The wonks against the writers, a game of shirts and skins

Blue Girl is the first to come through with some of the cheesecake I advocated for women bloggers in my post the other day.

In doing so she confirms what I always suspected about her.  She looks just like supermodel Carol Alt.

Unless she was trying to hint she looks just like George Harrison.

Meanwhile, Neddie Jingo and Coturnix were the first in line to volunteer for a Men of the Blogworld Calendar.  Will has graciously and generously volunteered his boyfriend.

Trish Wilson is refusing to pose for the Women of Blogging calendar.  She's trying to maintain her mystique.

If I posted a picture of myself it would put to rest the rumor mill that says I probably wear studded leather, thigh-high-boots, and crack a cat-o-nine-tails. Can't have that now, can I?

Not if she poses in just the boots and cracking the whip, I told her.

She hasn't replied to that yet.

She has offered to take part in Amanda's suggested jello wrestling contest.  But only if strawberry jello is used for her bouts.  "I look good in red," she says.

But seriously, folks, he says like the MC at a burlesque house suddenly trying to change the subject to world hunger, the question of how to attract more readers to the writers' blogs, all the writers, not just the women writers', is a tough one.

We can't rely on the wonks.

We shouldn't rely on the wonks.

It would nice to have some help, but the fact is that the wonks and the writers are both selling different products, and in some ways expecting them to drum up business for us is like expecting Thomas Frank or George Lakoff to devote a chapter in their next books to the best novels and poems they've been reading.

In some ways.

First, I have to keep in mind, there are plenty of female bloggers who are wonks, at least part of the time.  Just as there are many male bloggers who are always writers.  And most of the top dog wonks write well.

Then there's Digby, who writes almost exclusively about politics, but is one of the best writers going.   And Jeanne D'arc approaches politics as a moralist not a wonk and the result is usually some lovely writing coupled with penetrating and original analysis.

Michael Berube and Roy Edroso are satirists who can get wonky or writerly as the mood takes them.

The experts, like Brad DeLong and Juan Cole, are a whole other matter.

I can't write about politics---I don't dare write about politics---without reading the wonks.  I depend on them for facts, analysis, and insight.  I need them.

It's debatable whether or not they need me.

And I'm going to debate the point.

I admire these guys no end.  When I started this blog, which was during the election, I had them categorized on my blog roll as Good People At Work Saving the Republic.  I meant it.  I changed the category name to Partisans, but that's just marketing.

But I meant what I said in my last post.  The top dogs can be dumb and they can be dull.

It's not just specialization that hurts them.  It's creeping professionalism.

The wonks are always on the verge of turning into mere editorialists.  They already sound too much like op-ed writers, courtly, careful, formulaic, "reasonable."

Atrios is never one to write the op-ed writer's version of "If I may be so bold as to interrupt for a moment" when "Fuck that shit" will do the trick.   But Yglesias, Drum, and Josh Marshall write as if the writer they most admire is Michael Kinsley, who is, whatever you think of his style, and I think it's a little on the precious side, no Mark Twain. 

Twain wrote with a pen warmed up in Hell.  Kinsley writes as if with a keyboard that's been kept in a temperature-controlled room in a cloister, dusted off daily by nuns, and then handed to him when he calls for it, in a polite whisper of course, by the youngest and most innocent novice wearing white gloves.

He's the Jane Austen of editorial writers, which is a backhanded compliment, but still a compliment, because Austen was tremendous and if she'd chosen to write polemics instead of novels she'd have brought down the King.

Still.  A front line of bloggers all writing like Michael Kinsley is not going to set the world on fire.

The top dogs seem to spend too much time reading each other, the New York Times, the news magazines, and, when they're in the mood for a walk on the wild side, the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal.

Busy as they are, I think they should make some time to broaden their reading.  They think they don't have anything to learn about politics from us, a big mistake, but even if it was true, they can learn from us how to write better, with more fire, more focus, and more snap.

