Making Light & Todd James Pierce
Jun. 29th, 2004 01:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
msagaraI probably shouldn't be writing this, because it's always a good idea to take a breath when one's annoyed. Or several. Or in fact, a night's sleep. But then again, if I were a sensible person, I wouldn't be a writer.
I don't know how many of you have followed, or regularly read, Making Light, the excellent, varied, intelligent and oft pungent blog of Teresa Nielsen Hayden. I was pointed at it by two friends (Chris Szego, for whom I work, and another, as yet unpublished writer, Graydon Saunders, who also lives in Toronto) many months ago, and have lurked more or less frequentIy since then, but I do my best, having learned over time that this is wise, to lurk and keep my opinions in general to myself. This is less hard -- for those of you who know me -- than it might initially appear, because there are some pretty darned smart people who regular post there, and they usually say anything I might say, but with more cutting wit.
This self-imposed silence came to an end (try to look surprised, Stewart) when the Writer's Collective became the topic for discussion -- or rather, when the woman who started it showed up and laid out her reasons for starting it, and her plans for the books she handles. (I was also doing galleys at the time, which makes me a bit squirelly). Although I'm embarrassed by the number of typos that show up in those early posts, I felt that I had a few things to contribute to that particular discussion that hadn't yet been contributed; things about PR budgets, placements, the general importance of cover art, the importance of bookstores to midlist writers, etc. After these things were said, I went back to lurking, posted in one other thread about things that were not publishing related, and was, again, good.
But -this- second bought of Being Good came to an end when the second thread about Todd James Pierce reared its head. That thread is here: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005218.html. It was not, in any way, a kind thread, and to make a very long story short, it came out of bad advice for cover letters which TJP had posted on his site for writers. In particular, he advised writers to lie about their credentials in a way that wasn't so obvious they'd be caught, in order to make them stand out in some way.
This is generally not good advice, reasons for which TNH made perfectly clear. I didn't add anything at that point.
But the second thread was one that questioned his credentials and his CV. To me, this seemed harsh and justified; if you're going to encourage people to lie about their credentials, it stands to reason that you should expect that people will then examine yours more closely. Some mockery was made. I was still quiet. John Scalzi invited TJP to read & join in on the thread, but he failed to do so until over a month had passed, and the discussion had branched off into other things, as is inevitable in discussions of that, or any other nature. He did show up. He was offended, hurt, and furious, and threatening lawsuits for slander.
It was only when he showed up in person that I made my first post in any TJP related thread, and it was to question the use of his explanation of why he'd offered the advice in the first place, and the accuracy of it as well. I wasn't personal, but was pointed (no one could probably manage to look surprised at this point, so I'll let it go <g>). I wasn't all that fond of his reply to my comments -- because the only reply he made was to lump me in with a list of Tor authors, and accuse me of supporting my editors. Yay, me. News, I imagine to my -actual- editors, but I digress.
None of this particularly surprised me; if anything did, it was the extent to which he felt he'd been unfairly discussed or mocked. If you encourage people to lie about their credentials, and then defend this in a room full of people in that profession, it shows clearly that you don't expect that your own credentials would ever be under scrutiny. Which makes no sense to me. Had I given that advice, I'd at the least not be surprised if it incurred that reaction.
Okay. The part that's picking at me now: Two women joined in the discussion. One, to point out that we were all unnecessarily mean, and that we all owed TJP an apology. Pardon me? She said she took care not to notice who said what because she didn't want to be prejudiced should she ever be reviewing our submissions as an editor. I'd rather she'd taken that care. I -hate- to be lumped in with a group, and I actually don't like the condescension implied. I called it Class Detention -- and I didn't stay for those if I hadn't done anything wrong. To be fair to her, she also had similar harsh words for TJP, and a very good example of why his advice incurred the initial reaction it did. She had a point, I think, but made it broadly and a bit too sweepingly. And I responded initially to the first half (about the least I owed this stranger) rather than the latter; I responded to the latter half later, when I had cool-off time.
The next person did a drive-by post, one in which she said the same thing: that we were mean, personal, and etc., and that she wasn't going to stick around to defend that judgement; she just wanted to be on record as supporting the first brave woman.
Now hear the sounds of Michelle buttons being pushed (although it took me some time to figure out what the buttons were.
I don't actually like bullies. Never have. Don't generally put up with them. The idea that this poor TJP person is the misunderstood victim of our collective cruelty clearly paints me, as one of the participants, as a bully. Except, damn it, I've reread every word I've written in that topic, and I don't see that it applies to me. Or to many of the other posters.
