NP - Franzen gets a SciAm Smack down

[matthew cissell]

Hi all,

I don't know about you, but if I got a response from Scientific American
for something I had written like J. Franzen just got, I would be mortified.
I mean, jeez, the editorial board signed off on it - ouch.

So the back story. Seems JF wrote a piece for the New Yorker called "What
if We Stopped Pretending?" that appeared Sept 8th.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/what-if-we-stopped-pretending

The response from Scientific American was not long in coming. Penned by
Kate Marvel, it is dated Sept 11th on the SciAm website and is titled "Shut
up, Jonathan Franzen". Daaaamn. That SMACK is still echoing in fjords that
Franzen's forefathers visited as they sailed along the Norwegian coast.

Silly piece on JmF's part. If he believes it he's the worst sort of
Neinsagender that there is. Citing Kafka, bah. I'm sure his German is fine,
it's the rest of his intellectual faculties that might not be as robust as
he and others would have the world believe.
On the other hand one must also consider that this is a viable position to
take up and it will certainly get his name circulating a bit more; so we
may see it as an unconsciously calculated response to the field as he sees
it. To that extent it has worked, and we know that even negative press can
be beneficial to an established writer (although that is more in regard to
reviews than conversations in the public sphere).

Mother Jones was a bit more charitable.
https://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2019/09/jonathan-franzen-isnt-quite-right-but-he-has-a-point/

I wonder what Tom thinks about it all. Shaking his head likely.

ciao
mc


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