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Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

whatever.scalzi.com

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Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#31

Post by bawolff »

DandyDev wrote: post #13
mark_l_watson wrote: post #2

I really enjoy Scalzi’s books, and to the point: it is nice of him to try to take the heat off of a young content creator who has helped promote his works.

The comment is factual, right? The person is young? Check. She is a content creator? Check. She promoted his books? Check. Nothing patronizing about that Edit: meant as a response to sibling comment

Things can both be literally correct and patronizing. Words have cannotations beyond their literal meanings

In this case "Young content creator" can have the implication that she is not a real success but is only impressive because of her age. Since if she was on the level of a real media personality there would be no need to add the "young" adjective. She would just be a "content creator"

Similarly, content creator can have the implication you run a blog or get your fame solely from social media instead of being good enough for more traditional venues (which could be true, i dont know this person).

Is all that massively over thinking this? Probably. But i understand how the phrase could be seen as patronizing even if literally accurate.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#32

Post by [deleted] »

lukas099 wrote: post #29
matthewdgreen wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would trade my right arm to be young enough that I get offended when people call me “young.” Youth is really wasted on 20- and 30-somethings.

Imagine this happened to Oprah (when she was younger) and somebody said "it is nice of him to try to take the heat off of a young content creator".

[deleted]

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#33

Post by bawolff »

sshine wrote: post #27

John Scalzi clearly does not understand that being offended on behalf of someone else really has nothing to do with him.

I mean, i think he understands that perfectly fine. You can still engage with things that have nothing to do with you. You did it with your comment after all.

You can still reasonably feel a moral obligation to intervene on stuff done in your name or on your behalf even if it isn't really about you.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#34

Post by Y_Y »

developer93 wrote: post #4
mark_l_watson wrote: post #2

I really enjoy Scalzi’s books, and to the point: it is nice of him to try to take the heat off of a young content creator who has helped promote his works.

Did you read the article? She runs one of the biggest bookclubs in Hungary. That comment seems a little patronising. :)

Wow! Her hovercraft must be chock-full of eels.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#37

Post by gorjusborg »

tibbydudeza wrote: post #12
bowsamic wrote: post #9

I really don't understand how we are supposed to deal with this modern outrage culture

By not being on or engaging social media - if you messed up you could go to the next village and not get tarred and feathered there. I read about this incident living in a different continent proverbially 8400 miles away from Budapest. A global village you tell me - meh - it is a curse.

Not engaging is a perfectly reasonable choice, especially when the negatives of engaging outweigh the positives.

More selectively engaging could also work, in theory. In practice though, I suspect people succumb to industry engagement stimulation techniques and get pulled back in completely.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#38

Post by cschmidt »

madaxe_again wrote: post #17
NBJack wrote: post #15

Scalzi is definitely one of my favorites right now. While I actually don't like the Old Man's War universe that much, his one-off books and smaller series have been absolute delights. They become even better when he gets Wil Wheaton to narrate his audio releases (I still smile thinking of Redshirts). Nice to see Scalzi use what influence he has to actually help someone else like this.

I read “Old Man’s War” a few weeks back, and it left me totally cold - while he’s of course attempting to reach a broad audience, it struck me as so tropeful it made me squirm. Space marines having knife-fights with giant bugs in a thunderdome was right up there. There was also a weird bit where all of a sudden all of the characters are asking each other how old they are over the course of a dozen pages, which felt l…

I also read it recently, and didn't care for it much. But I was always more of a Asimov / Clarke fan than of Heinlein, so I wasn't super surprised.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#39

Post by karaterobot »

gnfargbl wrote: post #6

As far as I can tell, the story here is that 1. the person tasked with introducing an author talked more about her own initiative (getting people to read more) than the author; 2. the person was criticised for this; and 3. the author wants people to know that he doesn't mind not being talked about because he likes reading too, and he doesn't feel he needs help promoting himself. So far, so boring. There's also some m…

> There's also some mysterious implication that the criticism was due to some kind of undercurrents in Hungarian politics. Is this another tedious culture war thing?

I doubt it. I think he was just saying "I can't know whether I have all the facts or context when I say this" in the same way that I, a random person on the internet, can only assume that John Scalzi is giving me all the relevant facts in that blog post, and if there is something I'm missing that makes it more complicated, my comment here on HN does not take that into account.

Re: Ági Szabados Does Not Need to Apologize to Me

#40

Post by gilbetron »

lukas099 wrote: post #29
matthewdgreen wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would trade my right arm to be young enough that I get offended when people call me “young.” Youth is really wasted on 20- and 30-somethings.

Imagine this happened to Oprah (when she was younger) and somebody said "it is nice of him to try to take the heat off of a young content creator".

Roger Ebert helped Orpah when she was young (about the same age, 32ish) just before she exploded in popularity. I can't imagine Oprah being offended in that situation or seeing it as being patronizing.
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