You'd imagine I'd be delighted by Kodwo Eshun's hyperbolic write-up of TWANBOC in this months The Wire. Well let me tell you, oh naive pedant, those words cost me dear.
As is the usual proceedure with press of this sort, the article was run past Silvers and Hodge my entertainment lawyers. You'd not recognise the first draft. Naturally my opening demand was that Eshun about-face over The Pillbox. There was a tone of unbridled worship, an unhealthy fauning over Penman's "telekinetic flow" his "truly startling de-propriation of avant-garde thinking" his "glyphic inventiveness" and most displeasing an admiration for his "wide-screen cultural perspektiv", for crying out loud, this for a poxy music magazine! My only strong bargaining point this early in the negotiations being continuing high-profile plugs for his (ok truly stunning) oevre. Easy victory there.
I was happy enough about his comments on Blissblog, though suggested he remove a few paragraphs. My very gravest concerns were over my own write-up, which was sandwiched amongst those for a whole host of other (rabbits ears) minor blogs, those of the Spizzazz crew, Nathalie Phenotext, Scott Somedisco, Olly Time for Fear, John Uncarved, and Ozzie Angus, (allusions to which would have to be excised). Eshun described TWANBOC in the most unflattering of terms: "The smug and preening Ingram manages to know very little about a lot. An occupational hazard with blogs, he frequently descends into sub-Woody-Allen-esque self-loathing routines which this reader finds at best wearing. His sideways forays into flashy programming and graphics fail to detract attention from his lumpen protestant prose. Worst of all Ingram seems to be in the late throes of a paranoid delusion, taking sleight at the wholly innocent comments of his fellow bloggers and contributing to a general unease amid the enchanted online community." Disgraceful!
Eshun is, you might be surprised to hear, a bon viveur. The "offer" I tabled was a weeks' fishing on my beat on the Tweed in exchange for a greater degree of "co-operation". When Kodwo's people got back and informed us that wasn't going to change his tune we upped the stakes to include a dedicated gilly and a choice of the last weeks of August (the Salmon go CRAZY then!) If I may extend the fishy metaphor: That hooked him!
Yet more costly was Luka's entry. It should be no suprise to longtime readers of this particular "bit of crap" that I feel a responsibilty to the young heronbone chap, my wee nestling! I'm not even going to go into the particulars here of Eshun's original disparaging remarks, but it was nothing a brace of woodcock and a crate of port couldn't remedy.
Posted by Woebot at August 24, 2003 12:25 PM