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Just some experience with publishing business as a writer several years ago, and knowing the people socially. Maybe I'm missing who is challenging the establis
by motohagiography 4y ago
Just some experience with publishing business as a writer several years ago, and knowing the people socially.
Maybe I'm missing who is challenging the established narratives and taking the risk as an iconoclast. Who is publishing right now whose ideas are challenging? Taibbi? He still compromises himself for access. Hirsi Ali? She still hedges, even though she's probably got more balls than anyone these days. Houellebecq is only tolerated because he's unthreatening to anyone. The Slate Star Codex guy writes like he still needs brunch invites. Substack is great, but it's not the discourse. The examples I'm thinking of stood on their own so well that they kept their subjects honest. Orwell, Mailer, HST, Mencken, Hitchens, Vidal, Hersh. Writers who traded on integrity to their craft so that their subjects were measured against it. Very best of luck to your writer, I hope you can serve his work honestly.
- chrisseaton 4y ago> Maybe I'm missing who is challenging the established narratives and taking the risk as an iconoclast. I think you're possibly moving the goalposts from simply 'publish' to 'be internationally recognised and lauded for major critical thinking'.
- motohagiography 4y agoIf you aren't recognized for major critical thinking, I'd say you're an entertainer who should be writing sitcoms, not books.
- chrisseaton 4y agoYou’ve gone from lamenting the difficulty of publishing to advocating that we shouldn’t publish most books. You’re on a wild roller coaster of opinions there!
- manuelmoreale 4y agoWhat an odd take. So if something is not internationally acclaimed and you’re recognized as a major critical thinker then you shouldn’t write books? How do you get to that point without taking the risk in the first place? Writers have to start somewhere and they have to publish something in order to have the chance to become recognized. And even if they fail at that they can still have an impact on someone else’s life in one way or another and to me that’s already valuable enough.
- jkeat 4y agoBeing unconventional means value for sure https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueAnon/comments/wzjewu/taibbi_remains_very_normal/ https://www.reddit.com/r/TrueAnon/comments/wzjewu/taibbi_rem...
- mellosouls 4y agoI don't think that's fair; it was clear from the post you challenged that the criticism was about lack of new ideas and commentary especially that countering safe narratives. The poster responded with plenty of examples which you've dismissed with the unfortunate "goalposts" remark.
- chrisseaton 4y ago> it was clear from the post you challenged that the criticism was about lack of new ideas and commentary especially that countering safe narratives Not sure what thread you were reading - the one I responded to said it was impossible in general to get anything new published. You can see hundreds (thousands) of new published works every year. They moved the goalposts by then saying that they only consider publishing to mean critical work.
- 5560675260 4y agoReread first two sentences of the post that started this thread. They clearly state that books are being published and what goes into getting those books published. This wasn't about what OP "considers publishing to mean", it's what OP considers to be worth being read.
- yywwbbn 4y agoIf any newly published book is by definition not worthy enough to be read, according to OP. It’s really possible to prove he’s wrong. Is it?
- gene_takavic 4y ago
- dang 4y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32642620 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32642620