Strange Bloggery Afoot
Somehow, by the simple virtue of picking out an email address at a young and impressionable age, I ended up with a lot of email that isn’t mine. rygel_seven@yahoo.com picks up a fair amount of weird mail that I either find entertaining or horrifying depending on whether or not I’ve had my morning coffee.
Through some series of strange coincidence, a guy named Ned Vizzini started emailing me. I assumed at first that this was one of those spammer names you never hear from again, but no, Ned’s name kept popping up. Finally, last week I got this message:
I don’t generally send out a lot of mails and this is going to be the last one I do for a while (until late May, when I’ll alert you about BE MORE CHILL coming out), but I really wanted to thank you for coming to my readings, answering my email, going to my website, buying my book, not throwing my flyers back in my face, or just being there for me. Seriously.
At this point, I figured that he just had the wrong rygel, so I sent him an email explaining his error. But then another thought occurred to me. This guy didn’t think I was someone else; more likely he got my name from another mailing list and was presuming me to be his fan in advance. I had been receiving mass-mailings for live readings from publications I’d contributed to. I find this a lot more likely than there just being someone named “Rygel.”
Irritated at being spammed, I went to the guy’s blog and discovered the horrific online world of Ned Vizzini. Some guidelines for those of you who may be initially confused:
• The words in bold aren’t links. They’re just nouns. Nouns are important to Ned Vizzini.
• The words underlined aren’t links either. They’re just very important.
• Ned hosts a reading event called “East Side Oral.” How ribald.
• In addition to his livejournal, there is also nedvizzini.com. He is the author of Teen Angst? Naaaah and something else about teenagers. Says Ned, “If you are a teacher or student, I have years of experience speaking at schools all over the country, and I’d be very interested in speaking at yours; take a look at my one-sheet to see if I might be right for your school.”
Comments:
Addendum: I also find the fan page very disturbing.
Funny — just before I came back here to comment, I was looking at the “fan page” and think “disturbing” is perhaps not strong enough.
This, too, from the front page:
Heh. Shame they didn’t emboss the pill — then we could call him a pill-popper…;)
Oh, I’m sure we could call him worse than that.
Also from his page:
The scoop: I sustained this black eye in a fight with street rappers in NYC. I felt that they were no good, so I taunted a stocky white guy by asking if that was the new Coolio single and then called an Asian man who approached me in a trenchcoat “Neo.” I got the other guy pretty good (the stocky one) so we can only hope that he too got a similar eye. It was kind of a dumb move and I’d like to thank all the pepole who voiced concern.
Nice guy.
Yeah. I’m glad he’s speaking to kids.
Worse. He’s being published by Hyperion. The book “Be More Chill” has been optioned by some respectable movie people. The excerpt from his previous book didn’t suck.
Neal Pollack blurbed him. (What, Eggers was too busy?)
This isn’t some guy living in his mom’s basement, a card-carrying member of the tinfoil-hat brigade — although the designer of his web site might be — this is a legitimate Noo Yawk author, soon to pop up in the NYTBR and Vanity Fair “Hot Type” column near you.
Be very afraid.
Hey guys, thanks!
Been a while since I’ve had legitimate pissiness directed my way. Used to long for it, live off it, when I started out with New York Press. My friend Marty Beckerman, another young writer you might like to try and bitch out for his website, still gets it. I don’t usually.
Glad you think my bold-face sendups of gossip columns (which I don’t bother with anymore, now I’m much more about posting a picture and getting comments on it) are terrible. Also glad you think my pictures of 50+ people who bought my book, read it, found me on the web, and submitted photos of themselves to win one of my new books is “disturbing.” Maybe these people would be better off trying to be rappers and movie stars like everyone else. Or maybe they’d be better off starting arty-looking blogs. Certainly the fact that they’re READING is a big problem.
I’ve got a reading at Barbes tonight (5/18) and every other Tuesday thereafter. Come down sometime! We’re looking for readers.
You’re welcome, Ned! Welcome to Foreword.
NED VIZZINI IS THE BEST PERSON IN THE WORLD, HE KICKS ASS!!!!! U SUCK!!!!!
