In all the hoohah over Alice Hoffman/Twitter debacle, another case of poor sportsmanship (bookmanship? literaryship?) over the weekend got lost in the snark.
British essayist Alain de Botton received a severe review from Caleb Crain in The New York Times. Among other things, de Botton's book, The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work, is described with phrases like "superficial judgment," "mean-spiritedness," and " an abdication of journalistic responsibility."
Like Hoffman, de Botton made the poor choice of responding while suffering a hot mess of emotion over the too-readily-available internet. According to Christopher Orr at The New Republic, de Botton posted his backlash on Crain's blog and pointed back to it on the usual social networking platforms.
From de Botton's response to Crain:
I genuinely hope that you will find yourself on the receiving end of such a daft review some time very soon - so that you can grow up and start to take some responsibility for your work as a reviewer..... I will hate you till the day I die and wish you nothing but ill will in every career move you make. I will be watching with interest and schadenfreude.....
I tell you, this literary world: it's not for the faint of heart.
Hat tip to Chris M. for the link.
Ho Ho! Interest and schadenfreude, eh?
It's curious that de Botton claims that receiving a "daft review" causes one to mature and take responsibility for their words, when, if in fact Crain's review was daft, de Botton's resulting maturity leaves him to spit schoolyard lines like, "I will hate you til the day I die." Dressed up, of course, with schadenfreude.