But it's bugging me, now. As I said, the topic was unkind in inception, but I think that the unkindness was not random; it was a natural result of encouraging others to lie about their credentials. However... I'm perhaps not the most tactful of people, and I'm now wondering if I handled things poorly.
And am perfectly willing to be told that I did, if someone can be clear on why. I won't bite, because I'm asking and I want to know.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
andpuff is off the hook here; I think that it would take an hour for the discussion to actually load on her connection <g>.
I don't know how many of you have followed, or regularly read, Making Light, the excellent, varied, intelligent and oft pungent blog of Teresa Nielsen Hayden. I was pointed at it by two friends (Chris Szego, for whom I work, and another, as yet unpublished writer, Graydon Saunders, who also lives in Toronto) many months ago, and have lurked more or less frequentIy since then, but I do my best, having learned over time that this is wise, to lurk and keep my opinions in general to myself. This is less hard -- for those of you who know me -- than it might initially appear, because there are some pretty darned smart people who regular post there, and they usually say anything I might say, but with more cutting wit.
This self-imposed silence came to an end (try to look surprised, Stewart) when the Writer's Collective became the topic for discussion -- or rather, when the woman who started it showed up and laid out her reasons for starting it, and her plans for the books she handles. (I was also doing galleys at the time, which makes me a bit squirelly). Although I'm embarrassed by the number of typos that show up in those early posts, I felt that I had a few things to contribute to that particular discussion that hadn't yet been contributed; things about PR budgets, placements, the general importance of cover art, the importance of bookstores to midlist writers, etc. After these things were said, I went back to lurking, posted in one other thread about things that were not publishing related, and was, again, good.
But -this- second bought of Being Good came to an end when the second thread about Todd James Pierce reared its head. That thread is here: http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005218.html. It was not, in any way, a kind thread, and to make a very long story short, it came out of bad advice for cover letters which TJP had posted on his site for writers. In particular, he advised writers to lie about their credentials in a way that wasn't so obvious they'd be caught, in order to make them stand out in some way.
This is generally not good advice, reasons for which TNH made perfectly clear. I didn't add anything at that point.
But the second thread was one that questioned his credentials and his CV. To me, this seemed harsh and justified; if you're going to encourage people to lie about their credentials, it stands to reason that you should expect that people will then examine yours more closely. Some mockery was made. I was still quiet. John Scalzi invited TJP to read & join in on the thread, but he failed to do so until over a month had passed, and the discussion had branched off into other things, as is inevitable in discussions of that, or any other nature. He did show up. He was offended, hurt, and furious, and threatening lawsuits for slander.
It was only when he showed up in person that I made my first post in any TJP related thread, and it was to question the use of his explanation of why he'd offered the advice in the first place, and the accuracy of it as well. I wasn't personal, but was pointed (no one could probably manage to look surprised at this point, so I'll let it go <g>). I wasn't all that fond of his reply to my comments -- because the only reply he made was to lump me in with a list of Tor authors, and accuse me of supporting my editors. Yay, me. News, I imagine to my -actual- editors, but I digress.
None of this particularly surprised me; if anything did, it was the extent to which he felt he'd been unfairly discussed or mocked. If you encourage people to lie about their credentials, and then defend this in a room full of people in that profession, it shows clearly that you don't expect that your own credentials would ever be under scrutiny. Which makes no sense to me. Had I given that advice, I'd at the least not be surprised if it incurred that reaction.
Okay. The part that's picking at me now: Two women joined in the discussion. One, to point out that we were all unnecessarily mean, and that we all owed TJP an apology. Pardon me? She said she took care not to notice who said what because she didn't want to be prejudiced should she ever be reviewing our submissions as an editor. I'd rather she'd taken that care. I -hate- to be lumped in with a group, and I actually don't like the condescension implied. I called it Class Detention -- and I didn't stay for those if I hadn't done anything wrong. To be fair to her, she also had similar harsh words for TJP, and a very good example of why his advice incurred the initial reaction it did. She had a point, I think, but made it broadly and a bit too sweepingly. And I responded initially to the first half (about the least I owed this stranger) rather than the latter; I responded to the latter half later, when I had cool-off time.
The next person did a drive-by post, one in which she said the same thing: that we were mean, personal, and etc., and that she wasn't going to stick around to defend that judgement; she just wanted to be on record as supporting the first brave woman.
Now hear the sounds of Michelle buttons being pushed (although it took me some time to figure out what the buttons were.
