Reply to Bad Art Friend

Forum Index » Entertainment and Pop Culture

Reply to "Bad Art Friend"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No consequences for Castellani. He just posted this pile of self-serving, annoyed-sounding whining:

https://grubstreet.org/blog/message-from-christopher-castellani/

He clearly doesn't have any regrets other than being caught.[/quote]

NP here. Blech. That is a truly obnoxious statement. [/quote]

"I wrote some of those unprofessional emails as an admittedly hyperbolic, deliberatively provocative, and highly performative way of supporting my friend and fellow writer."

Puke.

[/quote]
“I was a cruel bullying asshole, but it was performative! If you were more intellectual and cool like we CMs, you would get that, sorry you’re not smart enough.”[/quote]

I actually think this is a big part of it.  There’s this thread of vicious sarcasm and cynicism that runs through a lot f quasi-intellectual or arty circles.  I went to collage and grad school with this sort and I recognize it.  People who are sincere and maybe a little trusty are targets for them.  I think they fancy themselves witty, in the tradition of the  Algonquin Rountable, Oscar Wilde, etc.—but I think they are generally just insecure and snobbish.  The ones that are insecure are more likely to fold when called on it, though.  
I don’t even think he’s using “performative” correctly in this context.  I’m sort of curious to read his books now and see if his personality comes through.  I often can’t tolerate fiction where one can tell that the author is just sort of a d—ck.  It often comes through in a sort of condescension to the characters.[/quote]

I know exactly what you mean, as someone who consumes a lot of litfic. This strain of cruelty comes through the writing and it is such a tedious slog to get through, because inasmuch as authors like Castellani view themselves as superior to all other people, they view themselves as superior to their characters. I've started trying to figure out what authors are like that, because I know I will be bored by their books. The plots may vary, but the same tired sneering is endemic. I think that many of these folks desperately want to be Oscar Wilde but simply don't have the skill, and their books fall flat.

Unfortunately that element isn't easy to suss out ahead of time. At least the CMs and the supporting blue checks have made my life easier in that regard; I now have a bunch of authors in my DNR list. And this scandal has shown how incestuous and self-promoting the litfic world is. One takeaway for me is that I shouldn't really give any credence to author endorsements or reviews from journals like the New Yorker. They are too entwined in the community to impartially assess the books. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics