Helprin isn't that difficult to figure out (and that's no knock against him, since few folks who make a living publishing their opinions are). He wants to be Truman Capote. He wants to be feted and hailed for his command of a good quote and his facility with language. Thus, everything that makes it obvious that people who are not as good as him on his that scale of values are more broadly celebrated, is to be short down with all the venom he can muster, so people can see what a wit and raconteur he is.
I actually sympathize greatly with him: this is his way of fighting off the undermining of his lifestyle. But we can all see that it's misguided: techdirt commenters aren't trying to make him be wrong through the force of our ignorance and rudeness, any more than he can possible make us be wrong through force of savage wit.
It reminds me of Jim Craig being accused of "killing" the newspaper, whether from ignorance or spite (greed's ruled out, since he leaves millions of dollars in ad revenue on the table every year). But no one's guilty of that murder; the world is just turning away from the business model that sustained newspapers. That hurts the people who have spent significant portions of their lives being so sustained, and their grief at this loss has been loud and long.
We should expect that, and forgive them for it; before this new better thing came along, "old media" gave a lot of joy and did a lot of good. Getting over the loss and working through the grief is going to be harder for some than others : Helprin's on Anger, and may never leave it, whereas those he sees as his enemies are mostly well past Acceptance. I'm glad that Techdirt is keeping us abreast of this saga, but spending too many electrons mocking the guy seems a bit too much like bear-baiting to me. It's not even elitism, just pointlessly cruel.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Nick Novitski.
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A Good Grief
Helprin isn't that difficult to figure out (and that's no knock against him, since few folks who make a living publishing their opinions are). He wants to be Truman Capote. He wants to be feted and hailed for his command of a good quote and his facility with language. Thus, everything that makes it obvious that people who are not as good as him on his that scale of values are more broadly celebrated, is to be short down with all the venom he can muster, so people can see what a wit and raconteur he is.
I actually sympathize greatly with him: this is his way of fighting off the undermining of his lifestyle. But we can all see that it's misguided: techdirt commenters aren't trying to make him be wrong through the force of our ignorance and rudeness, any more than he can possible make us be wrong through force of savage wit.
It reminds me of Jim Craig being accused of "killing" the newspaper, whether from ignorance or spite (greed's ruled out, since he leaves millions of dollars in ad revenue on the table every year). But no one's guilty of that murder; the world is just turning away from the business model that sustained newspapers. That hurts the people who have spent significant portions of their lives being so sustained, and their grief at this loss has been loud and long.
We should expect that, and forgive them for it; before this new better thing came along, "old media" gave a lot of joy and did a lot of good. Getting over the loss and working through the grief is going to be harder for some than others : Helprin's on Anger, and may never leave it, whereas those he sees as his enemies are mostly well past Acceptance. I'm glad that Techdirt is keeping us abreast of this saga, but spending too many electrons mocking the guy seems a bit too much like bear-baiting to me. It's not even elitism, just pointlessly cruel.
Techdirt has not posted any stories submitted by Nick Novitski.
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