false 4778797 2 What is snark? You recognize it when you see it -- a tone of teasing, snide, undermining abuse, nasty and knowing, that is spreading like pinkeye through the media and threatening to take over how Americans converse with each other and what they can count on as true. Snark attempts to steal someone's mojo, erase her cool, annihilate her effectiveness. In this sharp and witty polemic, <I>New Yorker</i> critic and bestselling author David Denby takes on the snarkers, naming the nine principles of snark -- the standard techniques its practitioners use to poison their arrows. Snarkers like to think they are deploying wit, but mostly they are exposing the seethe and snarl of an unhappy country, releasing bad feeling but little laughter.<P>In this highly entertaining essay, Denby traces the history of snark through the ages, starting with its invention as personal insult in the drinking clubs of ancient Athens, tracking its development all the way to the age of the Internet, where it has become the sole purpose and style of many media, political, and celebrity Web sites. Snark releases the anguish of the dispossessed, envious, and frightened; it flows when a dying class of the powerful struggles to keep the barbarians outside the gates, or, alternately, when those outsiders want to take over the halls of the powerful and expel the office-holders. Snark was behind the London-based magazine Private Eye, launched amid the dying embers of the British empire in 1961; it was also central to the career-hungry, New York-based magazine Spy. It has flourished over the years in the works of everyone from the startling Roman poet Juvenal to Alexander Pope to Tom Wolfe to a million commenters snarling at other people behind handles. Thanks to the grand dame of snark, it has a prominent place twice a week on the opinion page of the <I>New York Times</i>.<P>Denby has fun snarking the snarkers, expelling the bums and promoting the true wits, but he is also making a serious point: the Internet has put snark on steroids. In politics, snark means the lowest, most insinuating and insulting side can win. For the young, a savage piece of gossip could ruin a reputation and possibly a future career. And for all of us, snark just sucks the humor out of life. Denby defends the right of any of us to be cruel, but shows us how the real pros pull it off. Snark, he says, is for the amateurs. 4843635 book 13 1 2009 Snark: A Polemic in Seven Fits (It's Mean, It's Personal, and It's Ruining Our Conversation) total:137|5:6|4:23|3:48|2:43|1:17| 137 369 293 44 1 5 false false Sun Mar 15 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 13:24:19 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 21:37:36 -0700 2009
You've had this situation. There's six hours to go before a 10 page paper is due, and you haven't begun writing yet. You have this dynamite thesis and things seem to be really coming together in your head, but once you start putting pen to paper you find out the fol...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Feb 28 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 14 11:22:47 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 11:44:48 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sat Jan 10 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 15:10:17 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 15:39:21 -0800 2009 more...]]> 1 0 true false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 20:56:09 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 20:56:09 -0800 2009
Snark as a word and a book title have such potential -- why oh why did you have to disappoint me so? Maybe if Denby had titled the book, "random things in the world...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jul 28 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 16:37:08 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 16:00:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 18:25:46 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 20 10:53:55 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Sep 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 16 10:29:57 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 20 23:03:32 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat Jun 20 10:38:10 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 27 13:11:08 -0700 2009 That, my friends, is snark, as Denby deftly identifies it: insulting, mean, and--unlike satire or political irony--it stands for nothing and serves no cause but to mak...more...]]> 2 1 false false Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 10:32:37 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 28 10:41:24 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jun 09 04:24:28 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 09 04:28:18 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Sep 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 07 20:21:23 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 09 08:38:30 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jun 07 15:00:42 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 14:27:41 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 15:00:42 -0700 2009 Snark is a tantalizing read for those who like to perceive and dissect the incredibly subtle attributes of communication, especially in the light of modern technology.

To his credit (and in contrast to what other reviews have said), Denby masterfully etches out the acute definition of sna...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Aug 23 20:18:47 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 23 20:22:38 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sat May 02 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 23:20:35 -0700 2009 Wed May 27 23:24:41 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Apr 28 18:03:26 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 29 08:10:33 -0700 2009
I found myself really disapointed in Snark, because it only takes a handful of pages to realize that the author believes that 'snark' refers to anything anyone says abo...more...]]> 2 0 false false Mon Aug 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 08:37:31 -0700 2009 Mon Aug 03 14:55:22 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 13 10:15:42 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 14:16:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 1 0 false false Wed Jun 17 20:03:32 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 17 20:03:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Jan 26 03:21:52 -0800 2009 Sun Oct 04 09:34:23 -0700 2009 snark. I don’t know how big of a deal snark is. I guess I’m mostly insulated from it. I stay clear of politics. Never see a political ad or take a look at the political blogs. No interest in celebrity gossips. Don’t read much in terms o...more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 08:32:45 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 10:01:04 -0700 2009 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=4778797