From Our Soundbooth | November 03, 2010

This week, I wrote a quick post on National Novel Writing Month, and took a “Well, g’ahead, and good luck!” stance to it.  Laura Miller of Salon.com went in a more combative direction, and the comments got a wee bit nasty.   And, so, when you get comments that are a wee bit nasty, a little levity is required.  Tip o’ the cap to Erik Smetana for first bringing this to my attention:

The attacks on Laura Miller are pretty good examples from Logic and Rhetoric 101 about how NOT to make an argument. Miller’s essay comes down to this:

Cultural spaces once dedicated to the selfless art of reading are being taken over by the narcissistic commerce of writing.

If you believe she’s right, well, the comments she has been receiving only help to support her claim. Please read her entire column and all the comments here.

Michael Nye is the managing editor of The Missouri Review.