October 12, 2004

A Novel Form of Activism

First the movie stars. Then the rock stars. Now it appears that Kerry/Edwards has the hotly-contested novelist vote all sewn up.

via Roger L. Simon, who happens to be one of the few dissenters.

By the way, if the Amazon.com reviewer on this page is to be believed, someone from Miami named "Inken" has decided to bolster, if ever so slightly, Kerry's electoral chances by giving negative one-star reviews to books by all the Bush-voting novelists. No comment, but that's kind of post-something and meta, innit?

UPDATE: Now some Bush supporters are getting into the act, making their voices heard by giving five-star reviews to Robert Ferigno's The Wake-Up. So far the Kerry One Stars are leading the Bush Five Stars 4:2.

UPDATE II: The new Reason will have a similar feature (though it's not restricted to novelists.) To judge from the excerpts quoted here, it'll definitely be funnier, yet somehow - though this may be partly a matter of taste - unaccountably less vacuous. My favorite, as so often:

P.J. O'Rourke, author-pundit: He's going for Bush because "I don't want Johnnie Cochran on the Supreme Court." He adds that he always votes Republican "because Republicans have fewer ideas. Although, in the case of George W., not fewer enough."

Feel free to express your outrage, if you've got any, by posting negative reviews somewhere or other.

Posted by Dr. Frank at October 12, 2004 05:39 PM | TrackBack
Comments

"I really think it's not alarmist to say that if Bush is reelected to another four years, it may be the end of life as we know it."
-Nicole Krauss

Is this the Dale Peck school of political commentary?
Damn, all these novelists get all hot and bothered by 'harsh' reviews, but they don't mind dishing them out once in a while.

Posted by: marc w. at October 13, 2004 12:23 AM

Actually, it's up to four one-star reviews now, ostensibly by different people.

Posted by: Angie Schultz at October 13, 2004 03:39 PM