A badly-phrased idea is a bad idea.

Another good they can do themselves by linking more to the writers is the advantage gained from the persuasive power of pure entertainment.

The top dog liberal bloggers get a lot of traffic from conservatives.  Not many of them are there to be persuaded.  They're there just to get mad or to learn more about what they're already mad at so they get even madder.  No single post on Social Security, the filibuster, what to do about Iraq, the Downing Street memo, or whatever the issue of the day happens to be is going convert them to the Liberal cause.

A hundred posts won't do it.

But a regular dunking in Liberal culture just might.

The advantage Liberalism has over Conservativism is that it is smarter about life.  Not because Liberals are smarter.  I'm dumb and I can prove it.  It's because Liberalism is by definition open-minded.  It is experimental, reckless, and undogmatic.  Although there are Liberals who will try to tell you what a Liberal is supposed to think about given issues, Liberalism itself does not have a doctrine.  That's why I always groan when some nitwit pundit, blogging or writing for a fishwrap, says that the Republicans are the party of ideas.  They aren't.  They're the party of doctrines.  They have a long list of things you are supposed to believe.

The list cannot be edited or updated by the rank and file.

Liberals don't have to believe much of anything.

I think this makes us smarter on political issues.  But I know it makes us smarter about art, pop culture, music, books, science, and even sports.

Makes us better and funnier writers too.

Conservative, and Independent and undecided, readers get tired of hearing yet another reason why Bush's plan for destroying Social Security is in fact a plan for destroying Social Security and sick of following links to other likeminded and, frankly, imitative posts also explaining why Bush's plan for destorying Social Security is really a plan for destroying Social Security.

But if from time to time the top dogs spiced things up with links to Neddie Jingo or Nancy Nall, Maud Newton, Our Girl in Chicago and Terry Teachout (yeah, he's conservative.  So what?  He's a fine writer and critic and usually keeps his politics to himself), cinetrix, the Alley Notebooks, and Tom Watson; if they linked to not just what Majikthise has to say about political questions but also to what she has to say about Johnny Cash, and to what Jason Chervokas thinks about comic books versus the movies and Trish Wilson has in the oven and Ken MacLeod's ruminating about Jurassic marine crocodiles, it would not only help make the wonks' own blogs livelier it would go a long way toward showing their non-Liberal readers that there's more to being a Liberal than just hating on George Bush.

Better than that, it would help show that that great, wide, enjoyable, completely non-partisan more, that is, well, life, is in itself a good argument for hating on George Bush.

And of course all of these bloggers write often on politics and they do it well.  They are all intelligent, thoughtful, and well-read, and the wonks can get ideas from them.

I need to finish this off.  Before I do, I have to say that I don't believe anybody is required to link to anybody.  And I sure don't think that bloggers should add people to their blog roll or link to their posts just to meet a quota.

The top dogs don't have any obligation to pimp for the rest of us.  (James Wolcott believes he has a responsibility to spread the wealth, as it were, and that makes him a great and generous guy.  But if he decided some day that he needed to eliminate his blog roll and never link to another blogger again, that would be his business and, if his reason for doing it was that it would improve his blog somehow, then it would be his obligation to himself to do it.)  As for their often seeming to link to the same set of blogs over and over again, well, we all do that.  We all have our small circles of friends, allies, and special favorites we keep coming back to.

My own blog roll is only half as long as it should be and I don't read some of the blogs on it or link to them anywheres near as much as they deserve.

The top dogs are busy guys.  They can't be expected to read every blog out there.  Frankly, I don't know how some of them do what they do at all.

Nope.  We shouldn't expect them to take care of us.  We've got to do more to make our own way.

That's why I like my calendars idea.

What do you say?

We could make a bundle!

Just like those ladies in the movie.

Or the Australian Women's Soccer Team!

 

See, a good writer always brings the subject back around to the point he started with.

Go Matildas!

