Quote:
Originally Posted by Littermate
I giggled a bit when I first read the blog comments but now I just feel a bit queasy about it.
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I'm not sure if it was in this thread or the other one (the topic has spawned two) but that has been said, several times. The same impulse that led you to say it -- wanting to respond to people without regard to fellow posters' responses -- is what motivated the various people to respond to the angry author. In other words, they weren't joining with the other posters of the same thing; they were disregarding them completely, and would have posted what they did whether 300 or 30 or 3 people had posted before them. That's the nature of the modern Internet, as you can see in any comment area: people shouting but not listening. They don't think "someone else already said what I want to say; I don't need to bother". They say "I want to say this-and-that" and they do, without taking anyone else's posts into consideration. I've called it the Facebook phenomenon -- millions of people shouting and nobody listening. It's conversation as a one-way process.
As for the one-star Amazon reviews, while I don't agree with that, I do understand why people are doing it: she trotted out the Amazon reviews left by her friends and family as "proof" that there is nothing wrong with her writing. Since she said "I'm good because my three Amazon reviews said
this" there are people who are going to say "no you're not because your Amazon reviews said
that" and post accordingly. (the fact that she's gotten several family members to post 5-star "reviews" doesn't help in the slightest) And when she demanded, very forcefully (and with insults) that the blog's owner remove his review because it wasn't glowing, that threw every positive review she's ever gotten into question as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kindlekitten
has it occurred to anyone that she is not a native speaker of English?
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She claims to be a native speaker. She's British. (early on, one of her excuses for her bad writing was that Americans don't understand British humor) So, yes, it occurred, but was quickly dismissed.
But that's not the issue. Her bad writing is just grounds for a poor review. Her attitude -- her belligerence, her refusal to admit obvious mistakes, and especially her cursing out the reviewer and other posters -- is the issue, and the rather vigorous public response was to
that. Writing in your second language doesn't turn you into a jerk. Also, when I post something in a language not my first, I not only don't curse at people who correct my errors, I thank them profusely. I don't insist that there
are no errors. I'm somewhat more arrogant about English: I think I tend to get it right. But even so, if someone points out an error in my writing, I check it. If it's wrong, I fix it. That's what trying for my personal best (I can't be
the best, but I can be
my best) is all about. I don't think I'm already the best that can be ... and this author, apparently, does.
Basically, she did an Anne Rice, but ten times worse, and without a tenth of Ms. Rice's talent. That doesn't go over well with readers.