{"id":3008,"date":"2011-06-15T14:25:27","date_gmt":"2011-06-15T21:25:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2011\/06\/m_f-top-10-literary-smack-downs\/"},"modified":"2011-06-15T14:40:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T21:40:49","slug":"m_f-top-10-literary-smack-downs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2011\/06\/15\/m_f-top-10-literary-smack-downs\/","title":{"rendered":"m_f: Top 10 Literary Smack-downs"},"content":{"rendered":"

from mental_floss<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

The Quick 10: 10 Literary Smack-Downs, Quips, and Squabblesby\u00a0Adrienne Crezo<\/a><\/span>\u00a0– June 14, 2011 – 10:21 PM<\/span><\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

\"q10\"<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an adage they give you when you receive your name badge at the door of Writer Land: \u201cYou only compete with yourself.\u201d While most authors hold true to this (at least in public), there are those who make time to spend bashing their fellow wordslingers. Here are ten cringe-worthy example<\/em><\/span>s.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1. Mark Twain vs. Ambrose Bierce<\/strong>
\nWhen they asked Samuel Clemens to read and review long-time friend Ambrose Bierce\u2019s not-so-bestseller,\u00a0Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California by Dod Grile<\/em>, publishers Chatto & Windus had no idea they\u2019d get such a scathing report back. Twain calls\u00a0Nuggets and Dust<\/em>\u00a0\u201cthe vilest book that exists in print\u201d and ends with what might be the most simultaneously hilarious and hurtful review of all time:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThere is humor in Dod Grile, but for every laugh that is in his book there are five blushes, ten shudders and a vomit. The laugh is too expensive.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

2. James Frey vs. Dave Eggers<\/strong>
\nBefore his tearful apology on Oprah for passing off as a memoir his best-selling tale of addiction and redemption, and even before the book had been released, James Frey took aim at Dave Eggers and his much-hailed\u00a0A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius<\/em>. Here\u2019s what Frey said in an interview in\u00a0New York Observer<\/em>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThe Eggers book pissed me off. Because a book that I thought was mediocre was being hailed as the best book written by the best writer of my generation. F**k that. And f**k him and f**k anybody who says that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

3. Ernest Hemingway vs. Ford Madox Ford.<\/strong>
\nIn a letter sent to Ezra Pound in 1925, Papa Hemingway compares contemporary Ford Madox Ford to a bull in a less-than-complimentary tirade:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cBulls at least are not the greatest stylists in English \u2013 no bull has ever been a political exile. Bulls don\u2019t run reviews. Bulls of 25 don\u2019t marry old women of 55 and expect to be invited to dinner\u2026 Bulls do not borrow money\u2026 Bulls are edible after they have been killed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/font>[ click to continue reading at mentalfloss.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from mental_floss The Quick 10: 10 Literary Smack-Downs, Quips, and Squabblesby\u00a0Adrienne Crezo\u00a0– June 14, 2011 – 10:21 PM There\u2019s an adage they give you when you receive your name badge at the door of Writer Land: \u201cYou only compete with yourself.\u201d While most authors hold true to this (at least in public), there are those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mirth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}