Sunday, November 26, 2006

Simpering Bitches

So today in the Observer, in an article by Rachel Cooke about the review debate, is a picture of the title of this blog with MY WHOPPING SPELLING MISTAKE! (The pic isn't included in the online article.) Funnily enough, I noticed it only last night and corrected it, but that's MORE THAN THREE MONTHS since I wrote it, and in all that time I was blind to it, and no one pointed it out to me.

Were you all avin a larf?

One thing you can say about writing for print publications: at least you get a copy editor to save you from yourself.

Cooke's view of blog reviews is clear from the title: Deliver Us From these Latter-Day Pooters.

As I have written below, I have my own reservations about a culture of recommendation without careful analysis, but I seem to be being held up as one of Susan Hill's main supporters on positive reviewing (see the Guardian Arts blog). A real first for The Bitch: never before in her life has she been identified with 'simpering acolytes'.

5 comments:

Ms Baroque said...

Um, I never noticed your typo either. Does it mean I have to send back my proofreaders' badge?

nmj said...

ah, elizabeth, in my defence, i did notice spelling but i thought 'ficton' might be some private planet where fiction ruled or something like that, sorry for not saying something before - i will read observer link later, my rice is burning (again!) . . .

Lucy Diamond said...

I noticed your typo the other day actually (honest) but didn't want to be a nitpicker.
But what fame! Even if Rachel Cooke wasn't all that nice about bloggers...

Adrian said...

It's quite interesting that Rachel Cooke criticises Susan Hill for writing too much. I've often wondered how Julian Barnes and - in particular - Mark Lawson find the time to (a) read all the stuff they're talking about and (b) write all the stuff they're writing about, much of which appears in the Guardian and the Observer. Lawson does TV criticism as well, and politics when he fancies it. It's interesting that she also talks positively about Nick Hornby, an okay writer, but a less than reliable critic (do you remember all those "recommended by" quotes that used to adorn any Nick Hornby-ish new author?) who is so often like a blogger (and a bad one) in his criticism. I've not read the book she talks about, but have read enough articles about him which seem to be mostly a moan that popular novels (e.g. by Nick Hornby) aren't taken seriously enough by literary critics. A funny old world, the Guardian/Observer.

Steerforth said...

Yes Nick Hornby was Mr Rent-a-quote, but after 'How to Be Good' his services weren't in such demand.

I didn't notice that typo either.