{"id":1943,"date":"2009-02-16T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2009-02-16T08:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=1943"},"modified":"2013-02-07T19:31:25","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T03:31:25","slug":"republic-of-snark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/16\/republic-of-snark\/","title":{"rendered":"republic of snark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"9781416599456\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The title of this post is also the title of the first chapter of David Denby’s new book Snark: It’s mean, It’s personal, and It’s Ruining Our Conversation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Here are a couple excerpts from the first chapter:<\/p>\n

This is an essay about a strain of nasty, knowing abuse spreading like pinkeye through the national conversation — a tone of snarking insult provoked and encouraged by the new hybrid world of print, television, radio, and the Internet. It’s an essay about style and also, I suppose, grace. Anyone who speaks of grace — so spiritual a word — in connection with our raucous culture risks sounding like a genteel idiot, so I had better say right away that I’m all in favor of nasty comedy, incessant profanity, trash talk, any kind of satire, and certain kinds of invective. It’s the bad kind of invective — low, teasing, snide, condescending, knowing; in brief, snark — that I hate. …<\/p>\n

Snark attacks individuals, not groups, though it may appeal to a group mentality, depositing a little bit more toxin into already poisoned waters. Snark is a teasing, rug-pulling form of insult that attempts to steal someone’s mojo, erase her cool, annihilate her effectiveness, and it appeals to a knowing audience that shares the contempt of the snarker and therefore understands whatever references he makes. It’s all jeer and josh, a form of bullying that, except at its highest levels, beggars the soul of humor. …<\/p>\n

Of course, snark is just words<\/em>, and if you look at it one piece at a time, it seems of piddling importance. But it’s annoying as hell, the most dreadful style going, and ultimately debilitating. A future America in which too many people sound mean and silly, like small yapping dogs tied to a post; in which we insult one another merrily in a kind of endless zany brouhaha; in which the lowest, most insinuating and insulting side threatens to win national political campaigns — this America will leave everyone, including the snarkers, in a foul mood once the laughs die out. …<\/p>\n

It turns out that in the wake of the Internet revolution, snark as a style has outgrown its original limited function. The Internet has allowed it to metastasize as a pop writing form: A snarky insult, embedded in a story or a post, quickly gets traffic; it gets linked to other blogs; and soon it has spread like a sneezy cold through the vast kindergarten of the Web. Not only that, it’s there forever, since it’s easily Googled out of obscurity. Along with all the useful, solid, clever, playful information and opinion circulating around, a style of creepy nastiness is rampaging all over the place, too. The zombies are biting, and a hell of a lot of us are enjoying the spectacle. The Internet did not invent sarcasm, or the porous back fence where our gossiping parents gathered, or the tenderly merciful tabloids; but it provides universal distribution of what had earlier reached a limited number of eyes and ears. In brief, the knowing group has been enlarged to an enormous audience that enjoys cruelty as a blood sport.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s an excellent 30 minute talk by David Denby that’s available on CSPAN’s Book TV<\/a> website – you can view it here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Much of what passes for journalism on the web can be said to make use of the element of snark as its backbone, with print antecedents in the alternative weekly publications of all stripes.<\/p>\n

What a sad state of affairs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title of this post is also the title of the first chapter of David Denby’s new book Snark: It’s mean, It’s personal, and It’s Ruining Our Conversation. Here are a couple excerpts from the first chapter: This is an essay about a strain of nasty, knowing abuse spreading like pinkeye through the national conversation […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,225],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-bloggers"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-vl","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6718,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/07\/28\/enter-the-snark\/","url_meta":{"origin":1943,"position":0},"title":"enter the snark","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 28, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I hate snarkyness. But sometimes, it is just too fun not to wade into the cesspool and get your hip waders fully immersed. Observe, gentle reader, the following video: http:\/\/youtu.be\/skogMzBne6Q It's a video from the 1998 Jerusalem Music Center's quartet masterclass with violinist Isaac Stern and friends. The quartet that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/skogMzBne6Q\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2632,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/02\/stimulating-reading\/","url_meta":{"origin":1943,"position":1},"title":"stimulating reading","author":"Charles Noble","date":"June 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Not necessarily on-topic for this blog, but I thought I'd pass it on anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 There is a great new new\/opinion blog up that you should check out, called The Stimulist.\u00c2\u00a0 Written by Carlos Watson, who is a news host on MSNBC, it's billed as a \"snark-free news and information site\".\u00c2\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1163,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/09\/23\/alex-ross-is-a-genius\/","url_meta":{"origin":1943,"position":2},"title":"alex ross IS a genius","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"At least according to the MacArthur Foundation, who made Ross one of its 2008 Genius Grant Fellows. Here's his bio from the Foundation website: Alex Ross is a critic whose writing captures the often-elusive aesthetic and technical aspects of classical and contemporary music with clarity, grace, and wit. A staff\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/alexmichalek2-400x487.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7951,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/10\/17\/the-view-from-3000-feet\/","url_meta":{"origin":1943,"position":3},"title":"the view from 30,00 feet","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 17, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Cleveland Orchestra bassist Henry Peyrebrune has written a guest post on Adaptistration today which I simply must call to your attention. He takes the view of the forest, rather than the trees (hence the title of his essay: A View of the Forest), and comes up with compelling arguments to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":900,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/04\/01\/kalmar-featured-tafto-contributer-for-2008\/","url_meta":{"origin":1943,"position":4},"title":"kalmar featured TAFTO contributer for 2008","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"OSO music director Carlos Kalmar is one of the contributors for Drew McManus' Take A Friend To the Orchestra 2008 essay project. Kalmar's essay will appear on Monday, April 7, 2008. You can find the list of contributors and other articles at adaptistration.com.","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/04\/tafto-240x400carlos-kalmar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5802,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/02\/14\/why-orchestras-struggle-kaisers-view\/","url_meta":{"origin":1943,"position":5},"title":"why orchestras struggle – kaiser’s view","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Orchestral administrator-to-the-stars Michael Kaiser has a new mini-essay up on the Huffington Post, in which he outlines the reasons he believes that orchestras are having a tougher time than ever making ends meet. \u00a0It would be great to have a New Yorker style 30,000 word article on the topic, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "administration"","block_context":{"text":"administration","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/administration-the-orchestra-world-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1943"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1943\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1943"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1943"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1943"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}