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Article is trying too hard to be clever by half. I did not use the phrase Day One, but wondered whether the staff, including presumably Walkie Talkie, had
by mmanfrin 11y ago
Article is trying too hard to be clever by half.
I did not use the phrase Day One, but wondered whether the
staff, including presumably Walkie Talkie, had taken a
moment before opening that morning to reflect on Amazon’s
jargon, including that bit of eschatology.
There is a desk labelled Amazon Answers. Presumably the
questions asked of Amazon are answered by a human employee
of the store, though it’s unclear if some sort of Delphic
process involving candles and chanting occurs.
Books are not always arranged in a clear manner. On the
memoir wall Frederick Douglass abuts Anne Frank, herself
next to Ben Carson. Amazon is disrupting the alphabet.
RIP, alphabet.
- ChuckMcM 11y agoThe style bothered me as well, I could not tell if the was unconsciously projecting all of their internal conflict into the situation or if they were trying to write at a snark level that would be above the comprehension of some but not all readers. Either way it seemed the author was conflicted deeply about what they were trying to write (or perhaps not write)
- jdarais 11y agoThe style reminded me a lot of the writing style of Fight Club: lots of anti-establishment bitterness seeping through observations of comical ironies. Probably also a reflection of the conflict between corporate Amazon and the cool kids who want to keep Seattle cool.
- aaronbrethorst 11y agoAccording to his byline, the author is from Portland. I think that explains a lot of it, actually.
- GabrielF00 11y agoIt's super smarmy, but pretty much par for the course for how TNR and other bastions of American literary tradition treat Amazon. They published an op-ed arguing that ordinary readers (as opposed to trained book reviewers) shouldn't be reviewing books.[0] [0] http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119875/margo-howard-amazon-vine-reviewers-sabotaged-my-book http://www.newrepublic.com/article/119875/margo-howard-amazo...
- jccalhoun 11y agoI am so glad I am not the only one to think that. I was rolling my eyes through the whole thing and I only skimmed through it.