I’m not a member of the National Book Critics Circle, and I don’t imagine I will be any time soon, so it’s not my place to actually endorse any of the critics who are planning to vie for a seat on its board of directors. That said, in his Quick Study blog, Scott McLemee comes across as exactly the sort of fellow who would do a fine job of advancing the Circle’s nascent digital initiatives with a level head and good humor, not to mention the widespread respect of his colleagues—after all, they’ve already presented him with the Balakian Award, which is reserved for the best of the best. One can easily see McLemee recruiting new NBCC members from the ample talent pool scattered around the Internet without dragging the organization into a mindset he describes as “one big cultural affirmative-action program for the bellicose, the ignorant, and the deranged.” Obviously, bloggers who match that description exist; McLemee clearly isn’t one of them, and his plainspoken professionalism lends his candidacy great legitimacy, at least to this outside observer.
And I’m totally on board with his abbreviated mission statement:
“This is a great organization, but let’s face the future by knocking off any posturing about how appearing in newsprint confers upon us a degree of profundity and lasting value that no blogger will ever attain, because come on, that’s crap and we all know it; and if we never want to recruit smart young critics, we’ll just keep indulging in it.”
I’m sure there will be plenty of other candidates to choose from, many of whom will share McLemee’s sound qualifications; fortunately, the Circle has several positions to fill!