Busytown: A new (old) sensation
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Currently reading The Last Werewolf, and it's really. Really. Good. Damn you Glen Duncan, do not disappoint me.
Though it is the first time I've ever seen the word "uglily" committed to paper.
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You think they had a point? Maybe he never would have finished it without all the badgering.
I suspect the end of the Second World War and his appointment as the Merton Professor of English Language and Literature in 1945 had a little more to do with it. I don't think Oxbridge dons, who wrote a mildly successful children's novel on the side, had to worry about demented fans much in the 30's and 40's. :)
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Of course, writers can have “entitlement issues” too…
Oh, crap – yes, Howett has been getting some epic (and richly-deserved) urine extraction around teh interwebz recently. She’s not the only author who needs to have this piece of wise advice from Samuel Johnson tattooed on the inside of her eyelids: Authors place themselves uninvited before the public, and solicit fame at the hazard of disgrace.
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Though as many commentators have pointed out, Howett’s book sales have in all probability increased as a result of the publicity (albeit deservedly negative publicity). Which is … depressing.
The only thing that would be more depressing would be if it were a deliberate strategy rather than an unedited hissy fit on her part. (But it’s pretty clear that lack of self-editing is by far the more likely explanation.)
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Andre Alessi, in reply to
The only thing that would be more depressing would be if it were a deliberate strategy rather than an unedited hissy fit on her part. (But it’s pretty clear that lack of self-editing is by far the more likely explanation.)
Well, it worked for DecorMyEyes.com. (Long read, but well worth it.)
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Jacqui Dunn, in reply to
Well, it worked for DecorMyEyes.com
Wow.
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Tolkein 'bout my g-g-generation....
Maybe he never would have finished it without all the badgering.
There was a lot more Badger action in CS Lewis' canon, while
most Badger action happens off the page in Tolkein's works
no setts and drugs and rock n roll here...Kenneth Grahame and Rupert The Bear also have good strong Badger characters...
weasel good then...
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giovanni tiso, in reply to
Well, it worked for DecorMyEyes.com. (Long read, but well worth it.)
I echo Jacqui's "wow". Extraordinary story, thanks Andre.
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recordari, in reply to
Very wow! That's not in the Marketing course book I read.
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I note with some relief that DecorMyEyes no longer shows up high on Google and that the owner was arrested the day after the article was published.
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recordari, in reply to
I note with some relief that DecorMyEyes no longer shows up high on Google and that the owner was arrested the day after the article was published.
Nice work Gio. So normal transmission can resume and the world as we know it isn't ending. Phew!
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Sounds like he pushed it too hard. He could have just dialed back a notch on the persistent enemy he had made, and continued to get away with it. But I expect the rudeness itself was a little intoxicating to him.
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James Butler, in reply to
Sounds like he pushed it too hard. He could have just dialed back a notch on the persistent enemy he had made, and continued to get away with it. But I expect the rudeness itself was a little intoxicating to him.
Also, not taking so much trouble to explain his business model to The New York Times might have helped...
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Cecelia, in reply to
If reviving a dead thread is not a crime against blog etiquette, I like to say that Glen Duncan's The Last Werewolf is a helluva read. Thank you Listener Reviewer.
Outrageous sex and violence with a tinge of irony bathed in a sauce of cultural references and thickened with a heavy dose of existential angst lightened by tender observations of people and light and crunchy one-liners.
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Islander, in reply to
I really love how people who dont write books et al feel fit to quote people who did
as ashuddup&go away to people who do- y'know, like fuck you too when you dont have the faintest idea except that of the *almost* most important end chain thingie- ta dah!
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
Islander:
I've obviously said or quoted something to heinously piss you off, just not entirely clear what.
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linger, in reply to
I’m guessing that would be the Johnson quote,
An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism, and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.
from the Life of Pope
It’s probably worth noting that Johnson was describing criticism of authors by other authors, and specifically the criticism of bad writing that was trying to pass itself off as high culture. He was not giving carte blanche to criticism. The quote needs to be placed in the context of another occurring a few lines above it:the purpose of a writer is to be read, and the criticism which would destroy the power of pleasing must be blown aside.
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