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A tweet of vengeance
Published: 6/30/2009 12:05 PM
Last Modified: 6/30/2009 12:05 PM

Last Sunday the World's book pages included an interview with Alice Hoffman about her latest novel, "The Story Sisters."

A lot of publications had stories about this book, including the Boston Globe, which published a review by Roberta Silman, herself an accomplished writer of fiction.

Silman wasn't impressed with "The Story Sisters" and explained her reasons for her disappointment in an author she had previously admired. In doing so, she mentioned some of the plot twists in Hoffman's novel.

Then Hoffman dug out whatever device she used to send messages to her Twitter account and began sending out a stream of messages excoriating Silman for her review.

"Moron" and "idiot" showed up early in the messages, followed by Silman's phone number and email address, and Hoffman's exhortation that her legions of fan -- who should be just as riled up about a negative review as Hoffman was -- let Silman know just what they think of "snarky critics."

Oh dear.

The brouhaha over Hoffman's Twitter feeds of June 28 prompted a bunch of copy on the Internet and in print, with some outlets posting screenshots of Hoffman's output.
(The next day, June 29, Hoffman's Twitter account was no longer operational.)

Salon has a piquant little tale about the flap:
Read the story: Hey, authors, don't tweet in anger

The Los Angeles Times gets into the act as well:
Read the story: Alice Hoffman strikes back -- and strikes out

Reading Silman's review, I can understand Hoffman being upset that her new book wasn't praised, but I would not characterise what Silman wrote as "snarky." I've read snarky reviews. I have written a few over the years (much, much fewer than I have been accused of writing, but that's another story). And Silman's piece isn't snarky.

It simply expresses disappointment -- which is the emotion that prompts a great deal of "negative reviews."

I have been on the receiving end of a performer's wrath because of something I've written. And in each case, the anger seemed inversely proportional to the negativity of what had appeared in print. At least, that's how it seemed to me -- no doubt the person with the complaint about what I wrote would think differently.

But, then, that really is the purpose of a review -- not to get in the last word about a work of art, but to express the first word in what should be a continuing conversation about the worth of a work of art.


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ARTS

James D. Watts Jr. has lived in Oklahoma for most his life, even though he still has people saying to him, "Don't sound like you're from around these parts." A University of Oklahoma Phi Beta Kappa graduate, Watts has received the Governor Arts Award, Harwelden Award and the National Conference of Christians and Jews Beth Macklin Award for his writing. Before coming to the Tulsa World, Watts worked for the Tulsa Tribune.

Contact him at (918) 581-8478.

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