On tone
2010-01-25 00:03:00
I figured Saturday's USMNT game would have people telling me that I didn't know what I was talking about Saturday, but instead I'm called on to defend my association with BigSoccer blogger "tone". Richard Whittall, who didn't like my praise for Aaron Stollar's hammering of Kartik Krisnaiyer, and apparently doesn't like BigSoccer, starts by lumping Dan, Bill and Stollar into the same ideological camp, praises their writing, and then accuses them of sucky rhetoric:Chances are, if you're a big time blogger and you write about MLS, and you think there is a lot of room to improve the league, expect a forceful rebuttal from any one of the above. No, not forceful, juvenile. Noxiously, self-congratulatingly so. So much so that any actual argument gets lost amidst all the cathartic, self-serving snark.
Big time bloggers, huh? Writing about MLS? DO TELL.
For the most part, their approach isolates them from any meaningful engagement with writers with opposing views, in contrast to someone like Fake Sig who has engaged with several writers of opposing views, some more civilly than others..
Whittall then spends the rest of the post complaining about a lack of substantiation from Stollar before concluding:
Basically, Fake Sigi, it's time to write an epic post defending your association with the tone-not the opinions, the tone-of Big Soccer. These are grown up writers, presumably. Why are they not able to defend their position like grown-ups?
What? Really?
Look, I've found Loney and Archer perfectly approachable on manners of disagreement so long as you're logical and sensible. And no, logic and sensibility are not euphamisms for "agree with their point of view". I've had not one, but two instances where I've disagreed with Dan this month alone. Guess what, he still returns my phone calls - or at least comments on my blog.
As far as I'm concerned, they've both spent enough time in the online soccer community that they're allowed to suffer or wind up fools as they see fit. And Loney's piece on Krishnaiyer showed a mastery of literary form seldom displayed elsewhere in the soccer blogosphere.
In regards to Stollar, while his post wasn't a ruthless exploitation of logic and facts, he pretty much put out there what a lot of people were already thinking about Kartik Krishnaiyer. Furthermore, in the comment thread, Krishnaiyer's associate made a total mess of himself trying to defend the hiring. I wouldn't have linked to the post if I didn't think it added more to the matter than those who just said "Way to go Kartik!" And besides that, it was entertaining as hell.
When you put your writing and persona out in public, you'd better be prepared to defend it. And not every criticism is going to be neatly packaged and perfectly rational. And even if it was, where's the fun in that?
-FS
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