Thursday, September 04, 2008

The Rise and Fall of the Online Armchair Critic


"Introducing the Twiller... It's about a man who wakes up in the mountains of Colorado, suffering from amnesia, with a haunting feeling he is a murderer. In possession of only a cellphone that lets him Twitter, he uses the phone to tell his story of self-discovery, 140 characters at a time. Think 'Memento' on a mobile phone, with the occasional emoticon." -- "Introducing the Twiller," Matt Richtel, New York Times

"At last, Timesman Matt Richtel has explained why he's posing as a female hooker on his personal Twitter account: He's writing a novel, 140 characters at a time. No, no, wait for it — he's invented a new genre of fiction which he's calling the 'Twiller.' ... But his online tale fails." -- "New York Times Hooker Tweets Explained, but Bad Writing a Mystery," Owen Thomas, Valleywag

"I could easily spend thousands of words detailing how fucked up Gawker is, but that's not what I want to do (don't get me wrong though, the pitifulness of Gawker is well-documented). I want to do what no one else in my position has ever really done--I want to hold Gawker accountable for their bullshit. It's time someone stood up to their shameless hypocrisy and pseudo-nihilist snark. It's time someone called them out. They think they are arbiters of taste, of culture, of cool, but in reality they are nothing more than armchair critics, sitting on the sidelines shitting on the efforts of those who try, while too afraid to do anything of their own." -- "The Gawker Call Out," Tucker Max, I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell