Years ago, after a particularly tense quarter at a company I used to work for, some defiant soul hung this sign up in the break room. It was probably inspired by the bi-weekly forced meetings all departments had to endure before getting their paychecks. Meetings that followed one of two paths from management, depending on how the company had done: either ‘We’re so lucky to have you on our team, and so proud of all the work you’ve done’, or ‘You are lucky to have a job here, you lazy, thieving deadbeats.’
Management, predictably, was Not Happy about that sign.
Why did that bad memory surface today?
A tumblr blog I liked,’Lifeinpublishing’, was decommissioned today. Apparently because its owner’s job in the publishing field was either threatened or destroyed, after the anonymous owner made a mocking post about dystopias in Young Adult fiction. I’ll miss that blog. It took no prisoners in skewering publishers, editors, agents, and too-big-for-their-britches authors.
The option to submit material anonymously to blogs like that is desperately important to the free speech of people who work in any industry. Yet, we now live in a culture where even the mildest of whistleblowers is subject to return harassment far worse than is merited.
Mockery, parody, and satire are a huge part of the creative experience, and the dues we ALL pay when we attract public and professional attention. Most people know to shrug it off or return a zinger.
When entitled butthurt and litigious frenzies threaten that part of free speech, it makes me angry.
Author’s note added 3-7-2014: To make myself clear, in this post I’m differentiating satire, critical discussion, and whistleblower behaviors from outright trolling. There is intellectual and social value in the first three exercises.
When a comment is left for the apparent sole purpose to outrage/threaten an author? That’s just trolling. Not only is it stupid, but it shows how little anyone should actually pay attention to it. Most trolling statements reveal that the person writing them has never even read the book in question, or has deep moral/religious issues that should have kept them from buying the book in the first place. Or may even be functionally illiterate, from their apparent inability to read blurbs and warnings. In any case, it’s not the author’s problem.
It becomes the author’s problem when the trolls seem ready to escalate into real stalking, bullying, and threats.
Death threats because an author ended a series one way? Get over yourselves, angry readers. It’s the author’s story. You want a different ending, go write some fan fiction. This isn’t Misery. Authors are not their books. If you get out of hand, the authors you stalk can and will call the authorities. Courts are beginning to side more and more against violent trolls, so back off for your own sake.
The biggest problem lies back in the ‘victim culture’ that I’ve mentioned before on this blog. Young and/or inexperienced authors may simply not know how to distance themselves from criticism yet, so even the most general negative comment can seem like a personal insult. Again, authors are not their books. Get over yourselves. Learn from the critiques, if enough of them fall along the bell curve of plausibility. Write a better book. Don’t threaten someone’s job because they ruffled your feathers.
I didn’t know about that tumblr blog in particular, but it’s a shame it was decommissioned (and for that reason). I agree with you, that blogs like that, and anonymous submissions thereof, are important.
I liked that blog because it was a great industry-take to counterbalance the authorial Tumblr blogs I follow.
I completely missed the post about YA dystopias and the backlash responses, so seeing Lifeinpublishing decommissioned yesterday was a shock.
We *need* these outlets for scuttlebutt and friendly mockery. ‘Dilbert’ was a favorite cartoon of mine for years, because Scott Adams spoke for many in the IT world, regardless of where we actually worked. (Some fans worked for companies which banned ‘Dilbert’ cartoons on cubicle or breakroom walls.)
Speaking truth to power – and the exposure of bullies, frauds, and fools – is always uncomfortable for those singled out.