Comments

[will]

wow....you smacked it out of the park again! What a great post. I love the phrase "regular dunkings in liberal culture". Because you're precisely right, liberal culture is what's at stake here....it's what the wingnuts hate. It's the fertile ground out of which our democratic political life grows, and if that soil goes barren, we can have all the elections we want...for nothing. Because democracy is not an end to itself - it exists to open a space for freedom. And that's what liberal culture is all about.

I think the comment about creeping professionalism is spot-on, and related to the economic interests of the parties involved. The Daily Howler pretty consistently documents this dynamic at work among the ostensibly liberal press corps. For political writers, Washington is the top of the pyramid. And let me tell you, D.C. is a dull city full of dull, careful people.

Also, I hate Michael Kinsley. It seems like I've been reading his boring-ass shit for as along as I can remember. But then, I never pushed a noun against a verb except to blow something up. ;-)

[Roxanne]

D.C. is a dull city full of dull, careful people.

I second that. 'Cept for me, of course.

[Amanda]

I post pictures of my cat Max with his legs spread provocatively all the time. Does that count?

[David Parsons]

How about Hot!Hot!Hot! Dust Mite cheesecake? I'd even promise Hot!Hot!Hot! Dust Mite on Dust Mite Action, except that we've only got one dust mite and I don't know if photoshop would be convincing enough.

[will]

Roxanne, your exception to the "dull and careful" rule was formost in my mind. I laughed really hard the other day at some comment you made about D.C. people looking all J.C. Pennys.

Amanda.....*shudder*....you sinner.

[KathyF]

I've noticed I have more traffic on Wednesdays when I do Wednesday Food Blogging. So a few unwary googlers get immersed in my vat of lefty discourse while they're reading the latest eggplant recipe.

A calendar is a very good idea. I've posted some very nice udders on Friday Cow Blogging.

[Elayne Riggs]

Stop it, damn you! I keep getting more names to add to my "Where the Women Bloggers Are" list!

[Linkmeister]

Sheesh, Kathy, if you can somehow inject politics into eggplant recipes I'm gonna be there often.

Speaking of vegetables, I was stunned to discover that Carl's Jr. has a side dish of battered fried zucchini. I hasten to add that the company's politics stink, and their taste in ads ain't good, but the zucchini and burgers are.

[almostinfamous]

i must say my online reading has felt a lot better after breaking through the politicized surface of the blog-sphere... it was always bush this, election that, but since then in taking time to cool off, i have found many sources of reading pleasure(including yours now). it always helps to step away from the mill, because then you realize that the world is an amporphous blob, not a straight circle and learn to take yourself less seriously, which is a good first step to diversifying your thought process, and that is another thing the liberals are supposed to be all about isnt it:?

i dont know if any of that made sense, but who said it had to?

[Sheelzebub]

I don't have any pics to post. I am President-for-Life so I suppose I should have a headshot done. And I do plan on hiring paparazzi to follow me everywhere and get into high speed car chases with me in a quest to snap my pictures.

I think we should tell the wonks in DC that national government operations are moving to Las Vegas. Then we could wall it off with them inside and get some real work done. We would, of course, pay a generous stipend to the good residents of Las Vegas for having to put up with them.

[harry near indy]

those matildas --- do you think any of them would be interested in some horizontal waltzing?

but seriously, lance, another good one.

you were especially right about the caution of many punditti of the lib/left/prog persuasion. they seem to be cautious careerists.

opposed to that -- steve gilliard. i read him every day and he can be one righteously pissed-off motherfucker (in a good way).

any maybe it's not so much liberal vs conservative. i see it like this.

there's a line in the ground. some say "this is the finish line -- do not cross it under penality of (insert punishment here)."

other say, "this is the starting line. let's see what's beyond it and where those paths go."

i like those people better. they'll add to the ongoing journey.

further affiant sayeth naught.

[Trish Wilson]

Lance, I'd pose in the boots and the cat-o-nine-tails only if you show me from the thighs down. Let my face be a mystery. ;) Plus my pic would look like an ad for the James Bond movie "For Your Eyes Only".

