This was so fun and insightful. I am delighted to have stumbled upon it. But now I am never going to post that poor drafted review of the “house of dragons”.
Ha! One of the people I linked to was so scathing about badly written reviews that it genuinely made me want to delete this entire newsletter. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Maybe someone will love your House of Dragons insights!
Thought-provoking and beautiful, and wow, that Jeff Buckley review. I like the idea of Rolling Stone waiting 10 years (less suicides) but I'm not sure the industry would tolerate it. Thank you for the Blind Melon doco trailer; will seek it out.
I always read the 1 star reviews of books. I feel they save me a lot of grief. I can usually tell if the person is an idiot or not i.e. whether I will agree with their opinion or not, so it doesn't impact the buying very much. My own 1-star reviews (received, never given) are brutal.
One-star reviews are why I always give a book I enjoyed 5 stars no matter what. There are way too many that are things like “haven’t read it, it’s for a friend” or “cover was bent” so my 5 stars is to go towards neutralising them.
I am looking for the scathing review of your scathing review here… did I misunderstand? I wanted to use it as a prompt and jam off it for a fiction piece tonight…
Not on my review, thankfully! Here's the link to Celine Nguyen talking about the TLS review https://substack.com/@celinenguyen/note/c-70290409 She links to a comment which links to a Substack piece all scathing of the scathing review. It's a bit of a Matryoshka doll of commentary
Sorry, originally commented while signed in to the wrong account (I'm an admin for an association so shouldn't be posting personal takes. This is me posting as me.
I have to say I love your take on 'One Day' and 'Normal People'. In fact I gave up on both… 'One Day' as a TV adaptation (in the UK, don't know how widely it's aired elsewhere), and 'Normal People' as audiobook.
I sort-of agree about 'Friends'. I wouldn't say I found it terrible (we have plenty worse sitcoms on British TV) but I really couldn't see quite why it got such a massive following.
But tastes in comedy are very personal. For me, the gold standard is Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, and Red Dwarf (the original, not the remake). And why do I like Young Sheldon so much more than Big Bang Theory?
I love everything about this and also am someone whose convictions are eminently shakeable - which I consider a sign of intelligence (but feel free to persuade me otherwise). Also S1 of HACF is messy while it finds its feet; even the guys who created it acknowledge that. It pays off if you can stick with it, but it's understandable if people don't. Even if they should. Obvs.
Glad I'm not alone! And given I consider you incredibly intelligent, I'm going to go ahead and agree with you (unless someone gives me a persuasive argument against). Maybe I'll go back to HACF one day. I do believe you that it will sort itself out and be excellent, it's just that watching tv shows about start-ups with investors gives me flashbacks.
I mean the startup thing is 100% built in right to the end, so that is definitely a consideration. And thank you! I always think I'm quite slow but maybe that's what all of us smart people do? x
Thanks for introducing me to Hot Melon, Katie. I want to watch that documentary now.
"What struck me (supremely cold take incoming!) was that these are all books about emotionally stunted idiots who can’t have a simple conversation with the person they fancy over the course of years and bloody years." Yes! Nailed it! I joined in Sarah Ditum's comments on Sally Rooney, too. But your paragraph on the nature of the stunted "conversations" is exactly what bugs me about those books you mention. Even Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which I did enjoy. Just actually TALK to each other, people!
And yes, Kavalier and Clay is a fantastic book. Read it years ago and my memory of it is still that it was really fresh and original.
That was my issue with Babel too. There is lots of paragraphs about how the characters made each other laugh and they all had a great friendship, but there isn't one moment where any of the characters actually says something funny. (I should add, that I also enjoyed Tomorrowx3 but just not to the extent that everyone else seemed to enjoy it).
Yes, 'stunted conversations'… Of course people in real life aren't always perfectly articulate, and it can be really hard to just come out and say what you feel. But how long do they have to keep it up? Jane Austen knew how to get this right 200 years ago. (It's not just Lizzy setting eyes on Darcy's magnificent estate; it's his letter to her, and his intervention to ensure Wickham does the right thing with Lydia.)
I listened to One Day as an audiobook and had to suffer a narrator who couldn’t do a Yorkshire accent and pronounced tw*t to rhyme with swot despite being English. Am recovering slowly
This was so fun and insightful. I am delighted to have stumbled upon it. But now I am never going to post that poor drafted review of the “house of dragons”.
Ha! One of the people I linked to was so scathing about badly written reviews that it genuinely made me want to delete this entire newsletter. I’m glad you enjoyed it. Maybe someone will love your House of Dragons insights!
