Thursday, January 24. 2008
lol irl
(Sorry to step on your intro blog, Edith.)
So, the designer for our book, the fabulous MayaDzrodz Drozdz, sent me this link to a review of Anticraft:
The Rise of Adolf Knitler by Steven Wells for the Philadelphia Weekly
I couldn't help but laugh my ass off - mostly because I agreed with him! I hated the word "slightly" and thought it was such a fucking pathetic cop-out. Oooooo we're so bad! We're so naughty! But only slightly! Teeheehee! WTF, mate? Also, due to whatever North Light's problem was with linking the book to the website (The AntiCraft, as in, the crafting equivalent to The AntiChrist; and I'm guessing the problem is they would have had to given us more money because of some licensing mumbojumbo), using the name "Anticraft" DOES make it sound like antihousework and antistupid antiattempts to antimake it antihip. Not that anyone would listen to me, but whatever, it's selling like hotcakes. Gods forbid we do something honest in place of something marketable.
Don't get me wrong, the projects are fantastic, the designers are demigods of the crafting pantheon, our editor went to bat for us several times, and I'd bear Maya's children if she only asked (and if by bear she meant adopt and children she meant cats)... but... in the end it was a sell out. I compromised on the points that bothered me and sold out. But you know... that's admitted up front and in print. Nobody's hiding anything here. And that's why I am up to my armpits in info on Lulu right now.
I'm sure Ne has her own take on this, so let it be known I'm speaking for me and ONLY me here.
P.S. The best part about this review? When I was reading it, the banner ad at the top read (in a degraded, gothicky font) "Unbridaled: the traditional wedding expo comes undone." Oh, irony, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
P.P.S. I sent this link to Shannon Okey of AlterNation and you can read her response on her blog. She makes a few good points of her own.
So, the designer for our book, the fabulous Maya
The Rise of Adolf Knitler by Steven Wells for the Philadelphia Weekly
I couldn't help but laugh my ass off - mostly because I agreed with him! I hated the word "slightly" and thought it was such a fucking pathetic cop-out. Oooooo we're so bad! We're so naughty! But only slightly! Teeheehee! WTF, mate? Also, due to whatever North Light's problem was with linking the book to the website (The AntiCraft, as in, the crafting equivalent to The AntiChrist; and I'm guessing the problem is they would have had to given us more money because of some licensing mumbojumbo), using the name "Anticraft" DOES make it sound like antihousework and antistupid antiattempts to antimake it antihip. Not that anyone would listen to me, but whatever, it's selling like hotcakes. Gods forbid we do something honest in place of something marketable.
Don't get me wrong, the projects are fantastic, the designers are demigods of the crafting pantheon, our editor went to bat for us several times, and I'd bear Maya's children if she only asked (and if by bear she meant adopt and children she meant cats)... but... in the end it was a sell out. I compromised on the points that bothered me and sold out. But you know... that's admitted up front and in print. Nobody's hiding anything here. And that's why I am up to my armpits in info on Lulu right now.
I'm sure Ne has her own take on this, so let it be known I'm speaking for me and ONLY me here.
P.S. The best part about this review? When I was reading it, the banner ad at the top read (in a degraded, gothicky font) "Unbridaled: the traditional wedding expo comes undone." Oh, irony, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
P.P.S. I sent this link to Shannon Okey of AlterNation and you can read her response on her blog. She makes a few good points of her own.
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You were paid to do a job and you did it well.
You've garnered new fans that may have never been to your website before.
You've attracted attention to yourself that will make it easier to market your future self-published works if you choose to go that route.
What's a "punk poet" doing writing snark for some alt-weekly? Paying his bills, that's what. What, you don't think he's sold out at all?
We can starve to death holding true to our childhood ideals and dreams (I, for one, spent far too much time writing erotic poetry about Nick Cave in high school, but last I checked, there wasn't much call for that on the world publishing market) or we can earn a living doing what we love. And that's what I'm doing.
[On a side note -- did he even READ the intro to AlterNation? Newsflash: we're encouraging people to shy away from mass-produced culture in favor of creating their own. If that's not punk by its very definition, I don't know wtf is!]
I think I mostly just disappointed in myself for not having enough confidence to just go on and self-publish. Yeah, it would have been more work, yeah the money would have been a lot less (and hint: for a first time book it ain't that much anyway).
He may be a raving asshole, and he may not know knit from crochet from a hole in the ground, and he may not know art when he sees it, but he called me on two things that have been gnawing at me and I wasn't going to sidestep them just because he's a twat.
On that note -- just wait til you see what I'm currently cooking up for pattern distro!
Don't apologize for this guy. He's an asshat, and his "review" (if it can be called that) is a real life incarnation of "judging a book by its cover". Your publishers wasted paper by sending him a copy of something that he could have written a blurb about without going any farther than the Amazon page.
I've reread his article a couple of times, and his "nazi" metaphor makes completely no sense to me. The fact that he didn't do the legwork to visit the site at all and find out what your whole deal is also works to enforce my opinion of his piece as a few hundred words of lazily written sensationalist tripe.
I actually think it's sad that you and Knitgrrl are giving this guy traffic by linking to him. I love your book (and your site btw ^_^), and I'd be interested in reading well thought-out negative reviews of it (because I like having my opinions challenged) but this one is a waste of bandwidth.
I'd be as offended as when Jonah Goldberg called my husband a fascist. Jonah's calling everyone a fascist these days. It was more impressive that he knew my husband's *name*.
The book is fucking gorgeous. Visually it's like the World of Darkness of craft books. I keep finding non knitters/hookers who come to my house trying to steal it. It's awesome. You don't need to apologise for anything about it*
*except maybe incorrectly spelling Cthulhu on page 59.
In response to his quasi-review, I'm going to quote Mr. Wells himself, "The self-perpetuating ponce-mafia oligarchy of effete bourgeois wankers who run the 'literary scene' must be swept aside by a tidal wave of screaming urchin tits-out teenage terror totty and DESTROYED! ATTACK! ATTACK! ATTACK!"
Riiight... So, tits out, ladies, as you work on your Vlad the Impaler hats! Who's going to send one to our new friend Steven?
...fixing...fixing...!
Why is being Christian so deadly serious and full of depths, but being a pagan is sort of 'tee hee giggle giggle...better not come to the launch skylad wearing your horns' etc etc
Conservative -- no that's not the word. Non-flamboyant? No. Practical? Um... less silly? Well, there's not a good word for us, but we're a minority within a minority, so there's only about 25 of us worldwide and we have no PR rep.