This op ed writer had to make up a grievance to get angry about. Any cursory search of reading trends over the last fifty years will show the decline of men reading literary fiction in favor of...
Last week, the longlists for the National Book Awards were announced. Among the 20 authors in the fiction and nonfiction categories, nearly all are straight white males. Most are also on the political right, some even on the far right. Remarkably, mainstream media outlets haven’t reported this, perhaps because they don’t think it’s noteworthy. It’s as if we were living in 1956 rather than 2026.
If you’re scratching your head at this “news,” well, it’s because I made it up.
This op ed writer had to make up a grievance to get angry about.
Any cursory search of reading trends over the last fifty years will show the decline of men reading literary fiction in favor of genre fiction or not reading at all.
Publishers have consolidated into three publishing houses after mergers and acquisitions. Like it or not, they do what is profitable. Women read literary fiction written by women, and the publishing industry is dying, so they're doing what works, not trying to trample on your masculinity or further some sinister agenda.
Well it's Bret Stephens, he who just said Ah yes the real New Yorkers, who spend June in Martha's Vineyard and GREECE Not his first bad take.
Well it's Bret Stephens, he who just said
Millions of Americans, including me, not only hate the parties but also hate the party for which we typically vote. That means there's a market of the dissatisfied. I hear this all the time among my friends in New York City: They can't believe they're stuck with Zohran Mamdani as mayor, and they felt the same way about Eric Adams and Bill de Blasio before him. But when you ask them if they voted in the primaries, the usual answer is: Uh, no - we were on the Vineyard or in Greece. The point is that it's on them, or us, and the remedy is some civic entrepreneurship, philanthropically funded, to change this.
Ah yes the real New Yorkers, who spend November June in Martha's Vineyard and GREECE
Bret Stephens Is Big Mad at the Best Writers He Hasn’t Read - Electric Literature Are Book Awards Dictated by D.E.I.? Stephens has some... Controversial... Views that I would not agree with, which...
Stephens has some... Controversial... Views that I would not agree with, which make me suspect of his criticisms just on those grounds alone. And I think is oh so very clever rhetorical trick was dumb.
I think that the books he listed are reflecting the market and I suspect the propensity of women to read more than men has skewed this even further in his perspective. But mostly he'd have helped his case more if he'd read any of the work, instead of assuming he knows why it won. (And wonder if he would give up his Pulitzer under the assumption he's also just "a token". )
Also in the past 5 years two white men won the Pulitzer, two won the Nobel for Literative and I believe 3 won the Booker? So he's upset about the nominees but not lauding the white men winning, why.. because it would break his narrative. Also his narrative treats all POC as a block, and treats all stories about them as political. Because there are white men and there are political people.
The If Books Could Kill podcast did an episode covering him and IMO he's just one more proof that the NYT has no standards when it comes to conservative columnists.
His implication is that people aren't reading anymore because the books are too much about identity. As if these are the only books, as if no one is reading these books. As if he's not the problem as he's not reading these books and discouraging others from reading by disparaging books. As if the people banning books in schools aren't predominantly on his "team."
Off-topic: the NYT seems to have found some means of breaking the Firefox Reader Mode, at least on Android. Entering Reader Mode causes the page to immediately reload, which seems to boot it back...
Off-topic: the NYT seems to have found some means of breaking the Firefox Reader Mode, at least on Android. Entering Reader Mode causes the page to immediately reload, which seems to boot it back to the paywall. Disabling Javascript lets me read enough of the article to realize that the rest of the article isn't going to be worth the squeeze.
On-topic: From what I read, this doesn't really seem like the sort of thing that's going to lead to a productive discussion... anywhere? It'd be nice if there were a way to flag threads the way we can flag comments; this seems primed to be one of those recurrent front-page nuisance threads that end up with lots of people getting very upset and angry.
The ability to flag threads that aren't likely to lead to productive discussion was a conversation had on Tildes a few months ago, and the feature's not coming as development has ceased. I've...
The ability to flag threads that aren't likely to lead to productive discussion was a conversation had on Tildes a few months ago, and the feature's not coming as development has ceased.
