One of the tropes of the “Bick Skruth” stuff on Aaron Gold Otto Blopnik‘s website is when Bick talks about how awesome and attractive and intelligent his readers are. That’s what we call a “dog-whistle” because every automotive journalist at every PR event everywhere loves to discuss just how stupid the readers are. It’s “us and them”, with the “us” being the anointed journos at PR-crumpet events and the industry people. “Them” are, well, you. And, I have to say, me. “Us” are urbane sophisticates who drive all the new cars and go to all the great hotels and take all the first-class flights. “Them” are the Morlocks who actually make payments on cars for years at a time and have never driven on the Cote d’Azur or run up a thousand-dollar tab at a Kimpton.
But how can I even pretend my readers are stupid when they are as well-read as they proved to be this weekend?
In the Saturday night of a very stressful and sleep-free trackday weekend, I wrote Concours d’Angst. In the middle of the story, I note that
Well over ten million women had altered themselves to look like Edith in the past year, making her imperfection yet another sort of mass-manufactured perfection.
This is a direct rip from Robert Silverberg’s short story “Caliban”, which I read as a teenager. I figured there probably wasn’t a more obscure reference I could make than quoting the ending of a science fiction short story that appeared forty-some years ago in a magazine.
The twenty-eighth commenter got it.
There’s a moment in “Big Country” by the Flecktones where Victor sneaks Jaco’s bassline from “Continuum” in as a fast quote, right in the middle of his solo. When I saw Victor play it live, I yelled and he looked up, surprised and pleased.
Now I know how he felt. Best and Brightest, indeed.
I’ve been calling for the great pulp fantasy and science fiction magazines to go digital for over 20 years now; it’s a shame the various authors, publishers and estates refuse to come to an agreement which would allow their work to be rediscovered by hundreds of millions of new readers. Amazing/Analog; F&SF; IASFM, all on a single, searchable USB stick and available for a couple hundred bucks. It seems they all saw how National Geographic turned their archives into a perpetual license to print money and said “no, thank you.”
Yes, absolutely, sneaking in little bits of preexisting work (even if no one recognizes them) can be just as much fun in music making as in fiction writing.
I also read “Caliban” as a teenager; I came across it not in an SF magazine, but in the then-new Silverberg collection The Reality Trip and Other Implausibilities (Ballantine, 1972).
I always enjoy your writing both here and at TTAC.
I always considered the whole “Best & Brightest” thing to be pandering at best, sarcastically insulting at worst. TTAC is just like any other message board, you have gems here and there once you’ve sifted through the river of sewage coming from people like DeadWeight, Z71_Silvy, CJinSD, etc.
in fact, the only real reason I think TTAC (and Jalopnik too) have somewhat better results in article comments is because the writers actually engage the readers. Autoblog sucks partly because I’ve rarely if ever seen any of their authors respond to any comments. matter of fact, the last time I can recall was Zach Bowman doing damage control after writing about that couple who wanted people to Kickstart their ’round the world trip in their VW van.
TTAC has the highest signal-to-noise ratio, I think, and it’s probably because the average TTAC reader is older and better-educated than the Jalops or the Autobloggers. At least that’s what Alexa says 🙂
I resemble that! At least I would like to think so.
all that means is that TTAC’s trolls know how to spell. if you even think the word “Ford” DeadWeight will be right there to throw up a borderline autistic screed about CR Black Dot EcoBoost things (which isn’t even accurate, if you look at CR’s ratings on Ford vehicles, you’ll be hard pressed to find a black or half-black dot on any EB model for “Engine minor” or “engine major.” )
Go fuck yourself.
I’ll photocopy the latest reliability index from Consumer Reports, and staple it to your palm, so that you can comprehend that I only report their verbatim data/information.
p.s. - Ford sucks (maybe the new 2015 Mustang with the Coyote will be my next car, though, because GM, Acura and BMW all suck, too).
Alright, I’ll call this a tie.
JZ gets in the Imaginary Black Dot thing, DW responds with a solid “Go Fuck yourself.”
Now shake hands and walk it off, okay? 🙂
Jack, for all my faults, and they are many, I do not misrepresent information or data as compiled by other credible sources, nor do I message in ad hominem attacks (with exceedingly, exceedingly few exceptions).
That jz78 is making the claim otherwise really pisses me off, and it only further pisses me off that he comes to your personal blog to engage in ad hominem attacks against me, as facts obviously hurt his vagina.
I am sorry (to you) for the rant, but sometimes people like jz78 need to be called out for the spineless, lying people that they are, especially when they are think they’ll be “found out.”
I don’t really mind, but whether it was intended to be or not B&B is most definitely an insult. MacNamara and the Whiz Kids should have been shot for treason.
You’re right about that.
This Bick Skruth, of whom I was previously unaware, seems to be a parody on you, Jack.
Deadweight is my absolute favorite commenter. I search him out. That Big Trucks guy would certainly fall outside any B&B claim.
B&B was Farago’s name for TTAC’s commentariate. He suffered no fools. He ruled the comment section with an iron fist. As such, one could read the TTAC comments vs other sites’ and see a vast difference. Where one would find meme regenerators or fanboy flame wars on other auto sites, the conversation at TTAC was polite, informed, and, well, adult. Then there was a dark period post Farago where things got overly political and then weirdly fetish. Over the last year, things have come back around, though the moderation of comments has become more self-policing than it was during Farago’s days. So, yeah, there are a few knuckleheads that are neither amusing nor well-informed at TTAC. Don’t worry, there are still some very bright commenters left — and make no mistake, they really are B&B when it comes to cars and the automotive business.
As for Aaron Gold, I have one question. Who?
Well ;
I am older anyway so that’s one thing in my favor .
Good writing here IMO.
-Nate
Ah! This clears it up… I was wondering why 120 years in the future we still had such quaint and antiquated names like “Edith” and “Zack” (“Alphonse” might fly depending on how much life the hipster movement has left in it), surely our otherwise very convincing futurist author hasn’t neglected to consider that these guys are effectively the great-grandkids of the millennial generation and therefore will probably be named “Contessa Blue Ivy” or “Prince Edward-Jacob Hybrid”, if they are not named “Disney” or “Ikea” for corporate sponsorship…
I think you’ll see a return back to “old” names. That happens. Look at “Zachary”, which was once your great-grandfather’s name but is now worn by every twenty-something dickbag in America.
I’m waiting for people to start naming their kids “Elmer” again.