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1. Read an interesting article at lunch time on NY Times - How Review Bombing Can Tank a Novel Before It's Published
It's mainly about the Reviews on Good Reads, although it also discusses Amazon reviews. (Now that Amazon owns Good Reads, I'm not certain there's much difference, if there ever was?)
I'm not positive - but I think this was the situation that Joyce Carol Oates was complaining about on Twitter several weeks back. She was annoyed that Elizabeth Gilbert pulled back the release date of a book - because nitwits on Good Reads were reviewing it before it had actually been released. And I remember thinking, WTF?
( Excerpt )
The comments were interesting. Most were your run of the mill: author's shouldn't review their own books, I don't publish because of this nonsense, etc...
But this one kind of stood out. (I did not read more than ten of the comments - there's 965.)
( see comment below )
What I found interesting about this comment and most of the others is the growing irritation, ambivalence and exhaustion most people feel towards "cancel culture". They are tired of being afraid to publish their art for fear of being "cancelled".
[I apparently can't discuss this topic without going into lecture mode, so will refrain.]
ETA: Will state - that there are a few rules regarding reviewing, critiquing and writing that should be adhered to:( Read more... )
2. It's hot down south, so sending cool thoughts to the folks who live in the Southern United States, where the temperatures have been in the mid 100s for the past several weeks now. Note 111 degrees in New Orleans is the equivalent of 100 degrees C in London, by heat index. There are areas in Arizona and Texas that are hotter than Death Valley.
( from the Times )
Here's a cool Interactive Heat Tracker
No complaints, NYC is wonderfully mild and in the 70s and 80s. Texas is boiling as is most of Florida, and I'm reminded of why I don't live in Kansas any longer. Although the middle of the country is mild in comparison to the South.
3. Making my way through the Moonlighting Oral History - which is kind of boring, however - it does remind me of how good a lot of the 1980s television series were - and how 90% of them most likely would not hold up today. They don't date well.
Moonlighting certainly doesn't date well. It aired during the platonic romantic detective duo - who flirted but never quite consummated until the series ended. Mainly because the idiotic male show-runners didn't know how to write a successful romantic relationship. It can be done. Mad About You managed it, as did The Thin Man, with Nick and Nora Charles. Also, I Love Lucy, and various others over time. If they can't pull it off - it's a failing in the writers, not the audience or show.
Also Moonlighting didn't end because of that. It ended because Bruce Willis' movie career took off, and Cybil Shepard didn't get along with half the cast. (I don't think that's in the oral history - but it is more or less common knowledge.) Also, it had a lot of dialogue, and the writers burned out.
They can't effectively rerun it - for the same reasons daytime soaps can't be rerun - they don't own the music rights. Moonlighting used a lot of pop music, and it's impossible to pull it out. Now, daytime soaps rarely use pop music or music, probably because they want to be able to rerun episodes. A lot of dramas on television are careful with music as well now, for much the same reasons.
4. Still in reading slump. I'm craving something. I do not know what it is.
I think I want an angsty fantasy romance...but can't find it. I could always just write it on my own. I often just do that.
Oh, speaking of writing, and criticism...someone left a rave review of a film review that I wrote on Ao3 - and had forgotten to take out of Ao3.
While rave reviews are appreciated? This one was...well, spam? It was left by someone applauding my "fanfiction" and how I'd managed to make the characters feel real and really got across the relationship of Charles and Magneto in X-Men First Class.
That's nice, except, it wasn't a fanfic, it was a film review of X-men First Class.
They then went on to tell me how they had a posting platform that could give my fanfiction the audience it truly deserved, and I could sell it and market it more broadly.
I wrote back that it was film review not fanfiction. And laughed at them.
Clearly a marketing bot.
But every time one of them reacts to a film review - Ao3 follows up about a month later with a request to remove the post, because it's not a "transformative" work. Ao3 apparently has a lot of issues with how they are monitoring their site. At any rate - I deleted it before they got the chance to ping it. No worries - it's on SquidgeWorld and buried somewhere in this archive.