Have you seen "Calendar Girls"? That could be a fun idea for a women bloggers calendar. We could raise funds to buy brains for idiot male bloggers who don't think women blog. Heh heh heh.

[Trish Wilson]

Never mind about "Calendar Girls". I just finished reading your post for the second time, and I had a better look at the first photo in your post. That's what I get for reading with only one contact lens in. (That would make for an interesting off-topic post all by itself...) We'd have to come up with a donation, though, and moronic male bloggers who think women don't like to get dirty is a good one.

Helen Mirren is hot, by the way, even if she isn't the one whose picture you posted. She's one classy lady.

[Lance]

Trish, that's Mirren, and yes, your're right, she sure is!

I like the Bond Girl image. Can I be Bond? I look pretty good in a tux.

Link, you had to get Carl's in there again, didn't you.

Cats, dust mites, cows, dominatrixes, biologists in parkas---everybody plays. We're liberals, dammit! We believe in the rainbow!

[jillian]

Heard you were looking for some cheesecake! ;-)

http://www.sayitwithcheesecake.com/index.php?ctl=catalog&line=

wonderful post.

[Trish Wilson]

THAT's Mirren? I need to get my eyes checked pronto. This one contact lens isn't doing it's job. Thank God I see the eye doctor tomorrow afternoon.

Yup, she's hot. I haven't seen "Prime Suspect", but I heard it rocks. I have to find a way of seeing it. I don't think it's available for rental.

Tomorrow, I should be able to see better without the ghosts mocking me from my peripheral vision, I hope. Being half blind is not fun.

[The Heretik]

I am a Prime Suspect for posing in a bikini while Helen Mirren has her way with me. Well, maybe not the bikini part. I haven't looked good in one of those for years. And where are the women bloggers?

[Linkmeister]

Lance, you're right. I wonder if I can successfully bill those guys? I'd settle for 1/50 of what they're paying Paris Hilton.

[Matthew Yglesias]

Shit. Michael Kinsley is, in fact, if not exactly the writer I most admite (Dostoevsky), then at least the journalist I most admire. Always a bit sad to see oneself figured out so easily....

[Mad Kane]

What an excellent pair of posts! They made me laugh. They made me cry. They made me strip na...

Uh ... never mind.

[KathyF]

I nominate NTodd to be our calendar photographer. After taking all those cow pics, he should be ready for some hot babes like us.

And didn't he win some award for sexiest blogger?

[jedmunds]

It's funny Yglesias brings up Dostoevski. He's the quintessential example of a guy who is admired by people who traffic in ideas, but not be people who enjoy good writing.

[mac macgillicuddy]

Me, I just liked the nudity.

[The Walloper]

Heh. I'll be in the calendar.

[Tilli (Mojave Desert)]

Waltzing Mathilda, indeed.

I read depending on my need.

I'm a bit of a blog-read floosie.
No sense of loyalty
for very long.

George Harrison.
hmmmmmm. mmmm.

Now that's a subject
I could sink my teeth
into.

[Lis Riba]

Damn, see what happens when a housefire and computer failure keep me offline? I miss all the excitement.

Especially since I had the idea first. <Pout>

Any months still open?

[Lance]

Lis, I concede you have precedence. We'll have to alert the blog world. How do they handle these things in the science journals?

There are a bunch of months still open. You can pick your own pose too. Trish Wilson wants to be a Bond girl, a bad Bond girl. Amanda Marcotte has dibs on the Naughty Nurse. Cruella's in, but she's not picked a pose. The Walloper wants to be in it, but I'm not sure as what or which calendar. Link wants to pose as he says above. Unfortunately, Lauren of Feministe wants to be the sexy librarian. I'd say you and she could fight it out, but I've already put myself on record as being against catfights.

Now if any of you had followed through with actual pictures...

Too bad about the fire. I hope the computer was all you lost.