Response Video: Fighting with BookTube Friends!

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Fighting with BookTube!
Brian at Bookish:
• Random Thoughts: Jane...
Matt Wall Paperback Junky:
• How to Booktube / How ...
Michael K. Vaughan does the Garbaugust Trashy Book Tag:
• The Garbaugust Trashy ...

[@vesch5083]

These "disagreements" are actually a breath of fresh air. The art of civil, respectful debate is mostly lost. Too many people immediately want to shut down and disallow opposing views and dissent. Thank you to all of you who make these videos and show how disagreements should be discussed and views shared.

[@jeremyfee]

I love the old idiom "One man's trash is another man's treasure" and I don't see why we can't say it's all subjective. I don't think you've fully argued your point here because I'm not convinced. Even that political book you mentioned might be useful to someone doing a research study about the opposing side's views or it could provide someone with an understanding or with quotes. Who knows? There are ways to find value, even in things you don't like or that you disagree with on the surface.

[@EamonnSheehy]

Coming from a Cork-based 'Irish Catholic love of a good scrap'...there is still a portion of booktube waiting for Steve's response to Curtis Books and Books recent video citing your booktube reign of terror 😜😅

[@saintdonoghue]

Oh, he'll get his eventually!

[@thearchive1132]

I do enjoy these response videos. Whenever I see them on the feed I think someone's annoyed Steve.....I do hope he comes out a swinging. 😂

[@anastassiab7266]

Loved the video, I only wish the first part lasted for a couple of hours!

[@LizSchubert]

Goodreads has a list for best trashy novels. Thorn Birds, Outlander, Peyton Place and VC Andrews books are at the top. The Exorcist is also there! And Jaws! I think I’m going to revisit some Jackie Collins this month.

[@HelenUtzinge]

I appreciate you standing up for aesthetics. Often it’s difficult o say* what is wrong but you know it when you see or hear it. My violin playing as a kid was was truly hideous, it wasn’t true to any harmonic, hurtful to my own ears. So some writing and stories are cringey: plugged in cliches substituting for thought (effort), cardboard one-dimensional characters that you know are not true to how people are because the have three dimensions. You know that stuff from just walking around. So when you see that on a page you say it’s bogus. Trash may be a form of lying in the sense that it doesn’t come off as true.
* fn. not Steve of course

[@mattierosss]

It would be nice if literary judges were given only the writing itself without author name and background.

[@TheJudgeandtheJury]

We shouldn’t ignore the past, but learn from it. Take what is useful and discard what is not. Nietzsche had distressing views against woman, mostly due to his sister Elizabeth misusing his words to fit Nazi ideology, while also marrying an anti semite. Nietzsche said; “Of all evil I deem you capable: Therefore I want good from you. Verily, I have often laughed at the weaklings who thought themselves good because they had no claws.” I watch Bryan but usually disagree with him. Interesting video you made and keep up the good work.

[@kellyhunsaker3775]

I feel that way when I watch these TH-cam videos, even when I rarely comment.

[@saintdonoghue]

It's a very, very nice feeling, the freedom to disagree with people in fun!

[@shmizzleshmazzle9830]

I took a break from slapping women and denigrating minorities just to watch this based Steve video.

[@patrickkenny4709]

Ahh. Who needs book prizes when you've got Steve's End Of Year Best Of's where Steve's number one priority when compiling them is for the readers. In other words - all of us. I don't think you can get any more diverse than that.

[@DuaneJasper]

My partner works for a world renowned academic publisher. The kind of stuff conservative pundits cherry pick as 'wokeness gone mad' is standard fare there. And yes, they are all women

[@BookishTexan]

Except my goal wasn’t “wokeness”. It was to point out that what people call “wokeness” is just changing standards.
Additionally, you misquoted me a bit about white men today in publishing and you certainly strayed far afield from what I said about white men in the past establishing standards by which literature was judged.
Not once did I suggest that diversity is owed because of past white guilt. In fact I said that we get more diverse books and more diverse winners because we have more diverse judges and more diverse people in publishing. Those diverse people have standards different from past standards because the more diverse judges& editors have different ideas of excellence. That’s not diversity for diversity’s sake. And that is not “wokeness.”
Otherwise, great response junior.🤓
I always enjoy our scraps.

[@BookishTexan]

@@jonathannoel7144 I don't want to clutter up Steve's comment section so let me just invite you over to my channel where I would be happy to continue this conversation.

[@saintdonoghue]

But in many, many, MANY cases, the “different standards” of these “more diverse” judges is explicitly non-literary … in fact, explicitly based on the same vague concept of generational retribution that animates so much idiotic woke nonsense. So my question stands! Do you want to see literary prizes judged by ideologues who are looking for explicit reflections of themselves in the books they skim? Or is it bigoted cis het colonialism to WANT actual excellence in writing?

[@BookishTexan]

@@saintdonoghue "many, many, MANY cases" of diverse judges whose different standards were "explicitly non-literary" and which were "based on the same vague concept of generational retribution that animates so much idiotic woke nonsense."
Can you provide examples of literary prize judges "explicitly" saying these things?
Which recent prize winner do you think won only because the judges "explicitly" applied a standard of "generational retribution"?
I hope that literary prizes go to those who display excellence in writing. I don't expect to always agree with the judges assessment, but I don't assume that is because they are ideologues applying what you are labeling as "woke nonsense."
If prizes choose judges who are not professional critics I assume that those judges will in some way choose the book that "speaks to them" the most. Literary prize judges have likely always done exactly that. The only thing that has changed are the judges.
"Woke" as it is currently defined by the far right has nothing to do with its original meaning. It is a term that the far right has redefined in a way that belittles and mocks the concerns of many people who the right seeks to dismiss. As someone who spends even more time on Twitter than you, I can tell you that it is important to remember that Twitter isn't real life. Taking the worst examples of extremism on Twitter (or social media in general) to label me and others who disagree with you as "woke scolds" or a part of the "woke mob" is as unfair as me using your statements to label you a Men's Rights Activist and follower of Jordan Peterson.

[@saintdonoghue]

@@BookishTexan YOU hope that, about literary excellence, but how often is that actually true for book prize judges? The woke ideologues among those judges give endless interviews about diversity and inclusion, as if those things were virtues in and of themselves. They aren't. If a gang of ten people burned your house down, would it matter to you that two of them were Samoan? The virtue here, if there is any, is in diversity and inclusion discovering great books that would have been missed in the Bad Old Days. I mean, you don't want nonbinary West Senegalese books nominated even if they're really bad, right?

[@BookishTexan]

@@saintdonoghue
You haven't proven that there are "woke ideologues" among judges of literary prizes who ignore literary quality in favor of diversity or inclusion.
Are you claiming these "woke ideologues" have already awarded prizes to undeserving, but diverse authors thus denying an award to a more deserving less diverse author? If so which book, author, and award? Can you prove that the judges intentionally ignored a book of higher quality in favor of diversity? Or are you expressing a belief that this will happen at some point in the future?
--"The virtue here, if there is any, is in diversity and inclusion discovering great books that would have been missed in the Bad Old Days." --
Yes, exactly. That is the virtue. By having more diverse judges literary prizes make it more likely that "great books that would have been missed" because of a lack of diversity are discovered and reach a wider audience.
My idea of what is a really good book or a really bad book is based on my standards as are yours. You and I don't judge books by the same standards. Judges from more diverse backgrounds bring their own standards formed by their education and experiences as readers and people. Their standards for literature might be different from my own, but that doesn't make them bad or "woke."

[@MurphMM.]

I'm refreshingly surprised by your statements in this video. In other videos you seem to be rather biased against straight white men