One of the reasons I associate with no political movement — even ones that I naturally align with, like liberal/leftism — is that I can’t tolerate groupthink and “going along.”
One of the conventions and deeply-held beliefs of many liberals these days is that you can’t criticize anyone who is on “our side,” especially if they write a book.
While several bystanders have insisted that his judgement is “opinion not criticism,” it’s clear that the irritant isn’t so much what he said as how he said it: exasperated and dismissive, but formidably articulate. Merritt’s a bit scary, decidedly churlish, and not inclined to give the authors the benefit of the doubt. He doesn’t even pay these books the respect of hating them; his disdain is passionless. Guilfoile accuses Merritt of assuming he’s “smarter than the author,” and of being someone who lacks the “generous” mentality of a truly good reader.
Telling you what they truly thought of a book was what critics once did, their raison d’être, how they made their spendin’ cash. However on the left at least these days not liking something stamped by the Official Seal of Bleeding Heart Approval™ is tantamount to clubbing baby seals.
Like, you are literally oppressing me by not liking something. Literally.
I abandon something like 60% of books I start. Why? Most are crap. Life is too short to read bad, boring books even if written with the best of intentions. If I were a critic I’d diss about 60% of books I read, and everyone would hate me. Which is fine with me.
I’ve never read An Untamed State or that bullshit about the wind whatever, nor am I likely to do so in the near future.
But if I don’t like one or both of them, it shouldn’t have to be something I suppress as the price of being on the “right” side.
Real criticism and a real opinion is far more valuable — even to and for the left — than rubber-stamping the approved and inviolable ideology. Criticism even of the negative variety only strengthens the left and its arguments and should be valued.
Time to put on your Big Boy and Big Girl pants, people, and engage the old mean world on its actual terms.
Only way to win.
I dunno. Group think seems much more endemic on the right or maybe I’m confusing endemic with stupider. Still, I’m in a weird place of knowing more than 90% of my acquaintances and not having a group affiliation that I like.
I’ve read other pieces by Roxane, but I’m just not going to pick up An Untamed State because I don’t need the nightmares. I’m agnostic otherwise.
So you’re a chronic book abandoner too? The older I get, the more I do this. I would start a short form blog of all the books I abandon mid sentence but that would require caring enough about them to record it.
Oh, I agree, groupthink is much more prevalent on the right. But I don’t really care about them as there’s no hope there. I care about “my” side falling into the same bad idea traps more.
Yeah, I abandon books all the time. The last one was The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. The book meandered, went nowhere, and seemed to be a showcase of how many lush and pointless descriptions of various doorknobs or filigree the writer could throw in. It was like Tom Clancy and his characters taking three pages to open a door, except about magic and Victorian claptrap I don’t care about in the least.
Well, that’s the last one I can remember abandoning because it seemed right up my alley, so I was disappointed to have to chuck it. I think I’ve abandoned others that I’ve since forgotten.