Atrios used to have this series of posts called "What Digby said."
Digby and Atrios are two of my favorite political writers and thinkers (Glenn Greenwald, Josh Marshall, John Cole and Bob Somerby probably round out the starting infield on my all-star team, if you care about that sort of thing) so I always enjoyed it when Atrios — who is no slouch — would quote Digby and simply say, "What Digby said."
I think I’m going to have to start a similar bunch of posts here, called What Scalzi Said, because I keep trying to write up my own take on something John’s written, and I end up feeling massively inadequate. It would just be better to point to it and say, "What Scalzi said." Or, if I was on Fark, I’d quote it and add: THIS.
Today’s edition of What Scalzi Said addresses a complicated issue that I could have written about myself if I wasn’t so self conscious about the whole thing. He calls it Meeting Authors (and me):
One aspect of fame — even the rather meager portion of it that I and
most authors have — is that more people know you than you know, and
they have a relationship with you that you don’t have with them. I
can’t individually know everyone who reads one of my books or reads
Whatever; I’d have no time left at the end of the day. And once again
it makes me feel sorry for people who are genuinely famous, who have this sort of unequal relationship with millions of people, not just a few sundry thousands.
I do think it’s worth remembering that even though you’ve
read our books (and our blogs) and feel friendly toward us, on our end
of things you’re a stranger, even if we’ve interacted with you through
blog comments or e-mail or whatever.[…]
That said, you know: I’m just this guy. There’s no great
science to meeting me or any author for the first time. Presuming that
you are adult and socialized reasonably well, the way to introduce
yourself to me is the same way you would introduce yourself to anyone
you’ve not actually met before in real life. You come up, make sure I’m
not currently engaged in a task that needs my full attention, say
“excuse me” or “hello” to get my attention, and then introduce
yourself. Wherein you and I will likely have a nice, brief chat, and
after a minute or two we’ll disengage and go about our lives. Pretty
simple.
It’s hard for me to just excerpt a little bit of it, especially because I’ve been on both sides of the conversation, but all I can really add to it is, "THIS." I really want to encourage everyone who may find themselves in a position to meet an author, actor, musician, or net.celebrity to go and read it. The conversation in the comments is great, too.
This has been the first installment of What Scalzi Said, brought to you by Slurm (it’s highly addictive!) Please stay tuned for Everybody Loves Hypnotoad, coming up next!
