The Elegant Variation: BOZHE MOI ...

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May 13, 2009

BOZHE MOI ...

Russia continues to display its firm grasp of artistic freedom, as a federal district court forces a journalist to pay a $1,000 fine for writing a negative book review.

The plaintiff, an author whose work of fiction was reviewed in the publication's book review section, sued the reviewer, claiming that the author and his family had experienced severe mental suffering and that his professional reputation was damaged as a result of the review. The writer stated that after reading the book review, he experienced chest pains, headache, and elevated blood pressure. He demanded to be compensated in the amount of US$150,000.

Hmm. Then again. Maybe there's something to this. Whom do we sue for the boredom and misery inflicted by all these years of reading merely illiterate reviews?

Posted at 12:14 AM in World Beat | Permalink

Comments

tishe edesh', dal'she budesh'.

word.

Posted by: Niall | May 13, 2009 at 12:07 PM

The author who sued the newspaper is obviously "well connected," and suing the reviewers does seem wrong. Yet, I find it interesting that Peter Roudik on the website of the Library of Congress failed to translate the quote from the review that appears in the Russian news source. The review in question was entitled "Half-baked pancake and half-eaten grandmother" and claimed that the author "invented a new genre of poop throwing." Among other things. Just FYI.

Posted by: Olga Zilberbourg | May 13, 2009 at 12:16 PM

This bitty:

"Some have even suggested that if a book reviewer can be sued, a reader who did not like a book can sue the author for making a bad quality product."

... sounds like one to throw into the pool of ideas for Fixing The Publishing Industry.

Posted by: Miette | May 13, 2009 at 02:48 PM

Please correct BOZHE (not Bohze)!

Posted by: helena | May 13, 2009 at 06:28 PM

Done - thanks, Helena.

Posted by: TEV | May 13, 2009 at 06:59 PM

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MY NOVEL

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

May 13, 2009

BOZHE MOI ...

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

May 13, 2009

BOZHE MOI ...

Comments

Verify your Comment

Previewing your Comment

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism