Wednesday Quick Notes

Lazyweb is getting worse. In the old days, say on LJ, a lazyweb request for information about something generally didn't bother me. LJers would explain what they needed to know, why, and why their previous attempts at finding what they were looking for failed (e.g., conflicting results on web searches, a need for hyperlocal information, the fog of pre-web pop culture history, matters of opinion or complex interpretation). Good, that's fine.

My major complaint about Twitter and Facebook—which admittedly I use far more than here these days—are dopey public requests for information. FB encourages brief remarks and Twitter demands them, so of course there's going to be little context, but honestly I also think those venues are just making people stupider. When talking about some controversy over the Atlantic Monthly paying for online comment, I had a person on FB offer to dig up traffic info for the Atlantic—all he wanted from us was the URL. Of the Atlantic Monthly. Which we were talking about. Then there was the person who asked what "pearl clutching" meant, or the one who wanted it confirmed that some Samuel Delany novel was out of print, if a magazine takes reprints, what was meant by "published in 2013", etc etc. All things that two seconds on the Web or an off-thread private query could handle. But instead, people just loved showing off their confusion and ignorance.

Because Twitter and FB encourage short, almost real-time conversation, people often slip into conversational mode when they are in fact performing public talk in front of hundreds or thousands of people—but public talk with the ability to do near-instant private research or consulting. It is equivalent of shuffling from a bathroom and into the front of the house of a restaurant, toilet paper roll in hand and pants around ankles, and bellowing "HOW DO I WORK THIS?" Stay in the stall for a minute, son. You'll figure it out.

In other news, here is a review of Move Under Ground. It's a nice review, but I am posting it because its existence means that I've accomplished my mission. Following Cyril Connolly's The Enemies of Promise, I wanted to write a book that would last ten years—that is, one that would still be talked about ten years later. Move Under Ground was released in April 2004. BAM! Mission accomplished!

Interested locals, of which there should be none, might like to know that I'll be at Krakencon in Oakland on Sunday for dayjob related activities. Krakencon is an anime/manga-themed con that knows little enough about books and publishing that they give this guy three solo panels, but I should have some books to give away, so there's that! Cosplay as the guy who can't use toilet paper and I'll give you two books!