Remember yesterday, when I quoted Sam Tanenhaus on online writers, and he said they have “a tendency to write very quickly… and to write sloppily, often”? I didn’t take offense at that, because I felt he qualified the remark by mentioning that he has hired some bloggers he considers exceptions to the rule. But Literary Kicks writer Levi Asher isn’t as forgiving as I am, and emailed me to explain why. “I guess the reason the ‘bloggers are sloppy writers’ charge is so offensive,” he writes, “is because it echoes Rachel Donadio‘s recently published comment to the same effect, and so this is starting to seem like an example of ‘tell a lie often enough and people will believe it.'”
“Tell me if I’m wrong [Asher adds], but I really think most literary bloggers (at least the ones who are widely read) uphold surprisingly high stylistic standards. The NYTBR doesn’t have to give us credit for this if they don’t want to, but for them to repeatedly deliver an insult that has no basis in truth smacks of propaganda.”
What do you think, readers? Is this really another example of print dinosaurs griping about online upstarts? Or is Asher linking dots that don’t really connect? I will say this: Asher’s not only right to point out that the literary blogosphere already has several recognizably talented writers, many of those writers are already writing for old media outlets, including (as Tanenhaus was the first to admit) the Review, where they’ve handily proved that they aren’t sloppy or thoughtless critics. In fact, I’d say many of them could do a better job on their best day than Brad Leithauser did on the cover of last week’s Review with his platitudinous remarks about how many people have translated the Aeneid before Robert Fagles: “The sea has many voices, and this is one of them,” my foot. Fine, there are plenty of sloppy writers in the blogosphere…but we all know there’s some sloppy writers at the New York Times, too, and I’m talking the staff, not freelance contributors (and I’m not even thinking about the Review when I say that, either). It’s not endemic to either institution, and if anybody is acting like it is, then perhaps it’s time to stop. But I have a feeling that talent will out in the long run, on every platform.