Urban v's the Commentariat

[Rural]

Yeah, reading between the lines I think it's a bit of a demolition job to be honest - there's a lot of negative language in the review, the author makes it clear she is on LP's side, but phrases like:

She is a dazzling writer, but so dazzling that you wonder if sometimes the words race rather ahead of the facts.

Her argument seems to be

one is led to expect something well beyond the anecdotal here; more exploration, perhaps, of those missing working-class voices

Her economic theories feel rather hastily bolted on

it's a rare talent that can sustain being spread so thinly

But reprinting it here, with nothing more than an easily overlooked reference in the copyright blurb to parts of the book being "excerpted and extended" from published work, seems frankly to be pushing her luck

Halfway through, I began to wonder if it isn't time Penny took her themes – social change, love and loss, coming of age – and turned them into a properly literary novel, rather than exploring them again in non-fiction.

Yet for all her contradictions and irritatingly sweeping generalisations,

Unspeakable Thingsmay not be very much more than the sum of its parts

...don't add up to a good review - I'd say this is a filleting.

Advising a non-fiction author they might be better off giving fiction a go is telling

 

[equationgirl]

The Pale King the one about talent being spread thinly made me think it wasn't an adoring review - as you point out there are large number of negative comments in there - and if she can't get a rave review at the Guardian, where can she get one?

 

[Nigel Irritable]

The Pale King the one about talent being spread thinly made me think it wasn't an adoring review - as you point out there are large number of negative comments in there - and if she can't get a rave review at the Guardian, where can she get one?

New Statesman.

 

[The Pale King]

The Pale King the one about talent being spread thinly made me think it wasn't an adoring review - as you point out there are large number of negative comments in there - and if she can't get a rave review at the Guardian, where can she get one?

Indeed - these are her greatest supporters. Insulating her from legitimate criticism and focussing on internet misogynists has proven to be killing with kindness. And recycling already published blogs and articles as new material is simply shoddy.

 

[Lo Siento.]

That Graun review tells you a whole lot more about Gaby Hinsliff than it does Laurie Penny.

She went to places others didn't and brought back things they had missed

Speak for yourself Gaby.

What unsettled me more was the unusually literary edge to her reportage. She is a dazzling writer, but so dazzling that you wonder if sometimes the words race rather ahead of the facts.

It strikes me that journalists have a very strange idea of what makes a writer "dazzling". Penny's writing is riddled with cliches, implausible anecdotes, inappropriacies of tone and an inability to make the subject speak louder than her own voice. It's more slightly irritating than anything else.

 

[Celyn]

Indeed - these are her greatest supporters. Insulating her from legitimate criticism and focussing on internet misogynists has proven to be killing with kindness. And recycling already published blogs and articles as new material is simply shoddy.

Ooh. Clever use of "shoddy" in its real sense there. I is impressed. Maybe you could have LP's space in the Guardian and New Statesman when she buggers off to Harvard. Except I suppose she'll still need it to keep us all up to date with her adventures.

 

[Celyn]

...

It strikes me that journalists have a very strange idea of what makes a writer "dazzling". Penny's writing is riddled with cliches, implausible anecdotes, inappropriacies of tone and an inability to make the subject speak louder than her own voice. It's more slightly irritating than anything else.

I think it's possible that the reviewer carefully chose to use "dazzling", but didn't mean it as a compliment.

<I have snarky cynical hat on today>

 

[Lo Siento.]

I think it's possible that the reviewer carefully chose to use "dazzling", but didn't mean it as a compliment.

<I have snarky cynical hat on today>

I dunno, the writer's affection for LP seemed genuine enough. But then you can imagine the brief - "please review this book by one of our occasional columnists who we might want to use again in the future, try not to make it too much of a hatchet job"

 

[Idris2002]

.

 

[Rural]

Ooh Clever use of "shoddy" in its real sense there. I is impressed. Maybe you could have LP's space in the Guardian and New Statesman when she buggers off to Harvard. Except I suppose she'll still need it to keep us all up to date with her adventures.

Her adventures - fighting the system while being attacked by huge spiders while Ryan Gosling saves her life. Kind of like an Arachnophobia/ War of the Worlds/Reds mashup

 

[Idris2002]

Her adventures - fighting the system while being attacked by huge spiders while Ryan Gosling saves her life. Kind of like an Arachnophobia/ War of the Worlds/Reds mashup

I think the Girl Genius webcomic does that sort of thing better.

 

[Bakunin]

Her adventures - fighting the system while being attacked by huge spiders while Ryan Gosling saves her life. Kind of like an Arachnophobia/ War of the Worlds/Reds mashup

Interesting mental image.

No more drugs for you, my friend.

Step away from the vinegar shaker full of acid and put the crack pipe down.

 

[butchersapron]

**

 

[Idris2002]

""

And that I did not know. To the Deletionmobile.

 

[Idris2002]

Amanda Palmer writes:

 

[Rural]

Interesting mental image.

No more drugs for you, my friend.

Step away from the vinegar shaker full of acid and put the crack pipe down.

Yes but remember, according to LP, those things *actually* happened to her IRL

 

[J Ed]

Yes but remember, according to LP, those things *actually* happened to her IRL

Was the Gosling thing ever verified by anyone?

 

[Rural]

Was the Gosling thing ever verified by anyone?

