Mr. Siegel, 50 years old, made headlines several years ago when he was a staff writer at New Republic. As he describes in his introduction, anonymous readers were using the Talkback section of a culture blog he wrote to launch vile, over-the-top attacks upon him. Mr. Siegel then created his own pseudonym, and used it to attack his enemies and praise himself. He says that he was goaded into action by the publication’s editors, who ignored their own rules regarding obscenity in favor of “open discussion.” For his efforts, Mr. Siegel was briefly suspended. The author was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal’s Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg.
Oh, boy:
The Wall Street Journal: What prompted this book?
Lee Siegel: People are going to say that I wrote the book in the spirit of anger. It’s not true. It’s the most even-tempered thing I’ve ever written. In 2005 I told the L.A. Times that the blogosphere was lowering culture. I’ve wanted to write this book for a long time. I’m speaking out against thuggish anonymity.
WSJ: You complain about the use of anonymous attacks on the Web, but you used a pseudonym yourself. Any regrets?
Mr. Siegel: No, I’d do it again. I did it as a protest, to give these people a taste of their own medicine. ÂÂ
Wha?  Huh?  Poor Beauchamp.  He was not the worst.ÂÂ
They both have this in common, neither one is quite “right.”
I remembered a good piece about Seigel and his …habits… by hilzoy at Obsidian Wings.href=”http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2006/09/sprezzatura.html”>here is the link:
Hilzoy excerpted this from Siegel’s old Salon diary:
fixed link
Or not. try again
Well that settles it. The internets is mean.
Isn’t he endlessly fascinating?
Gotta head to Mass, but Karl’s got some good stuff in the pipeline.
I’m detecting a pattern here.
All the times I’ve felt moved to make a truly scathing indictment of an idea or person on the internet, I’ve appended my name and town to the post.
A.R. Jones
Orem, Utah
I came to understand that people who let themselves get riled by anonymous ranters to the point of adopting clinical behaviours aren’t worth engaging in serious discussion in the first place.
Now I’m trying to remember if I ever got an email from a visiting perfessor… I know my wife never adopts an alter ego. Unless it’s that “exorcist” thing she does when I forget to take out the trash…
Yeah, my wife did that Linda Blair thing a couple of times during transition. She denies it.
Dan,
Just pray she never gets as far as the “alien thing”. You can clean mushroom soup off just about anything but it’s hard to bounce back after having your sternum ripped out.
Scares the kids, too.
“Mr. Siegel: No, I’d do it again. I did it as a protest, to give these people a taste of their own medicine.”
’cause we care? Mm-hmm. Some stuffy shirt thinks the internets are debasing HIS IDEA of culture and we’re supposed to give a darn? Is his thuggush pseudonymity more acceptable than the “thuggish anonymity” of others.
Is it ok to call him a self-important douchebag? Meybe he needs to watch this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptC9N9YJ24Y) and calm the heck down.
OT: CHUCKIE ADKINS GETS A SLAPDOWN FOR BEING (UNSURPRISINGLY) LOATHSOME.
http://rachellucas.com/?p=586#comments
/OT
TMJ – that ain’t just clinical, that just might be institutional. Walter Mitty and Elwood Dowd don’t have anything on that!
On usenet I always used my own name. On blogs there were too many Julies so I chose another. But the idea that a pseudonym isn’t me? That’s just weird. It’s my name and my reputation.
Perhaps the difference in “culture” is between those who see freedom as license and those who hold responsibility for their own behavior within their own selves.
#8,9,10
You ain’t seen nuthin. Menopause, boys. That’s the big league.
Shoot me now.
Unless it’s that “exorcist†thing she does when I forget to take out the trash…
Exorcist? Pikers. You ought to see the wrath of a 5′ nuthin’ 7 month prego Vietnamese lady who comes home from work to find a good portion of her dream home demolished in sub zero weather. She cussed me out, who was soaking wet from trying to get the main shut off, in about 4 languages and at least 3 additional dialects, for almost an hour, and cannot really explain why. And she was just warming up.
The best way to get your hair in good shape is to visit a real salon, no ifs ands or buts