I seem to have gotten myself right into the middle of a horrible little blogfight. See, I read both Peter David's blog and Dirk Deppy's Journalista blog every day. So when I noticed that Dirk attributed the words of Glenn Hauman (PAD's webmaster) to Peter David, I wrote an irate letter to Dirk that basically told him off for bad journalism, because he wasn't paying attention to the byline. I was also more than a little irritated with Glenn, because I read Peter David's blog for Peter David's thoughts, not Glenn's. A note explaining why he was posting that particular BID column without an editorial on Groth's column would have been much more appropriate.
That should have been that. Dirk apologized for the mis-indentification in an addition to his blog, and I thought all was well with the world. But Glenn is still talking about it, as is Peter David, who says he fully supports everything Glenn said in his first essay. Since this partially invalidates my earlier complaint to Dirk, I sent Dirk the link to PAD's comment.
So before this goes any further, which it is definitely poised to do, I'll chime in with my thoughts on the whole thing.
I don't particularly like Gary Groth's column. It reads like a typical anti-Marvel propaganda piece, with the added nastiness of making fun of people in mourning. However, Groth is allowed his opinion, and a backlash like his can only be expected. Carol died far too soon, and the shock made a lot of people write somewhat strange pieces about her. Groth found the pieces left out some vital (in his opinion) aspects of her career, so he decided to fill in the blanks. It's not a nice piece. It's not a memorial. It's a backlash. As unpleasant as it is to read, it does have some thoughts about Carol that you don't see anywhere else, and oddly enough, it makes Carol a real person when taken with the other pieces about her. Everyone has many sides to them. Carol was no cut-out saint, but a genuine human being.
When I read Peter David's piece, I was moved by the content. I thought it was a very sweet tribute to someone who had helped a guy along the way. It's a tribute, which it was meant to be. Carol clearly had a massive impact on Peter David, and Groth's nastiness will never change nor diminish that.
What is really sad is that all Glenn did with his comments on Groth's column was draw attention to it. If he had said nothing about Groth, the tribute to Carol would have read just as it was meant to. There would be no blogfight, no CBG versus CJ, no Gary Groth versus Peter David. What Glenn wanted, for the tribute to Carol to come up first in a web search, would probably have eventually happened anyway. It never pays to attack your "enemy", even in a casual throw-away line like Glenn did.
That's a lesson we could all use learning.
Use the comments to leave your thoughts on my stupidity. I probably deserve it...
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