Hearing Whispers
June 16, 2000
7:43 a.m.
I see that Tangent Online has reviewed the April issue of Analog with my story "A Matter of Pride" in it. It's a nice review--basically says the story is good and inventive in places, but not particularly a heavyweight. I can't argue with that. "A Matter of Pride" is a fun story with its moral painted with a light brush rather than slathered in gaudy flair. You need a story like that every now and again, I think. Of course my opinion is biased! I find it interesting to read reviews. I try to pretend I don't care about them, but like my friend Stephen, I'll admit to have a part of me that's an applause junkie. There's just no way I can ignore them. I mean, how can you hear there's someone out there whispering whispers about your story and not be interested? Still, I get itchy when I read them. Most of my reviews have been positive. Only one, I think, was really awful, and there were, I think, some extenuating circumstances in that case. I'll not discuss those here, thank you. But reviews always seem to be too light, they rarely cover everything I think they should. I'm sure it's hard to write criticism. That's why I'll probably never review stuff like that. But ... When I read a review I almost always want to be able to respond. Maybe it's the dialog I've started here. Maybe it's that I'm used to putting my point of view here. I use the place to debate things with other journalists. I rant. Yes, I try to edit out some things--if you know me from my journal you know a lot about me, but not everything, of course. So, maybe it's that. But I don't think so. I think it's that the stories I tell are important to me. Even the light-hearted, fluffy ones. When I hear people talking about them, I get this urge to join in, to discuss, to change perceptions that were off or maybe to learn a bit about how what I did affected someone else. There's a problem here, though. And that is that responding to reviews is akin to death, I think. When a writer responds to a review in almost any way but to say "Thanks for the coverage. Hope you like the next one." they come off looking bad somehow. They come off as an egotistical jerk, or as an intellectual snob, or as a wounded puppy, or as a whining jerk, or whatever. So, while I was pleased with the review--and thought it quite fairly stated, I'll admit I felt the urge to find a way to respond. To ask a question, or to explain a point. But I just smiled. And I thought ... Thanks for the coverage.  Hope you like the next one Daily Persistence is © Ron Collins |
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