RIP Bookslut
May 3, 2016 2:10 PM Subscribe
After 14 years, Bookslut has published its final issue. Vulture has an interview with Jessa Crispin, the site's founder and editor.
I don't think she is, really. Just acknowledging that Bookslut was never as commercial as some of the other litblogs back in the day. Difficulty of deciphering tone in print, I guess.
posted by rewil at 2:25 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by rewil at 2:25 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
That is a *fantastically* cranky and insightful interview and everything that I would have wanted from an interview with Jessa Crispin. She made a wonderful site that I read a lot back in the day. I'm glad she's getting out when she wants to.
Conversely, it was very sad to read about (MeFi's own) Ed Champion's crack-up. His Bat Segundo author interview series was very good.
posted by Kattullus at 2:54 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
Conversely, it was very sad to read about (MeFi's own) Ed Champion's crack-up. His Bat Segundo author interview series was very good.
posted by Kattullus at 2:54 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
There was no big idea, no big scheme. I just wanted to talk about books with my friends.
Oh I adored Bookslut back in the day and I read a metric ton of weird, unusual books because of them. Bookslut was one of those early internet things that make you go, "DAMN! I should have thought of that!!" Bookslut was a perfect moment in internet time that did exactly what it was supposed to do.
I haven't checked in with them in the last few years because after the dissertation, I really stopped reading smart books for fun and haven't climbed back on that horse yet.
Glad they are going out on their terms.
posted by teleri025 at 2:55 PM on May 3, 2016 [6 favorites]
Oh I adored Bookslut back in the day and I read a metric ton of weird, unusual books because of them. Bookslut was one of those early internet things that make you go, "DAMN! I should have thought of that!!" Bookslut was a perfect moment in internet time that did exactly what it was supposed to do.
I haven't checked in with them in the last few years because after the dissertation, I really stopped reading smart books for fun and haven't climbed back on that horse yet.
Glad they are going out on their terms.
posted by teleri025 at 2:55 PM on May 3, 2016 [6 favorites]
When she used to be in Chicago I made a point to go to readings and Bookslut nights. She has a singular voice and will be missed.
posted by readery at 3:03 PM on May 3, 2016
posted by readery at 3:03 PM on May 3, 2016
If you're short on time, Vox pulls 6 quotes from the interview. My favorite "Everyone is super-cheerful because they’re trying to sell you something"
posted by morganw at 3:14 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by morganw at 3:14 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
They’re so professional, and I mean that as an insult.
This (and the whole section around it) are so, so great. So much of American lit-blogging these days is compromised by glib, cheerily vacuous log-rolling positivity.
If you're short on time, Vox pulls 6 quotes
They've really out-Voxed themselves! Clickbaiting bluffers' crib notes for a 2,500-word interview. Unbelievable.
posted by RogerB at 3:20 PM on May 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
This (and the whole section around it) are so, so great. So much of American lit-blogging these days is compromised by glib, cheerily vacuous log-rolling positivity.
If you're short on time, Vox pulls 6 quotes
They've really out-Voxed themselves! Clickbaiting bluffers' crib notes for a 2,500-word interview. Unbelievable.
posted by RogerB at 3:20 PM on May 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
I read this earlier today and OMG I LOVE THIS WOMAN
LOVE
posted by sidereal at 3:26 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
LOVE
posted by sidereal at 3:26 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
I find something offputting about her remarks but not sure exactly what it is.
posted by Postroad at 3:49 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Postroad at 3:49 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Wow, if the laconic intensity of that interview mirrors her work in general, it's hard to imagine I would ever get tired of reading what she has to say.
posted by jamjam at 4:19 PM on May 3, 2016
posted by jamjam at 4:19 PM on May 3, 2016
Yeah, I haven't read it for years, either, and I never really shared their taste, but that litblog scene was basically my introduction to the modern internet. I feel like everyone I know got into blogs by reading the Daily Kos and stuff, and for me it was Laila Lalami and Bookslut and Maud Newton and the Elegant Variation and Sarah Weinman.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:43 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 4:43 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
They’re so professional, and I mean that as an insult. I didn’t want to become a professional. It’s like using the critical culture as a support to the industry rather than as an actual method of taking it apart.
haha she's great
posted by Sebmojo at 5:16 PM on May 3, 2016
haha she's great
posted by Sebmojo at 5:16 PM on May 3, 2016
even more haha, I clicked a random month on the sidebar and HEY WHAT DO YOU KNOW SHE SOUNDS FAMILIAR
posted by Sebmojo at 5:21 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Sebmojo at 5:21 PM on May 3, 2016 [3 favorites]
I kinda found it off-putting too and can't really figure out why. I think she just sounds...fizzled?
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:05 PM on May 3, 2016
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:05 PM on May 3, 2016
I miss this so much, this tone. This "this is what I think and you can love it or you can hate I'm not going to coat or coach it for you." An oak in a sea of reeds.
It's in everything creative now, and all the tech stuff, too, worst there --- that half-desperate, half-glib gloss of positivity, smiles so tight they crack your teeth. I had forgotten it could be otherwise, I had forgotten...
posted by Diablevert at 6:12 PM on May 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
It's in everything creative now, and all the tech stuff, too, worst there --- that half-desperate, half-glib gloss of positivity, smiles so tight they crack your teeth. I had forgotten it could be otherwise, I had forgotten...
posted by Diablevert at 6:12 PM on May 3, 2016 [7 favorites]
Bookslut turned me on to Lanark.
posted by kozad at 8:18 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by kozad at 8:18 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Re offputting: This paragraph put me off:
That contemporary feminism is not only embarrassing but incredibly misguided to the point where I can’t associate myself with it. There’s outrage culture, safe spaces, the lean-in culture — but also the Gen-X-Baby-Boomer rah-rah capitalism, yay! And also a lot of misguided notions about gender. As if women are somehow more naturally empathetic than men, and all we need is full participation in public life and somehow the world gets better. Which is not the case.
