In Praise of Anonymity - Gawker Comments

In Praise of Anonymity

Trixie from Toronto — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:57:18 EDT

@winniecooper: Bingo. I tire of us being lectured to find something else to do by narcissists who can't find anything else to do themselves but document every mundane detail of their meaningless lives 24/7, apparently to let us know how much more fabulous they are than the rest of us.

Hey, JA -- how about YOU take up archery?

Actually, on second thought, don't, because the fun in reading all of your inane output is realizing how much more exciting and worthy my daily existence is by comparison.

Trixie from Toronto

In Praise of Anonymity

storybynori — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:18:12 EDT

@Mike_Jahn: My brother kindly made my morning today by forwarding me your comment on pathology and artistry-that and the rest of your insights-brilliant-bravo!

storybynori

In Praise of Anonymity

Caroline Meeber — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:30:10 EDT

I love how these whiners hide behind the scold of, "don't you have anything better to do? Take up archery!" Yet, they themselves can't find anything better to do than incessantly blog, twitter, tape and photograph every lame detail of their "busy" and "glamorous" yet empty, vapid lives.

Caroline Meeber

In Praise of Anonymity

miss_msry — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 07:18:22 EDT

@Mike_Jahn:

I love you.

miss_msry

In Praise of Anonymity

VeeKaChu — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:09:05 EDT

@moff:OMG I played SYNCHRONICITY in Rock Band, just prior to reading your this post!

@Un Chien Andalou: It is absolutely essential that you stop patronizing establishments that employ barristas.

VeeKaChu

In Praise of Anonymity

♥ dosido Hussein McKamy☮ — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:16:06 EDT

@Mike_Jahn: Clafoutis, duh.

♥ dosido Hussein McKamy☮

In Praise of Anonymity

Un Chien Andalou — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:08:25 EDT

I asked her why she is wearing a white blouse, instead of her usual all black. "I'm going to a birthday, well, post birthday party memorial for a dead friend who just died this year before his birthday".
I now believe that Anne Rice can reincarnate herself in my coffee shop.

Un Chien Andalou

In Praise of Anonymity

Un Chien Andalou — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:01:19 EDT

I just told the cute young Goth barrista she reminds me of a young Anne Rice. "Who the hell is she?"
Be careful what you wish for.

Un Chien Andalou

In Praise of Anonymity

BalknChain — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:18:59 EDT

@AndSheSaid: Claudia will be in a revenge style film. She'll lure child molesters online and then...BAM!

BalknChain

In Praise of Anonymity

BeRightBack — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:06:22 EDT

@AndSheSaid: OMG, that would be enough to make me start commenting regularly again.

BeRightBack

In Praise of Anonymity

rosaluxembourgeoise — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 21:02:05 EDT

@moff:@AndSheSaid: I knew, too! Consider my lack of attribution a subtle meta-commentary on anonymity.

rosaluxembourgeoise

In Praise of Anonymity

SheWalkedWithAZombie — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:51:09 EDT

This just in: Virginia Woolf returns from dead to sue Michael Cunningham for writing Mrs. Dalloway fan fiction.

I propose that Gawker hosts an Ann Rice fan fiction contest.

Right now, I'm imagining Lestat, Louis and Claudia taking a trip to Disney World.

SheWalkedWithAZombie

In Praise of Anonymity

Mike_Jahn — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:47:57 EDT

Writers like Rice are clutching at the old paradigm -- words on paper treated as gems and carefully protected. Now, print on paper won't entirely disappear, at least not until there's technology you can stick under your arm as you walk out of the subway and not worry about someone stealing. Print may go the way of vinyl records, but it will be around. Still, Rice is guarding something that barely exists. Forty years ago you needed a lawyer's permission to quote five words of a song, and you had to pay for it. Now, lyrics are everywhere and those who run lyrics sites are making money.

There will be new ways for writers to market their stuff and make money. The music biz is pioneering this, or will. Motley Crue and Def Leppard are marketing singles via Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Mike_Jahn

In Praise of Anonymity

Moff — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:44:40 EDT

@AndSheSaid: I know! Bono knows too. Irish, you know.

Moff

In Praise of Anonymity

SheWalkedWithAZombie — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 20:39:04 EDT

@rosaluxembourgeoise: @moff: That's Oscar Wilde. Or, I think, it is actually Dorian Gray.

SheWalkedWithAZombie

In Praise of Anonymity

the cajun boy — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:45:50 EDT

anne rice just loves to bitch and moan. the most epic and entertaining of all of her crusades was the highly public pissing match she engaged in during the 90s with the recently deceased founder of the popeyes fried chicken chain, al copeland. i remember the local newspapers and talk radio back home just eating it up. here's an old article i found on it...

[findarticles.com]

there was also a mention of it in the new orleans paper's obit for copeland...

[www.nola.com]

the cajun boy

In Praise of Anonymity

T. L. Morgendorffer — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:35:35 EDT

It hurts my feelings that I wasted a good portion of my teen years trying to making sense of that freaking Mayfair Witches series. All I hear is blah blah blah, I'm a whiny multi millionaire who junk punched her fans.

T. L. Morgendorffer

In Praise of Anonymity

Mackintosh-Typos — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:48:25 EDT

What bothers me is the hypocritical nature of those singled out in this post -- some much, much more so than others.

1) Rice is supportive of the weirdo who made the Harry Potter lexicon or whatever, but hates fanfiction when it comes to her own work. You must respect her wishes! Go fuck yourself, Anne.

