Review ramblings

So there are review kerfuffles in various places. It all seems very Six Degrees of Separation, with the maximum separation being about 2. If you don't know the people involved, you know friends of theirs.

As a writer, I am told repeatedly that I am supposed to Take The High Road and not respond to reviews. I understand this. I don't believe I've ever responded directly to a review, though I have discussed them/muttered darkly to friends. For the most part I didn't know the reviewers, and never encountered them online. That allowed for a distance that made the whole thing easier to take.

It becomes more difficult when friends and writers and reviewers and the magazines carrying the reviews are all a mouse click away, with the discussions starting almost immediately the things are posted, if not before, with folks weighing in from every corner. We spend so much of our time--too much, probably--sitting together in this great virtual con bar buying one another drinks and shouting jokes across the room that when something profession-oriented like a review crops up in the midst of it all, it can bring you up short. Hey I thought we were all having fun--well, yes, but some of us have jobs to do, too.

And someone like me is advised to Take The High Road.

I'm all for the High Road in theory, although I confess that there have been times when I wanted to hide in the ditch along the side of the High Road and sneak up behind the reviewer as they walked past and bury an axe in their head. No point in that. I know that--not an idiot, thanks, at least not about that. If I want a lecture, I'll pay tuition and choose the class myself, so don't bother.

The return of some distance. I think that would be a good thing.

Review ramblings

So there are review kerfuffles in various places. It all seems very Six Degrees of Separation, with the maximum separation being about 2. If you don't know the people involved, you know friends of theirs.

As a writer, I am told repeatedly that I am supposed to Take The High Road and not respond to reviews. I understand this. I don't believe I've ever responded directly to a review, though I have discussed them/muttered darkly to friends. For the most part I didn't know the reviewers, and never encountered them online. That allowed for a distance that made the whole thing easier to take.

It becomes more difficult when friends and writers and reviewers and the magazines carrying the reviews are all a mouse click away, with the discussions starting almost immediately the things are posted, if not before, with folks weighing in from every corner. We spend so much of our time--too much, probably--sitting together in this great virtual con bar buying one another drinks and shouting jokes across the room that when something profession-oriented like a review crops up in the midst of it all, it can bring you up short. Hey I thought we were all having fun--well, yes, but some of us have jobs to do, too.

And someone like me is advised to Take The High Road.

I'm all for the High Road in theory, although I confess that there have been times when I wanted to hide in the ditch along the side of the High Road and sneak up behind the reviewer as they walked past and bury an axe in their head. No point in that. I know that--not an idiot, thanks, at least not about that. If I want a lecture, I'll pay tuition and choose the class myself, so don't bother.

The return of some distance. I think that would be a good thing.