Yahoos on Yahoo

At work, I come into the web thru Yahoo and so I glance at the news headlines several times a day. A few hours ago, there was a blurb about the publishing industry's disappointment with book sales, and looking for the next Dan Brown or the next literary writer who would pump life into publishing. At the bottom of the article, there is a link to "talk about it."

Now anyone who has been following this (and other) blogs, know that getting anything published, much less something A LITTLE DIFFERENT, is to take a walk thru the valleys of paranoia, rejection, disrespect and angst. You sure as hell better be ready to suck it up.

With this in mind I posted a very mild little riposte stating that agents and editors, while purporting to be looking for the next new thing, are usually looking for the same old thing, tarted up in new clothes. Actually, my words weren't even that colorful.

When I read the posts, and there were lots of them, I was astonished at the vitriol, both from conservatives and liberals. People, there is a lot of hate and venom out there, and it is scary. Many of the posts were way off topic, but these people are frenzied with anger: about Bush, about Iraq, Kerry, even The Catcher in the Rye. The posters trying to have a reasonable discussion were totally outnumbered. Alerted to this cyber-screaming, I visited the posts about African animals on the great plains and the Ohio governor, and they were all just as vile, vicious and defamatory as the so-called literary discusssion. Is this another kind of talk-radio, where people post hatred instead of calling it in?

I am appalled. Some of us do not play well with others at all. Shame on you!

Grapeshot