2) JA -- well her hypocrisy really has been well documented other places and even attempting it here would be a tad redundant at this point.

3) Emily is a bit of a different case, but still fitting in with this crowd -- if only temporarily. She overshared along with the best of them (cough, Julia Allison, cough) -- better written and not at manic, but she still crossed the line. She sees the error in this after being publicly humiliated for it quite a bit, and now kind of protests waaaay too much about it. It is problematic, as she profited rather a lot from the anonymous trash talking of others and now boo hoos about it a bit too much.

I think this is a transition phase for Emily -- a Gawker detox as it were.

But what i really want to know is, who is carnivale?

Mackintosh-Typos

In Praise of Anonymity

Mike_Jahn — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 18:10:23 EDT

@rosaluxembourgeoise: Well, right. True. True for authors and true for anonymous Internet users.

Mike_Jahn

In Praise of Anonymity

Moff — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:57:06 EDT

@rosaluxembourgeoise: Oh! Bono just dropped that quote in the U2 book I'm rereading! SYNCHRONICITY.

Moff

In Praise of Anonymity

rosaluxembourgeoise — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:37:35 EDT

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

rosaluxembourgeoise

In Praise of Anonymity

Moff — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:36:49 EDT

@Mike_Jahn: Well, it would have been funnier if Mel Brooks had omitted the "with," too.

@Mike_Jahn: Yeah, Rice just sounds very petty about the fan-fiction thing to me. I mean, ignore the fanfic, mock the fanfic, take legal action against anyone's attempts to make money off the fanfic, but don't be a spaz over the fact that your characters are famous enough to star in fanfic.

I really like "It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes." Or what? You'll suck our blood?

Moff

In Praise of Anonymity

iplaudius — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:36:11 EDT

It’s funny how authors still believe in authorial intent.

iplaudius

In Praise of Anonymity

Gregoire — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:30:26 EDT

I'm going to draft some fan fiction -- an imagined crossover between the casts of Interview with a Vampire and Gossip Girl -- as soon as I get home.

Gregoire

In Praise of Anonymity

Mike_Jahn — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 17:10:00 EDT

This got me going: "I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters..."

Aw, really? Hurt your feelings have we? Look, this is my turf and let me set down once and for all what these Authors are trying to protect. I'm an author, proudly an l/c one, we know that, I've owned up to it. Here's the attraction of making a living by writing fiction. It's not the fame or the Wikipedia entry or the money (what is money, anyway?), or the ability to impress Grandma, although that's a big plus. As is the ability to write off every breath you take. But the real attraction is that you get to spend several hours a day playing with your imaginary friends, often while drinking. That's what an author does: sits alone in a corner drinking, giggling, and playing with his imaginary friends. Under any other circumstance he'd be hauled off as howling mad. But you publish it and that makes it okay. The difference between pathology and artistry is getting it published.

Rice isn't mad because she's afraid of losing income. She's mad because she doesn't want to share her BFF with anyone, God forbid a sweating and farting mob of computer users. Income has nothing to do with it.

On a side note, Rice is 66 now, a year older than me. What, there are such people? She was a lifelong athiest who "turned to the Lord in 2004?" When she was 62, right? I know this one. You hit 60, brood about it for two years, then hit your first oldlife crisis (too late by far for midlife crises). She turned to the Lord at 62? I began working out at 62. Same crisis, different manifestation. And you know what, Ann Rice who won't share, my quads can kick the shit out of your crucifix!

Yeah, these people are terrified at having to share theif BFs, and they're terrified of criticism, as as to say, "your BFF seems a lot like Philip Roth's BFF." Or whomever it might be.

Mike_Jahn

In Praise of Anonymity

The Cooler — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:58:30 EDT

"if you're important enough to be anonymously dissed, you've already won."

That's as dumb as Emily's misguided "pile of money" argument. The real point is that yes, everyone can have a voice, but that voice is worthless if no one will stand behind it. (Yes, mine too.)

The Cooler

In Praise of Anonymity

Mike_Jahn — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:45:47 EDT

@moff: All I was doing was being a modern fictional memoirist and ripping off a line from "The Producers."

Mike_Jahn

In Praise of Anonymity

it takes a lot to laugh — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:44:06 EDT

These twits don't seem to understand that their prissy objections will be used as support for government-imposed internet behavior standards. That would require them to think of more than themselves, of course, and, in any event, they'll thrive in a top-down managed media space, being so compliant and studiously unobjectionable.

it takes a lot to laugh

In Praise of Anonymity

Moff — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:43:48 EDT

@Mike_Jahn: Shit. I was about to nominate you for a Commie, and then I went back, reread, and noticed the "with" I'd missed previously.

Moff

In Praise of Anonymity

ThereMustBeAPony — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:25:32 EDT

"if you're important enough ... you've already won."
Um ... won what?
I've read this story twice, even followed a link or two, and cannot for the life of me figure out what the heck the author is getting at. Those "smarter people than Anne Rice" must also be hella smarter than me. Does that also mean I'm dumber than JA? Less legitimate than a twittr'r / tumblr'r who puts it ALL out there compusively ... but only for praise and admiration? Or, if I disagree/criticize then "I'm" the one with issues? Have I "lost" some kind of competition by being anonymous. Should I be fawning to be okay? Acckkk ... now I've just FTW'd myself. -30-

ThereMustBeAPony