Because safe spaces are apparently so terrible to feminism, or whatever.
posted by divabat at 8:33 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
That contemporary feminism is not only embarrassing but incredibly misguided to the point where I can’t associate myself with it. There’s outrage culture, safe spaces, the lean-in culture — but also the Gen-X-Baby-Boomer rah-rah capitalism, yay! And also a lot of misguided notions about gender. As if women are somehow more naturally empathetic than men, and all we need is full participation in public life and somehow the world gets better. Which is not the case.
Because safe spaces are apparently so terrible to feminism, or whatever.
posted by divabat at 8:33 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Divabat, will you please deconstruct that para quote for me to understand what you don't like about it?
I'm not being snarky, I guess I'm just reading it differently.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:34 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I'm not being snarky, I guess I'm just reading it differently.
posted by BlueHorse at 9:34 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
(Oh bah the last line was italized when it didn't need to be)
"Outrage culture" and "safe spaces" are dogwhistles for those who think that "marginalized people, especially POC, LGBTQ people, and the disabled, are oversensitive and should just shut up because they're harming feminism". (e.g. all the backlash against trigger warnings "ruining education"). Lean-In culture tends to contain the sort of people for whom that sentiment is true, so I'm a little confused as to why she's lumping them together.
It sounds like someone who's bitter that somebody called her out at some point and are now KIDS ARE RUINING FEMINISM
posted by divabat at 9:39 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
"Outrage culture" and "safe spaces" are dogwhistles for those who think that "marginalized people, especially POC, LGBTQ people, and the disabled, are oversensitive and should just shut up because they're harming feminism". (e.g. all the backlash against trigger warnings "ruining education"). Lean-In culture tends to contain the sort of people for whom that sentiment is true, so I'm a little confused as to why she's lumping them together.
It sounds like someone who's bitter that somebody called her out at some point and are now KIDS ARE RUINING FEMINISM
posted by divabat at 9:39 PM on May 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
I find MFA culture terrible. Everyone is super-cheerful because they’re trying to sell you something, and I find it really repulsive. There seems to be less and less underground. And what it’s replaced by is this very professional, shiny, happy plastic version of literature.
Bookslut was one of the first book-websites I followed, though I had stopped regularly checking it out. This reminded me why I had liked it in the first place. She is/has been such a great antidote to the forced, rather anodyne positivity you get everywhere nowadays, and this interview is perfect.
posted by Ziggy500 at 11:13 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Bookslut was one of the first book-websites I followed, though I had stopped regularly checking it out. This reminded me why I had liked it in the first place. She is/has been such a great antidote to the forced, rather anodyne positivity you get everywhere nowadays, and this interview is perfect.
posted by Ziggy500 at 11:13 PM on May 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
("bokslut" means "balancing of the books" in Swedish, so I guess this is a bookslut bokslut?)
posted by effbot at 1:53 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by effbot at 1:53 AM on May 4, 2016 [1 favorite]
Maybe it’s interesting to put her reference to her views on feminism in the interview in the context of what she has already written about it more in depth? Like this essay/book review "on the downside of self-empowerment feminism" in the Boston Review, The Not-So-Revolutionary Single Woman – The American family is changing, but politics are not changing with it. It’s an interesting read.
So are previous essays/reviews of books on feminism from recent years - Feminism and the “50 Shades” Hangover, and this review of The Future of Feminism by Sylvia Walby, for instance.
There’s a lot to chew in all those pieces. I would pull out a few quotes but nah, they are worth reading in entirety.
And oh, Vox out-Voxing itself indeed... Fantastic!
– Ha ha, I talk about the impossibility of making money without clickbait, the headlines are "Crispin SLAMS EVISCERATES BURNS BRIDGES RAWR"
posted by bitteschoen at 4:27 AM on May 4, 2016 [7 favorites]
So are previous essays/reviews of books on feminism from recent years - Feminism and the “50 Shades” Hangover, and this review of The Future of Feminism by Sylvia Walby, for instance.
There’s a lot to chew in all those pieces. I would pull out a few quotes but nah, they are worth reading in entirety.
And oh, Vox out-Voxing itself indeed... Fantastic!
– Ha ha, I talk about the impossibility of making money without clickbait, the headlines are "Crispin SLAMS EVISCERATES BURNS BRIDGES RAWR"
posted by bitteschoen at 4:27 AM on May 4, 2016 [7 favorites]
Coming late to this, but I don't think she was cranky about me -- I certainly never hid the fact that I wanted to make a living with my passion for books and writing; she was just stating the obvious. As rewil says, tone in print can be tricky.
posted by RonHogan at 8:20 PM on May 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by RonHogan at 8:20 PM on May 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
Someone else tried to start a new FPP with the interview with Jessa Crispin in the Guardian. Includes shoutouts to Kathryn Davis, Daphne Gottlieb, and Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore.
posted by larrybob at 12:14 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by larrybob at 12:14 PM on May 10, 2016 [1 favorite]
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