tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353313599740280344.post4233818532185550716..comments2023-03-30T17:53:16.447+01:00Comments on andy murphy: When authors attackAndrew Craig Williamshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10479637028879512078noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353313599740280344.post-19098424582672704502011-04-03T12:02:24.946+01:002011-04-03T12:02:24.946+01:00He's deleted the post again, and all the follo...He's deleted the post again, and all the follow-ups.Nichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12166699916926098298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353313599740280344.post-27822095465754920412011-04-02T13:11:58.265+01:002011-04-02T13:11:58.265+01:00I've just read Julian Ruck's blog post. Wh...I've just read Julian Ruck's blog post. Why must we keep hearing the same silly anti-Welsh arguments? It's the same as the old 'joke' about German sounding harsh and shouty, German spoken by a German person is as smooth, melodic and beautiful as Welsh spoken by a Welsh person. The main points of Dewi Prysor's well-written argument were largely ignored by Ruck. I can't believe we're still having to fend off these ridiculous attacks on our language and culture. <br /><br />Diolch am fwydo'r trol!Andrew Craig Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10479637028879512078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4353313599740280344.post-19381753043186158612011-04-02T11:38:34.645+01:002011-04-02T11:38:34.645+01:00Was Howett's book published as a book? I got t...Was Howett's book published as a book? I got the impression that it was an ebook that she was distributing herself. (Checks Amazon. Yeah, Kindle.)<br /><br />What can you do? When anyone can publish their own books, without even the financial bar of having to pay a vanity press to do the dirty work, bad books will get out there, written by people who've no idea how bad their writing is. <br /><br />I don't blame people for wanting to add fuel to Howett's self-immolation, but I don't really get why anyone would treat this tripe seriously enough to review it in the first place. <br /><br />Having said that, maybe some good will come of this. Someone commenting on Big Al's blog says "I forwarded the link along not to make fun of her but as a lesson to the writing community I'm a part of. Be gracious. The internet is forever and editors have long memories and love to gossip." <br /><br />There was a bit of a pile-on last week in the Welsh language blogosphere, when a certain Julian Ruck posted a rant about the "bloody Welsh language" on his blog. I won't link to it here, but Google "Welshy journey" if you're interested. The rant itself was pretty ho-hum, with the usual stuff about "stuffing it down our throats". When Ruck was challenged, instead of either apologising for the offence caused, or sticking to his guns and defending his opinion, he went for the "Jeremy Clarkson defence" -- "it was just a joke, and if you can't take a joke, it's your problem, not mine."<br /><br />The difference between Ruck and Howett is that Ruck's books are published by a bricks-and-mortar publisher, Gwasg Dinefwr, and the head of the company is a Welsh speaker. Once the blog post had been brought to Dinefwr's attention, Ruck went into a spiral nosedive of retractions, post deletions, comment censorship, and finally a re-post of the original rant with a mealy-mouthed introduction. I lost interest about the time he deleted my comments from the blog.<br /><br />Of course, web memes that start in the Welsh language web community rarely cross over into the wider world, luckily for Ruck, who has some kind of career as a writer. Also, while he was naive with regards to how the web works, he wasn't gauche enough to abuse the people who left comments on his blog, even the ones who were abusive towards him.<br /><br />When I shared the link to Ruck's original blog post, a few people said "don't feed the troll", but it seems unlikely to me that Ruck was a troll, or that he even knows what a troll is in this context. He was simply sharing his thoughts with the only people who'd been reading his blog up to that point, his friends and family. <br /><br />Sorry, don't know why I've written such a long comment. I think I basically agree with you. Good work. :)Nichttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12166699916926098298noreply@blogger.com