reflect, and the increasing speed of the news cycle isn’t helping. I think this sort of article is born from pressure to mention things without sufficient time to investigate them.

Also, I think you’re quite right about the search for web hits. I have to admit I’ve been clicking to the Guardian a lot more lately, what with all their articles mentioning Fifty Shades. I’m sure they’re getting traffic for it, and I’m part of the herd that’s been rewarding them…