Gawker 
Enter your username and password.
-
posts about #literarypeoplefightlikethis more → 
Susan Orlean, Defender of the New Yorker Universe, In Her Own Words
New York, 12:21 PM
Wed Dec 2
52 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip Your Editors:
Tipline: 646-214-8138
Editor-in-Chief:
Gabriel Snyder |
West Coast Editor:
Richard Rushfield |
Contributing Editors:
Valleywag:
Ryan Tate |
Media:
Hamilton Nolan |
Politics:
Alex Pareene |
Investigations:
John Cook |
Entertainment:
Brian Moylan |
Nights:
Adrian Chen |
Azaria Jagger |
Ravi Somaiya |
Weekends:
Foster Kamer |
Video Editor:
Richard Blakeley |
| posts about #literarypeoplefightlikethis more → |
Susan Orlean, Defender of the New Yorker Universe, In Her Own Words |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
05/17/09
I didn't have a chance to read Baum's articles or story proposals, but his account about the editor interactions rang painfully true.
05/17/09
05/16/09
The New Yorker is a dysfunctional place for the simple fact of its populated by writers and editors.
05/16/09
There's definitely two sides. Even if you're all pro-information and transparency, surely there's something to be said for discretion about your personal business matters?
This is a crowd that routinely blasts Julia Allison for her "vapid lifestreaming", but if she disclosed how much she made at TONY or whereever does that now push her to the vanguard of medium experimentation?
05/16/09
In my opinion, it was not in Baum’s best interest to indulge himself in this way. It could hurt his prospects for securing contracts with other publishers.
Susan Orlean’s reaction was, in my estimation, unnecessary and, in its own way, also indulgent. Although it is remarkable for me to see a mature writer lose her cool in a medium that is virtually real-time, I don’t see what she gained from this. Her retorts come off as overly emotional and defensive.
On the whole, I believe that it would be desirable for writers to have more information about others’ contracts. The problem is how to achieve a format that would convey factual data while preserving anonymity.
05/16/09
05/16/09
[www.danbaum.com]
05/19/09
05/16/09
First, the medium ... but still ...
This is not a federal offense ... but using ...
I suppose a simple ... but it was provocative ...
I ignore ... but this endless posting ...
But this would ordinarily ...
But then comes the message. ...
Even airing opinions ... It's just that [i.e., "but"] ...
He hasn't asked for my advice, but here it is ...
For me, the meat of it wasn’t all this "yes, but" hemming and hawing, but the "this is my experience" passage, which boils down to: "I got what I wanted, and I like the New Yorker. Sorry, Dan"—a message well suited to 140 characters.
P.S. When dealing with Twitter, don’t over-read twat.
05/16/09
05/16/09
That's the single dumbest thing I've heard all day. And I've spent the day on the INTERNET.
05/16/09
I'm sorry lady but your privilege is showing.
You, Susan, are a fucking asshole. Your opinion is the reason why people find out they are getting paid fifty cents on the dollar after working at a job for six months. Your opinion is why magazines can low ball freelancers and it is the basic reason why informational asymmetries continue to fuel job market.
By talking about the mechanics of this business and the manner in which it pays people, other people will know and understand how to negotiate with the New Yorker and I'm sure someone (who is probably a person of color or female) is probably hella pissed because their contract terms are terrible. And this is just on your elitist micro scale.
On a major scale, like I said above, not talking about the manner in which people are hired and paid perpetuates management ability to fuck over its employees because they don't know they are being paid 75 or 80 cents on the dollar. Then again, I'm guessing you probably don't worry about that much. Money just paper, right?
Bitch.
05/16/09
But yes, salary information is a tool of collective labor negotiation that is being neglected for the sake of a quaint notion of manners among citizens. Well, fuck manners - management is using that secrecy to fuck people up the ass. If there's any chance of turning labor back into a "seller's market", people are going to actually have to start selling themselves... and information is power, especially in negotiations.
I am sure this concept does neither start or end with Susan Orlean, but I disagree with the notion, whether she holds it or not, that salaries and contracts are to be held confidentially.
And it would be stupid to assert that a person has no business talking about the details of their own hiring and/or termination.
But half of that sentence of hers I agree with, at least in the context of others: it is poor conduct to reveal the nature of the information of OTHERS, including employment/termination and anything related. Let them speak for themselves.