Well, I am quite tired. Today was busy with lots of people but I think I got some good info. In the morning i attended a panel session on book blogs entitled “Climate Change: The Environment in Book Publishing Blogs: Is their Growing Influence a Tastemaker’s dilemma? The Crossover Hurdle.” The panel included three writers with blogs and a reviewer for the NYT with no blog – not necessarily a spirited discussion and no interesting screaming arguments – but good information and opinions on the value of blogs and their place in literary criticism and reviewing. No one on the panel was necessarily against blogging – 3/4 have their own blogs. The discussion was mostly about whether or not the “democratization”of literary criticism is a good thing – that being blogging about books by the masses. Most of the writers agreed that there are a majority of severely bad blogs out there -I quote James Marcus, one of the panelists – who quipped that blogs have unleashed “an oceanic torrent of drivel, the likes of which our culture has never seen before.” (this really endeared him to me, because I really love the word “drivel” – but also, it makes a lot of sense.) It’s easy to see both sides of the argument – should book blogs be considered a relevant form of literary criticism? Or, why shouldn’t book blogs be considered a relevant form of literary criticism? It occurred to me, while i was taking notes, that the argument that most of the people who criticize blogs don’t read them is something I can relate to – having recently discovered graphic novels and manga (not entirely willingly) – I have been guilty myself of taking an elitist viewpoint on something that is entirely subjective. I see the thing with blogs – at least book blogs, as a similar thing. There are good ones out there – and it’s really up to the individual to find the good information.
It’s an argument that can be and is applied to alot of things – how can you argue against something you have no first-hand knowledge of? How can you criticize the relevance of something that may not be particularly interesting or useful to you, but might be to somone else? It was thought-provoking. here are the blogs of the panelists:
www.housemirth.blogspot.com
www.theoldhag.com
www.fernham.blogspot.com
I have to take the time to mention that, avid reader of “Chick Lit” that I am, I am so incredibly depressed that Jennifer Weiner did not show. I was really looking forward to meeting her and having her sign my book. I consoled myself with the thought that Tom Perotta would be signing advance copies of his new book (out in October, I think) but the line was ridiculous. It was pathetic! But, I did get Carly Phillips to sign a book, and Laurie Berkner, and Julianne Moore (the actress – she’s written a children’s book). So all was not lost.
Also – James Marcus was one of the people in on basically the ground floor of Amazon.com. Here is a link to his book Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot-Com Juggernaut. I have not read it but I plan to. http://evans.evpl.org/search/tamazonia/tamazonia/1%2C10%2C15%2CB/frameset&FF=tamazonia&4%2C%2C5
I also attended a session on Microsoft Live Search Books, which I will write about tomorrow. I am exhausted!
