Chris Jones on Jason Whitlock

Again, if the audience Jones has on there is the kind that understands using a noun like "reporter" as an adjective somehow summarizes everything about Whitlock, then OK. It's David Mamet without actors, but OK.

 

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I may not fight sweet, but I fight fair.

Jones blog is a hit piece, big-time, basically out of the written blue - unless Jones' made his thoughts clear about Whitlock in some other public forum - in which Jones uses the image of a hooker, takes the one guy he knows Whitlock really likes and claims he's rolling over in his grave over the thought of comparison, uses the word "fuck" a couple times and calls it a day.

It ain't Trilling, in other words, breaking down Robert Frost.

 

All of which has nothing to do with your need to resort to dick jokes in analyzing it on this board.

 

Using a curse concept to derogatorily describe a certain piece of writing - which in itself is vulgar, and <i>intended</i> to be mean - is not a evasion of talking craft.

I can change the word to hip. It doesn't quite accomplish the same point, but whatever. I don't want to roadblock the discussion

 

It's not really a joke, Jersey. I wasn't trying to be funny, but figurative. Writing "this guy is a writer, man, but this guy isn't" reads like a missive from the gut. Or perhaps somewhere lower.

It's not a sweetheart piece. It's guy showing a little hair on his chest and sidling a strong serving of, oh, "screw you" on top of it.

And I'm pretty sure, at this point, you've used that word more than I have in this thread. So here's the deal. I'll change the word and you can stop referencing it. Or don't make the deal. But I'll change the word.

 

Seems like a lot of angst considering this board is what it has always been, going all the way back to the sportspages days: an anonymous gathering place for incredibly random topics and people. Some threads work, some don't. Sometimes you get praised, sometimes you don't. I doubt we're making or breaking any careers here.

This whole thread started because of a rant about what makes a professional....I want to believe professional journalists don't really care about the rants and raves of anonymous message boarders, regardless of whether they call themselves Double Down or Boom or Alma or Ragu or Fenian Bastard, etc., and I mean that with due respect to all.

We've all had friends annihilated here; the bigger the personality, the bigger the target. I would be shocked if either Jones or Whitlock cares about what's been written here about either. The Asian transvestite, though, he's gotta be pissed.

 

I agree with DD. At the same time, I don't understand going after Alma. In the past few weeks he's tried to push a few discussions that were the usual "That piece is great" or "No, that piece sucks" into actual discussions of craft. He's in no way one of the people making discussions about craft an issue on this site.

 

Whatever you were trying to do, you're better than that.

I know you are, because I've been around a while and remember when you used to regularly raise the level of discourse around here.

The board has a different tone now, though, as DD referenced. There's much less serious discussion of anything, let alone craft.

I think some of that's due to the incredible stresses the industry has undergone, but a lot of it also has to do with the general tone of journalism shifting in a direction that (to take things back to the beginning) goes to the anonymous poster's "explanation" about why he thought it was OK to flame away at Jeff Pearlman.

It's only the Internet right? How else are you going to break into the business unless you're tearing somebody down? Why should anyone even bother to be civil?

Why not just talk to people in ways we'd never do in public?

It's disappointing, and maybe my reaction is at least partially because it's even more disappointing to see you engaging in it.

 

I absolutely agree that Alma is one of the few posters really interested in discussing the craft.

He also disappears for stretches that last several months. His choice, obviously. And he probably has a more productive work day than mine as a result. But it's tough to hear someone say "I don't understand why we can't talk about writing more here" when the every day content of this place -- the engine that either brings talented people to this site to talk about those subject, or drives them away -- is made up of the people who post here all the time. Not once a month.

So if people want to talk more about craft, and less about personality, let's try. I've more or less cried uncle, but others don't have to.

 

But DD, we know what will happen, any criticism of a favored author will be seen as the ravings of a troll. I like Jones, but Chris L did a decent analysis that put the 12 months story in an unfavorable light.It was fair comment but was treated on the same level as the ESPN mag baiting

 

I wasn't talking about you. Just quoted all of Jersey Guy instead of taking the time to edit down to his first sentence. My bad.