Month / March 2006

by Edward Champion

Tell Caitlin What You Think

It looks like Caitlin Flanagan is scheduled to guest blog at the Powell’s blog next week. But here’s the important thing: the Powell’s blog has comments.

What does this mean? The opportunity for readers to respond to Ms. Flanagan’s Eisenhower nostalgia and specious logic.

Since Ms. Flanagan is apparently very careful about who she talks to and won’t even talk with the likes of Bat Segundo (we’ve asked multiple times, in an effort to challenge Ms. Flanagan one-on-one on her points, but we were told by a representative who we shall not name that “she doesn’t talk to lefties like you”), this may represent the only opportunity for readers to introduce Ms. Flanagan to a democratic idea she may not be aware of: being exposed to dissenting opinions.

So do check in at the Powell’s blog next week and do tell Mr. Flanagan what you think.

by Edward Champion

Players and Quitters

Levi Asher reports on yesterday’s book publishing panel with Sarah Weinman and Akashic‘s Johnny Temple: “Next up was a young woman with a forlorn Fiona Apple look who said she’d once written a novel that had sold 5000 copies. But she’d lost her footing in the publishing world and was now completely lost, unpublished and angry. She played the pathos card, almost starting to cry, and like the previous questioner did not seem satisfied with the realistic responses her question received. Sarah Weinman counseled her to not give up hope, but the woman replied that this answer was ‘just bullshit’, at which point Sarah began to visibly sneer and both publishers on stage began to draw big imaginary ‘X’ marks over the poor woman’s head (‘X’ being the code for ‘Do Not Publish This Writer Under Any Circumstances’).”