Comments on: Had enough yet?

By: DJ Cayenne

DJ Cayenne — Thu, 24 May 2007 02:34:21 +0000

Thanks for the nice words, Collin. I’ll admit that I’m just becoming aware of some of the poetry goings-on around town.

By: Collin Kelley

Collin Kelley — Wed, 23 May 2007 21:38:26 +0000

And might I also add that Atlanta’s poetry scene is thriving as well. Natasha Trethewey just won a Pulitzer and the Java Monkey Speaks Anthology Vol.2 (which I co-edited with Kodac Harrison ) has received a mention in the next Pushcart Prize anthology as well as produced a winning poem by Patricia Smith.

I hear a lot of people bemoaning the literary and poetry scene in Atlanta on a regular basis. It’s mainly because they aren’t paying any attention. Blogs like Baby Got Books are essential these days for us who are savvy enough to get online to find out what’s going on in the community.

By: DJ Cayenne

DJ Cayenne — Tue, 22 May 2007 04:25:25 +0000

To be fair, Dr J, it was really the first post that decided that bloggers were maggots. Lee Smith, on the other hand, merely doesn’t believe that the average American reads blogs. Then again, the average American has his doubts about evolution, so I’m not sure her point carries much weight.

In other news, the Atlanta press club handed out its awards recently, and the best print journalist in Atlanta – as decided by her peers – works for the free paper handed out in burrito joints. Not sure what that means.

By: Dr J

Dr J — Tue, 22 May 2007 02:57:43 +0000

Why is writing about books in a newspaper the height of morally superior behavior, but writing about books on a blog the equivalent of living in a basement in Terre Haute? I’m genuinely curious about this.

I happen to have met Lee Smith and like her, but this is cray-zee. Her husband, for the record, writes about books in an alternative (free) newspaper, the Raleigh Independent. Perhaps Lee or Hal could explain to us how writing for a newspaper that’s handed out gratis in burrito restaurants is different from writing for a publicly accessible blog.

By: DJ Cayenne

DJ Cayenne — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:56:34 +0000

Also, please note the savaging that the first post (as quoted above)took in its comments section.

By: DJ Cayenne

DJ Cayenne — Mon, 21 May 2007 18:39:22 +0000

I have taken a vow against further posts on this topic for at least one week. However, I think there is a loophole that allows me to link to something that is hilarious and on topic if need be. Check this out.

By: Herman Glimscher

Herman Glimscher — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:16:47 +0000

The question for Lee Smith is this: How old, on average, were these “16 well-read, highly intelligent women”? If they were all over 80, for example, we could take it for granted that they wouldn’t be up on the latest technological advances. Also, how in the world did she ever get the idea that being well-read and highly intelligent translates into being an average American? Has she met an average Americans lately? Further, just as a matter of statistics, how can her sample of 16 women be extrapolated into discern the habits of “the average person,” who, it would seem to me, would have almost a 50% chance of not being a woman?

Maybe it’s these hifalutin’ authors who all live in a basement in Indiana. They certainly seem to have no experience interacting with life as it’s lived here in America.

By: Russ

Russ — Mon, 21 May 2007 13:05:20 +0000

I feel the NBCC should recall exactly *how* the protest gained steam…and it’s funny, isn’t it, the slag on blogging occurs…natch…in a blog.

I really need to stay out of this, because the foot-and-a-half firmly planted in the old era of media is what, in some regards, makes the book industry so lovely (otherwise we’d be seeing an “official” myspace page for Harry Potter, on which he’d list his interests as “freaky bitches”), but if published critics feel their positions will suddenly be nullified by “blogs”, um…if that was going to happen? it’d have occurred, oh, about four years ago.

By: Herman Glimscher

Herman Glimscher — Mon, 21 May 2007 11:50:15 +0000

DJ, they are just afraid, afraid of the future and the way it will be different from yesterday. The forward-thinking MSM reviewer would be starting a blog, not deriding them. I say all this, and, in my circles, I’m known as being a Luddite.

Now, let me get back to my manual typewriter.