Nope

 

[The Pale King]

http://www.torontolife.com/informer/people/2012/04/05/ryan-gosling-laurie-penny-saga/

And don’t think we don’t see how puzzling it is that your story, the one that injects details like your “pink wig” and being lost in your own internal monologue, is strangely similar to the 2004 film Closer—the movie in which Natalie Portman adorns a pink wig and has a run-in with an automobile and Jude Lawcomes to her rescue. It’s now two days after the incident, and every report is still working off your stream of tweets. Goz has nothing to lose by being called a hero, so we’re left wondering: did it even really happen?

 

[Rural]

[http://tristanburke.tumblr.com/QUOTE="The Pale King, post: 13261783, member: 59401"]http://www.torontolife.com/informer/people/2012/04/05/ryan-gosling-laurie-penny-saga/

Excuse reposting but this blog discusses the RG story & includes those scenes from Closer.

And don’t think we don’t see how puzzling it is that your story, the one that injects details like your “pink wig” and being lost in your own internal monologue, is strangely similar to the 2004 film Closer—the movie in which Natalie Portman adorns a pink wig and has a run-in with an automobile and Jude Lawcomes to her rescue. It’s now two days after the incident, and every report is still working off your stream of tweets. Goz has nothing to lose by being called a hero, so we’re left wondering: did it even really happen?

[/QUOTE]

 

[Rural]

http://tristanburke.tumblr.com/

Sorry my link went weird in last reply

 

[el-ahrairah]

Rosamund Urwin gave it a polite mauling in the Evening Standard yesterday.

I almost felt sorry for her for a while, until Urwin made it clear that Penny is completed deluded. She identifies as 'radical' despite having no actual radical opinions: therefore all other opinions are not radical - actual radical opinions can be dismissed as liberal whilst Penny actually advocates reformist or anti-feminist positions. Not that Urwin said this, but the bits she quoted made me realise that this is the one of the problems.

This is the problem with identity politics. It's calling a dog a cat, demanding that the dog is allowed to catch mice, and blaming the mice for not being caught.



that analogy may not work if your dog catches mice.

 

[DaveCinzano]

This is the problem with identity politics. It's calling a dog a cat, demanding that the dog is allowed to catch mice, and blaming the mice for not being caught.



that analogy may not work if your dog catches mice.

Are you calling Laurie a dog?

 

[rekil]

http://www.heraldscotland.com/books...enny-on-the-politics-of-the-personal.24686346

"Oh, but I really am committed to my online work, to my more ephemeral work, because I think that's the way that change really happens now," she responds, inhaling an e-cigarette. "With digital media you can have several conversations going at the same time. I can be fighting with someone in one window on Twitter; on another I might be writing a massive manifesto; on yet another, I could be organising a demonstration. That's how I almost always spend my days. I was built for the internet. Honestly, I believe that the geek shall inherit the earth."

What demonstration did she organise?

Honestly, unless there's a fast-tracking of workers bomb development or a mass outbreak of Chijon Family style activism, I believe the private school and elite university educated (Oxford is 3rd in the world) shall inherit the earth.

 

[xenon]

I dunno, the writer's affection for LP seemed genuine enough. But then you can imagine the brief - "please review this book by one of our occasional columnists who we might want to use again in the future, try not to make it too much of a hatchet job"

tIt was plainly a gloved fist of a review

It pretty much says, yeah, it's lightweight shite. I wouldn't bother if I were you. Dazzling = showy nothingness, spread thin talent... Hastily bolted on theories.. . Try fiction.

It's a hatchet job.

 

[Celyn]

...


that analogy may not work if your dog catches mice.

Well, terriers catch rats ...

 

[Celyn]

tIt was plainly a gloved fist of a review

It pretty much says, yeah, it's lightweight shite. I wouldn't bother if I were you. Dazzling = showy nothingness, spread thin talent... Hastily bolted on theories.. . Try fiction.

It's a hatchet job.

Yep, that's what I had in mind when suggesting that the reviewer might have been choosing her words carefully. "Dazzling" sounds like a compliment, and it might be one, but there's also the "showy nothingness" interpretation.

Still, many people write a book (or several) without getting publicity and reviews in the Guardian, so I don't suppose LP is worried, really. Would she have enough awareness to realise that some people aren't really bowled over?

 

[J Ed]

I predict that the book will be bought by a lot of people who won't read it

 

[Bakunin]

tIt was plainly a gloved fist of a review

It pretty much says, yeah, it's lightweight shite. I wouldn't bother if I were you. Dazzling = showy nothingness, spread thin talent... Hastily bolted on theories.. . Try fiction.

It's a hatchet job.

Putting my professional hat on for a second, Id agree that it's a hatchet job. I wouldn't be surprised if those reviewers employed by her mates and other employers were quietly 'advised' to produce a positive review. For Penny Dreadful to be receiving openly bad reviews from reviewers working for the same publications that champion her so much wouldn't reflect too well on those employers and champions themselves, thus the need for positive reviews in advance, so to speak.

Problem with this is that journalists don't generally appreciate people trying to steer them in directions they themselves might not want to go, hence reviews that are outwardly positive while damning with the faintest possible praise.

 

[equationgirl]

http://www.heraldscotland.com/books...enny-on-the-politics-of-the-personal.24686346

What demonstration did she organise?

Honestly, unless there's a fast-tracking of workers bomb development or a mass outbreak of Chijon Family style activism, I believe the private school and elite university educated (Oxford is 3rd in the world) shall inherit the earth.

Yeah, but you know, she could organise a demo if she wanted to. She hasn't to the best of my knowledge, but she could.