I've found tags work well for the frequent topics that cause upset and anger (Gamergate, politics.usa, and certain authors). I hadn't actually noticed the 'Ignore' button on submissions before, so I feel a bit silly. Thanks for pointing out it's an option!
To the first part: I had an paywall bypass for Firefox which stopped working almost everywhere roughly two years ago now and no updates on it seem to fix it. To the second part: I ignore tons of...
To the first part: I had an paywall bypass for Firefox which stopped working almost everywhere roughly two years ago now and no updates on it seem to fix it.
To the second part: I ignore tons of posts on this website and I’m not sure why people act like ignoring a post you’re not interested in is a hassle.
Gift link for others I don't have easy archiving set up on my phone (and I have the app so it's annoying anyway) but for others this may help. I agree it isn't worth it, personally.
I don't have easy archiving set up on my phone (and I have the app so it's annoying anyway) but for others this may help. I agree it isn't worth it, personally.
This op ed writer had to make up a grievance to get angry about.
Any cursory search of reading trends over the last fifty years will show the decline of men reading literary fiction in favor of genre fiction or not reading at all.
Publishers have consolidated into three publishing houses after mergers and acquisitions. Like it or not, they do what is profitable. Women read literary fiction written by women, and the publishing industry is dying, so they're doing what works, not trying to trample on your masculinity or further some sinister agenda.
It is impossible to take this article seriously.
Well it's Bret Stephens, he who just said
Ah yes the real New Yorkers, who spend
NovemberJune in Martha's Vineyard and GREECENot his first bad take.
Bret Stephens Is Big Mad at the Best Writers He Hasn’t Read - Electric Literature
Are Book Awards Dictated by D.E.I.?
Stephens has some... Controversial... Views that I would not agree with, which make me suspect of his criticisms just on those grounds alone. And I think is oh so very clever rhetorical trick was dumb.
I think that the books he listed are reflecting the market and I suspect the propensity of women to read more than men has skewed this even further in his perspective. But mostly he'd have helped his case more if he'd read any of the work, instead of assuming he knows why it won. (And wonder if he would give up his Pulitzer under the assumption he's also just "a token". )
Also in the past 5 years two white men won the Pulitzer, two won the Nobel for Literative and I believe 3 won the Booker? So he's upset about the nominees but not lauding the white men winning, why.. because it would break his narrative. Also his narrative treats all POC as a block, and treats all stories about them as political. Because there are white men and there are political people.
The If Books Could Kill podcast did an episode covering him and IMO he's just one more proof that the NYT has no standards when it comes to conservative columnists.
His implication is that people aren't reading anymore because the books are too much about identity. As if these are the only books, as if no one is reading these books. As if he's not the problem as he's not reading these books and discouraging others from reading by disparaging books. As if the people banning books in schools aren't predominantly on his "team."
Off-topic: the NYT seems to have found some means of breaking the Firefox Reader Mode, at least on Android. Entering Reader Mode causes the page to immediately reload, which seems to boot it back to the paywall. Disabling Javascript lets me read enough of the article to realize that the rest of the article isn't going to be worth the squeeze.
On-topic: From what I read, this doesn't really seem like the sort of thing that's going to lead to a productive discussion... anywhere? It'd be nice if there were a way to flag threads the way we can flag comments; this seems primed to be one of those recurrent front-page nuisance threads that end up with lots of people getting very upset and angry.
I'll settle for ignoring it.
The ability to flag threads that aren't likely to lead to productive discussion was a conversation had on Tildes a few months ago, and the feature's not coming as development has ceased.
I've found tags work well for the frequent topics that cause upset and anger (Gamergate, politics.usa, and certain authors). I hadn't actually noticed the 'Ignore' button on submissions before, so I feel a bit silly. Thanks for pointing out it's an option!
Would you be interested in a browser plugin that let you collaboratively filter users/posts?
To the first part: I had an paywall bypass for Firefox which stopped working almost everywhere roughly two years ago now and no updates on it seem to fix it.
To the second part: I ignore tons of posts on this website and I’m not sure why people act like ignoring a post you’re not interested in is a hassle.
Gift link for others
I don't have easy archiving set up on my phone (and I have the app so it's annoying anyway) but for others this may help. I agree it isn't worth it, personally.