It's mainly about the Reviews on Good Reads, although it also discusses Amazon reviews. (Now that Amazon owns Good Reads, I'm not certain there's much difference, if there ever was?)
I'm not positive - but I think this was the situation that Joyce Carol Oates was complaining about on Twitter several weeks back. She was annoyed that Elizabeth Gilbert pulled back the release date of a book - because nitwits on Good Reads were reviewing it before it had actually been released. And I remember thinking, WTF?
( Excerpt )
The comments were interesting. Most were your run of the mill: author's shouldn't review their own books, I don't publish because of this nonsense, etc...
But this one kind of stood out. (I did not read more than ten of the comments - there's 965.)
( see comment below )
What I found interesting about this comment and most of the others is the growing irritation, ambivalence and exhaustion most people feel towards "cancel culture". They are tired of being afraid to publish their art for fear of being "cancelled".
[I apparently can't discuss this topic without going into lecture mode, so will refrain.]
ETA: Will state - that there are a few rules regarding reviewing, critiquing and writing that should be adhered to:( Read more... )
2. It's hot down south, so sending cool thoughts to the folks who live in the Southern United States, where the temperatures have been in the mid 100s for the past several weeks now. Note 111 degrees in New Orleans is the equivalent of 100 degrees C in London, by heat index. There are areas in Arizona and Texas that are hotter than Death Valley.
( from the Times )
Here's a cool Interactive Heat Tracker
No complaints, NYC is wonderfully mild and in the 70s and 80s. Texas is boiling as is most of Florida, and I'm reminded of why I don't live in Kansas any longer. Although the middle of the country is mild in comparison to the South.
3. Making my way through the Moonlighting Oral History - which is kind of boring, however - it does remind me of how good a lot of the 1980s television series were - and how 90% of them most likely would not hold up today. They don't date well.
Moonlighting certainly doesn't date well. It aired during the platonic romantic detective duo - who flirted but never quite consummated until the series ended. Mainly because the idiotic male show-runners didn't know how to write a successful romantic relationship. It can be done. Mad About You managed it, as did The Thin Man, with Nick and Nora Charles. Also, I Love Lucy, and various others over time. If they can't pull it off - it's a failing in the writers, not the audience or show.
Also Moonlighting didn't end because of that. It ended because Bruce Willis' movie career took off, and Cybil Shepard didn't get along with half the cast. (I don't think that's in the oral history - but it is more or less common knowledge.) Also, it had a lot of dialogue, and the writers burned out.
They can't effectively rerun it - for the same reasons daytime soaps can't be rerun - they don't own the music rights. Moonlighting used a lot of pop music, and it's impossible to pull it out. Now, daytime soaps rarely use pop music or music, probably because they want to be able to rerun episodes. A lot of dramas on television are careful with music as well now, for much the same reasons.
4. Still in reading slump. I'm craving something. I do not know what it is.
I think I want an angsty fantasy romance...but can't find it. I could always just write it on my own. I often just do that.
Oh, speaking of writing, and criticism...someone left a rave review of a film review that I wrote on Ao3 - and had forgotten to take out of Ao3.
While rave reviews are appreciated? This one was...well, spam? It was left by someone applauding my "fanfiction" and how I'd managed to make the characters feel real and really got across the relationship of Charles and Magneto in X-Men First Class.
That's nice, except, it wasn't a fanfic, it was a film review of X-men First Class.
They then went on to tell me how they had a posting platform that could give my fanfiction the audience it truly deserved, and I could sell it and market it more broadly.
I wrote back that it was film review not fanfiction. And laughed at them.
Clearly a marketing bot.
But every time one of them reacts to a film review - Ao3 follows up about a month later with a request to remove the post, because it's not a "transformative" work. Ao3 apparently has a lot of issues with how they are monitoring their site. At any rate - I deleted it before they got the chance to ping it. No worries - it's on SquidgeWorld and buried somewhere in this archive.