Here's a short interview from four years ago worth exploring.
http://bigthink.com/ideas/1165
Keith Gessen talks about the McSweeney's Gang, and mentions they believe in being nice. But the problem is they're not nice people, not really. Like so many of their kind, the McSweeney's niceness is a mask hiding their ruthlessness. Cross them and you'll find out what I'm talking about. These "nice" people suddenly become capable of many underhanded and devious things. This includes renewing a fight with the shattered remains of the Underground Literary Alliance, via the smears in the republished Tom Bissell essay on the organization.
Yes, I know I don't fit the prescriptions of the Dave Eggers manifesto of being a nice writer and not criticizing anything. Two points which need to be made.
1.) Not speaking up means enabling the ongoing corruption of literary Insiders, who game the system again and again. When Eggers has spoken on the issue of "niceness," it's been disingenuous. It's excuse making for overlooking unsavory aspects of the game. For instance, the ULA didn't criticize Rick Moody because we were "envious" of his success; nor because we thought he was "selling out" by having his novel made into a movie. We criticized him because this successful writer, spawn of the top 0.1% of American society, heir no doubt to a humongous amount of money, was applying for and receiving tax sheltered financial assistance which might better have gone to writers who actually needed it. Mr. Moody was also caught sitting on a grants panel-- he's sat on very many grants panels-- awarding taxpayer funds to his friends. Fellow "New White Guys" writers. Were we wrong for speaking up about this, Mr. Eggers? Yes? No?
2.) We made our criticisms under our own identities, in as upfront a way possible-- which is seldom seen nowadays. We paid the price for upsetting very many powerful literary people.
"No criticism" aka "Be nice to everybody" aka "Be nice to us" is an excuse for corruption and conformity.
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