my list is better than your list
fiction sucks! we’re not kidding. no, really—it seriously does! in response to which the fiction writers of the world all curled up under blankets at home and sucked their sucky little thumbs until they all died. wait… that didn’t happen at all. everybody still loves to not only read novels & short stories, they love them so much that they dedicate undue amounts of time to pissing&moaning online about who’s better, who’s best.
in case you missed it, some writer that you’ve probably never heard of put together a list of other american writers he felt didn’t deserve the critical attention/praise/fame/money/sex/whatever they were getting that he wasn’t. and then he (annoyingly) put them in a slideshow on huffpo instead of, you know, actually writing a regular article about it. and that, naturally, kicked up a real shitstorm.
jezebel whacks at the list for taking down women writers (among other things), publishers weekly & the guardian blogs both turnaround and make underrated lists, and every bookworm on the interwebs has had to weigh in themselves (including, apparently, this one). so do your patriotic duty and go drop a comment somewheres.
Wow, I took a look at that dude’s list: I hereby declare him Hater of the Year.
Including Billy Collins on the list, while predictable (everyone hates the popular kid, right), was silly. BC’s a pretty nifty poet, and he’s probably one of the funnier poets we’ve currently got. That should stand for something.
Say what you want about the tone and overall motive of this list, but I think much of it is accurate (though tactless), in particular Shivani’s comments re: Lahiri, Collins, and my personal bete noire, Kakutani.
[...] Jason recently pointed out, the interweb is aflutter with Anis Shivani/Huffington Post backlash. I don’t care for [...]
I blogged about this at TMR, but mostly, this was a wasted opportunity to write interesting criticism. But it did what I think it was supposed to do: get the literary blogosphere talking. A very, very low bar, isn’t it?
Let me just point out that if you went through life with a name like Anis, you’d probably have a big chip on your shoulder too. That is, if it’s pronounced how I think it’s pronounced.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWzQSEg_N60
[...] this guy never stop with the lists? the man responsible for the much talked-about/crapped-upon list of overrated writers has just released another slideshow—this one of the 17 most innovative university presses & [...]
Howdy! Do you use Twitter? I’d like to follow you if that would be ok. Silver Picture Frames. I’m undoubtedly enjoying your blog and look forward to new posts.