Maybe when I post it, you should rip it apart, thus cleansing us both.
We could just keep writing reviews of each other’s reviews until our egos are in tatters
Or, because we know that we are both secretly benevolent and just playing a role, our skins will thicken and we will become as strong as iguanas!
Yes!!
Thought-provoking and beautiful, and wow, that Jeff Buckley review. I like the idea of Rolling Stone waiting 10 years (less suicides) but I'm not sure the industry would tolerate it. Thank you for the Blind Melon doco trailer; will seek it out.
I always read the 1 star reviews of books. I feel they save me a lot of grief. I can usually tell if the person is an idiot or not i.e. whether I will agree with their opinion or not, so it doesn't impact the buying very much. My own 1-star reviews (received, never given) are brutal.
One-star reviews are why I always give a book I enjoyed 5 stars no matter what. There are way too many that are things like “haven’t read it, it’s for a friend” or “cover was bent” so my 5 stars is to go towards neutralising them.
You can't rank Saved By the Bell lower than Friends!
You’re probably right there tbf
I am looking for the scathing review of your scathing review here… did I misunderstand? I wanted to use it as a prompt and jam off it for a fiction piece tonight…
Not on my review, thankfully! Here's the link to Celine Nguyen talking about the TLS review https://substack.com/@celinenguyen/note/c-70290409 She links to a comment which links to a Substack piece all scathing of the scathing review. It's a bit of a Matryoshka doll of commentary
Sorry, originally commented while signed in to the wrong account (I'm an admin for an association so shouldn't be posting personal takes. This is me posting as me.
I have to say I love your take on 'One Day' and 'Normal People'. In fact I gave up on both… 'One Day' as a TV adaptation (in the UK, don't know how widely it's aired elsewhere), and 'Normal People' as audiobook.
I sort-of agree about 'Friends'. I wouldn't say I found it terrible (we have plenty worse sitcoms on British TV) but I really couldn't see quite why it got such a massive following.
But tastes in comedy are very personal. For me, the gold standard is Fawlty Towers, Blackadder, and Red Dwarf (the original, not the remake). And why do I like Young Sheldon so much more than Big Bang Theory?
I love everything about this and also am someone whose convictions are eminently shakeable - which I consider a sign of intelligence (but feel free to persuade me otherwise). Also S1 of HACF is messy while it finds its feet; even the guys who created it acknowledge that. It pays off if you can stick with it, but it's understandable if people don't. Even if they should. Obvs.
Glad I'm not alone! And given I consider you incredibly intelligent, I'm going to go ahead and agree with you (unless someone gives me a persuasive argument against). Maybe I'll go back to HACF one day. I do believe you that it will sort itself out and be excellent, it's just that watching tv shows about start-ups with investors gives me flashbacks.
I mean the startup thing is 100% built in right to the end, so that is definitely a consideration. And thank you! I always think I'm quite slow but maybe that's what all of us smart people do? x
I absolutely LOVED Silicon Valley (the sitcom) but my god did it bring back some bad memories
Thanks for introducing me to Hot Melon, Katie. I want to watch that documentary now.
"What struck me (supremely cold take incoming!) was that these are all books about emotionally stunted idiots who can’t have a simple conversation with the person they fancy over the course of years and bloody years." Yes! Nailed it! I joined in Sarah Ditum's comments on Sally Rooney, too. But your paragraph on the nature of the stunted "conversations" is exactly what bugs me about those books you mention. Even Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, which I did enjoy. Just actually TALK to each other, people!
And yes, Kavalier and Clay is a fantastic book. Read it years ago and my memory of it is still that it was really fresh and original.
That was my issue with Babel too. There is lots of paragraphs about how the characters made each other laugh and they all had a great friendship, but there isn't one moment where any of the characters actually says something funny. (I should add, that I also enjoyed Tomorrowx3 but just not to the extent that everyone else seemed to enjoy it).
Yes, 'stunted conversations'… Of course people in real life aren't always perfectly articulate, and it can be really hard to just come out and say what you feel. But how long do they have to keep it up? Jane Austen knew how to get this right 200 years ago. (It's not just Lizzy setting eyes on Darcy's magnificent estate; it's his letter to her, and his intervention to ensure Wickham does the right thing with Lydia.)
I was being facetious as always. 😇
I listened to One Day as an audiobook and had to suffer a narrator who couldn’t do a Yorkshire accent and pronounced tw*t to rhyme with swot despite being English. Am recovering slowly