Sunday, July 5, 2009

More on the "Author-Critic Feud"

In an article at Salon.com, Mary Elizabeth Williams reminds us that, while author "tweet tantrums" may be the new trend, they're really nothing more than the old sport of critic bashing appearing in a new format. Williams reminds us of the time Dave Eggers called NYT reporter David Kirkpatrick's profile of him "a snippety little thing full of sneering and suspicion." There's also the time Stanley Crouch slapped critic Dale Peck in the face after Peck gave Crouch's Don't the Moon Look Lonesome a negative review. If actual violence is the alternative, perhaps tweet tantrums aren't so bad after all.

1 comment:

Zibilee said...

I think this bit about Alice Hoffman going postal on twitter is absolutely absurd. Does she really expect that everyone in the world is going to adore her book? I also think it was really low class of her to publish the phone number and e-mail address of the critic as well. Very childish. I will purposely avoid her books for that reason alone.