Salon.com--you can't always trust what they print
Written: Mar 01 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: It may be the equivalent of a literary Enquirer--for those who like that kind of stuff
Cons: They don't always have articles fit to print
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| M_Lee_Williams's Full Review: Salon.com Magazine |
The feuding, back stabbing and mean-spiritedness that broke out at Zoetrope All Story: online submissions site has now spilled over into Salon.com. There is an article online as of February 22 in which a member of the Zoetrope writer's site, an admitted aspiring-script-writer-turned-aspiring-short-story-writer happened across Zoetrope in 1998. That's when she turned short story writer--in her own words she fancied herself the next Mario Puzo.
You all remember the Zoetrope site. It's the one financed by Francis Ford Coppola, the director of Mario Puzo's THE GODFATHER. For some reason the writer of the article referred to Coppola as impractically optimistic and she tagged him with a few other descriptions, sounding as if she knows, without a doubt, what she's talking about. It's one of those attempts at high-mindedness that article writers fall back on to convince readers they KNOW things.
The writer goes on to say that a great majority of the short stories submitted at Coppola's site were not of good quality. I'm sure she considered hers to be in the minority.
What surprises me about this article is that Salon.com apparently published the article without first checking what axes the writer had to grind. Not only are submitted stories at Zoetrope read by other writers, but editors--members who volunteer for the job--choose two stories a month to be published in the Zoetrope online magazine, Zoetrope All-Story Extra. The author of the article, despite her evidently burning desire to be the next Puzo, never had any of her stories chosen for All-Story Extra. The bitterness of the author seems apparent to a reader, so one wonders why it didn't seem apparent to those decision makers at Salon.com. The author refers to the site as Planet Zoetrope, she accuses other members of having multiple accounts so that they could rate highly their own stories--something that the capable sysop seemed ALWAYS on top of and ever able to prevent such chicanery.
Did folks at Salon.com not bother to question the motives of an author who wrote such a one-sided article? The author even attacked epinions.com, saying that Zoetrope All-Story: online submissions site was like this site, but she inferred that her stomach churned at the thought of epinions.com.
I question now what other articles have been accepted at Salon.com without the staff first checking into the validity of author's claims. Even the title of the article, HISSY FIT NOW, seems more appropriate for the Enquirer. Should I read anymore articles at Salon.com I'll sure be doing so with more skepticism and a whole lot less trust in the printed words I find there.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
M_Lee_Williams
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Member: M. Lee Williams
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 100 members
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