While I did not today get pulled into a world of literary-critical fame and fortune, I did enjoy the Meet The Bloggers Meeting the Editors Who Are Meeting the Bloggers That Met the Editors discussion at the Plain Dealer offices. It was a Psychobilly Democrat who remarked that here he was, a guy in his thirties, "going on a fieldtrip," which was pretty much exactly how it felt, though we never made it past the editorial meeting room, what with the discussion running for 90 minutes straight. (I wouldn't mind heading back there to steal a quick tour of the building, and I'm sort of kicking myself for not sticking around to listen in on the editorial discussion meetings--I mean, really, where did my unemployed ass have to go that was so important?--so I'm sort of hoping these meet-ups become, if not a regular thing, at least a semi-irregular now-and-then thing, even if just to help sate my vague general geeky interest in seeing what goes on under a hood.)
If the thought of bloggers hating on editors for being mainstream media bastards and newspaper folks hating on bloggers for being annoying young upstarts for 90 minutes gives you hives, you can relax. It was a civil, interesting discussion, I thought. (Whether anyone on either side of the table was changed in their views or whatever...I don't know, you'll have to ask them.)
My takeaway? There's room to explore possible avenues for give-and-take between the two groups. And there does exist a desire to do so. The bloggers present had a great interest in what goes on at the paper; the editors present were genuinely curious about what makes "bloggers" tick. Interest and curiosity are not the same thing, of course. If you want to talk hierarchal power dualities (and who doesn't?), it was clear there's still...let's call them feelings of height and feelings of climb about where you'd expect them to be. I'll suggest it was agreed that everybody recognizes that the rules are changing on the fly, and that people have to keep up on their game, lest they make themselves like endzone-bound Ernest Byners.
Also of interest (ready yourself for the abrupt topic shift) was the fact that the meeting was sort of a, how might one say it..."man-fest". A couple women on either side of the table in a room of about twenty-ish people. Nature of the newspaper game? Glaring blogosphere gap? Or just randomly skewed stats? Beats me.
In any case, it was interesting. Maybe someday I'll try chatting up Karen Long, the Plain Dealer's book editor, about, like, books, and reviews, and stuff. Though it probably wouldn't be a great discussion, because it seems like the litbloggers are really supposed to pick a mainstream media critic and just get all antagonistic up in their business? But mostly I just enjoy her columns, so the sum total of our discussion would probably wind up being me saying "So you like books too, huh?" and her nodding and then me nodding back. Yeah, I'm so not cut out for this.
2 comments:
Interesting that you note the absence of my gender. I think there were four of us, after I arrived, then Elizabeth McIntyre and then Margie Frazier. In the MSM, it's a problem for sure. I guess I"m getting so used to the disparity, I don't think of even mentioning it. I should re-think that.
What do you actually think about that?
Darby, that's an interesting piece about the imagined conversation with the book babe. It reminds me of a shy guy I knew back in college, back in Massachusetts in the '60s, who overcame similar conversational inhibitions by downing a half pint of vodka, going up to the mixers in the fieldhouse, finding the girl of his waking dreams, and enchanting her with the line "Do you like the Beatles? Good, let's f*ck."
Good luck in leveraging your mutual interest in books.
Post a Comment