O, Timothy
Here is Timothy Egan, a professional writer, with an opinion column in the New York Times all about how various non-writer types should not write books because they are (he concludes) not talented writers — as he is (we must infer) and Hemingway was and Mark Twain was and Peggy Noonan (wait — Peggy Noonan?) is, or was.
OK, I think Timothy Egan has made a big mistake.
When you’re good at something (let’s say you’re Timothy Egan, or Tom Brady, or Tiger Woods), you don’t come out and say that other people shouldn’t try it because they aren’t going to prove worthy of it. I mean, you shouldn’t even say that stuff when you’re bad at something. You really don’t want to say it when you’re good at something.
Maybe you’re 99% right, but it’s not something you come out and say out loud if you have any class.
Timothy Egan jumps the shark.
8 December, 2008 at 7:03 am
I like Timothy Egan. I guess his point would have been better made if he’d said, “Publishers shouldn’t publish bad writing.” As it is, I don’t disagree with this statement:
The idea that someone who stumbled into a sound bite can be published, and charge $24.95 for said words, makes so many real writers think the world is unfair.
The idea of Sarah Palin getting $7M to write a book fills me with fury on a couple levels; 1, that a publisher would advance that much for the book to be (ghost) written, and 2, that so many assholes will probably buy it that it will be a worthy investment.
8 December, 2008 at 11:08 am
I’m not going to get into a throwdown with Chris LaTray because I know he’ll kick my ass but I just think that if you are a professional at something you don’t go after people who are less good at it, even if it is Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin. Easy targets. Not good form.
Also, don’t lecture us, Egan, about CRAFT and how hard your job is.
There are ways to be critical of publishing and writing and culture without being a dick about it.
9 December, 2008 at 9:04 am
Nah, I’m not arguing with you S&Co; I pretty much agree with you about the substance of what Egan’s point is. I think I might have read it a little differently that you did, but there is no denying this:
There are ways to be critical of publishing and writing and culture without being a dick about it.
I realize that targeting Joe the Plumber and Sarah Palin in a broad stroke against all “non-writers” includes people like — oh, I don’t know — ME, who might like to be a writer but because I haven’t landed on some fancy list (like Egan) it means I’m not one. It’s like saying the hipsters sweating it out every night on stage at The Badlander aren’t musicians because they aren’t signed to some huge record label.
10 December, 2008 at 4:54 pm
[...] You Can’t Write! You Jez a Plumba! My new rap song (dedicated to T. Egan): [...]