I don't actually like bullies. Never have. Don't generally put up with them. The idea that this poor TJP person is the misunderstood victim of our collective cruelty clearly paints me, as one of the participants, as a bully. Except, damn it, I've reread every word I've written in that topic, and I don't see that it applies to me. Or to many of the other posters.
But it's bugging me, now. As I said, the topic was unkind in inception, but I think that the unkindness was not random; it was a natural result of encouraging others to lie about their credentials. However... I'm perhaps not the most tactful of people, and I'm now wondering if I handled things poorly.
And am perfectly willing to be told that I did, if someone can be clear on why. I won't bite, because I'm asking and I want to know.
andpuff is off the hook here; I think that it would take an hour for the discussion to actually load on her connection <g>.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 06:19 pm (UTC)But I honestly did just walk out of class when school had ended, if we'd been handed a class detention and I hadn't done anything. I explained, in my serious and slightly annoyed way, that the teacher could call the principal or better, my mother, to explain that I wasn't staying for detention because I hadn't done anything wrong, and see what lasting effect that had.
I realize now that this was probably bad for his general authority. Ummm, and it wasn't very civic minded of me. But the idea behind class detentions -- that everyone then gets mad at the people who did cause the trouble -- has never in my opinion worked.
Of course, that would be my opinion <rueful g>.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-29 10:14 pm (UTC)My big peeve with the Mary Annes and Whatzizfaces of the world is that they have no reasoning faculties as such--it's all emotional. They are incapable of separating fact from feeling, and they take everything personally. I hate that. There is no way the factual debater can get through to these people--everything has to be about them. They hate arguing with me, and since it's all personal, they end up hating me--because I won't crawl down to their level and start ranting at them for being ugly and their mothers dress them funny.
After I blathered about letting it go, I picked up messages from a horse list, and lo and behold--hot-button time. It was sort of similar, in that it was all about not very bright people getting personally involved in impersonal matters. It was also about another peeve of mine: newbies and wannabes who come to lists demanding advice for specific problems. List experts relay advice, very carefully and considerately. Newbies get all snarky and snotty and "I don't want your stupid advice!" because it's not what they want to hear. Because of course it always adds up to, "If you want to be successful in any field of study, from equitation to writing, you have to be willing to work hard and subsume your ego--and not incidentally, you also may have to make fundamental changes in how you approach whatever it is." After several rounds of this, with experts being extremely patient and newbies getting progressively snarkier and starting to say they never said what they said in the first place, some Mary Ann type invariably comes in and scolds the experts for "jumping on" the newbie. Usually with some slighting reference to the experts' right or qualification to give advice. Today's Mary Ann stopped just short of calling me a liar because I'd said something I know from experience and observation to be true but she has had no experience of it (therefore naturally it does not exist).
I swear it's a script. They hand it out when newbies get their first ISP's, along with the Neiman Marcus cookie recipe and a slew of "VIRUS WARNING!!!! SEND TO EVERYONE IN THE KNOWN UNIVERSE!!!!!!!" spam.
So much for good intentions on my part. Is it something in the air? I got a message from yet another listowner at about the same time, asking for help with a brangle on her list that was playing out in pretty much the same way. I swear these things come in waves, like epidemics.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 10:19 am (UTC)I will admit that I didn't always agree with everything a published professional/editor/agent said on the boards. But if I was going to disagree, it was on the basis of those facts that I felt were either too narrowly represented, or not represented at all (mostly bookselling stuff, discounts to rack jobbers, etc.). I didn't attempt to call them martinets for wielding a greater public authority than I did.
Terry Pratchett said, in an interview, something along the lines of "When opportunity knocks, it usually shows up at the door in dirty overalls and looks a lot like work." I'm mangling that. I'm sorry. I just have so much Pratchett, I'm not entirely certain where it all is; it's dispersed over the whole house, like a protective shield of humour. Which is my way of saying, too lazy to turn the entire house upside down to find it.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-30 11:32 am (UTC)A definite classic of the "if you hit her over the head with a clue would she ever get it?" genre.
I notice that the people using this kind of argument, or the kind that got you going yesterday, are always low on the professional totem pole, if they're on it at all. "I'm not looking to see who you are because I might reject your story" maketh me to quake in my bootth, yeth it doth--considering the source and all. Ditto the alleged creative-writing professor with the ahem flexible ethics--even the lawsuit threats. That kind of thing always withers before a real lawyer--and pales before real, high-end professionals.
The real thing doesn't need to tell you your mother dresses you funny, or threaten to sue because you told them truthfully that their fly is down.