Hey-Back off. Ned is my homie and he rocks this world. I’d like to see you hold up all the crap he does and still be in one piece. Lol. I look up to him as an author and he adds humor to my daily life. I mean seriously, just go to his livejournal or better yet, read his autobiography, and tell me you didn’t laugh once. And if you didn’t then you are a very cynical human being who needs to be stuffed into a very small cardboard box as not to disturb wonderful people such as Ned Vizzini. Fo shizzle. Lol. But have a nice day and lurvely time.
Maybe if you could read something that would make you think…or read something that has any importance at all…you’d respect someone like Ned. Ned’s the shit.
Now be stuffed into a cardboard box.…or be gone.
Whoa, mister. I’d suggest that you step back because these Ned fans are a mean fighting force.
Ned’s fans almost sound like The Cult of Dan Brown.
I mean, I’d do almost anything for Charlotte Bronte or GK Chesterton or Oscar Wilde but if someone chose not to adore Charlotte Bronte, I wouldn’t say:
“I mean seriously, just go to her livejournal or better yet, read her autobiography, and tell me you didn’t cry once. And if you didn’t then you are a very cynical human being who needs to be stuffed into a very small cardboard box as not to disturb wonderful people such as Charlotte Bronte.”
Um.
First off, Vizzini’s first book was about being a geeky kid in high school, and a lot of teenagers read it and learned a lot from it, so he made it easy for people to communicate with him by setting up a website. Many of the fans above are people who wrote to him years ago and got a friendly response, rather than being brushed off. I’ll bet most authors wouldn’t bother. In fact, I’d never met him but liked his goofy essays in New York Press and sent him an e-mail once or twice. He’s a good guy and a talented writer.
Secondly, his book is good, in my humble opinion (which I know is no better or worse than anyone else’s), and that’s why Pollack blurbed it and Hyperion pubbed it. Check it out and see what you think.
Thirdly, people being published who were younger than I was used to make me want to SCREAM. And probably, that’s what’s going on here. Except, unlike some of them, Mr. Vizzini isn’t unreachable. So read the book and then send him a friendly e-mail. And those quotes you took out of the site are a bit out of context…all writers have to self promote, you know. Otherwise no one ever gets to see the products of their years of labor!
Anyway, he doesn’t need me or anyone else to defend him, but I think you’d be missing out if you didn’t learn more about his writing.
It’s late, so I don’t have many wise words, except Ned is wonderful. I wrote to him telling how much I loved his book, and he wrote a very nice, personal note back. His book never fails to make me laugh.
All of you have said that Ned is a good author and a good person, but none of you have commented on the fact that he is sending me monthly emails saying the exact same thing, from a mailing list that he got from someone else. And when I told him not to send me anymore, in a nice way, he kept doing it.
There’s no misunderstanding here— he is sending me mail that I don’t want, which I have told him I don’t want. And he doesn’t even know me.
Now, to the most recent Ned-Fan:
Many of the fans above are people who wrote to him years ago and got a friendly response, rather than being brushed off.
I’m sure LOTS of people got a friendly response, whether they asked for it or not.
I’ll bet most authors wouldn’t bother.
You might be surprised. Authors have a little more free time than you think.
In fact, I’d never met him but liked his goofy essays in New York Press and sent him an e-mail once or twice.
So you did meet him, online.
First off, Vizzini’s first book was about being a geeky kid in high school, and a lot of teenagers read it and learned a lot from it, so he made it easy for people to communicate with him by setting up a website
Not only teenagers are going to his wesbite because he sends out bulk emails to anyone whose address he can get ahold of. So adults are looking at his website, too, and if they click on “Photos” they can see pictures of teenage boys and girls. Which I might not have an issue with if they didn’t have larger resolutions and if many of the photos weren’t at least mildly flirtacious.
I would think that an internet-savvy adult would know better than to expose his fans and friends to internet predators, who, by the way, could easily get in touch with many of you by reading Ned’s blog.
Just think about it a little. That’s all I ask.
As for me, I’m still in the dark about how hosting someone’s picture ensures that they will not become a rapper or movie star.
If some creepy old man can get off on a picture of a 15-year-old girl smiling and holding a book, I say: have at it.
Which I would agree with, except that most of the pictures don’t look like that.
I say: have at it
Their parents might feel differently.
Um um,
You probably e-mailed him back to say not to send anymore, and he lost the e-mail or just plain goofed. You’re right - I AM thinking a little, and I don’t like spam either. So your criticism is fair, in principle. But you responded by stringing him up and letting him dangle a little on your blog, and I guess I don’t know if that’s fair. Maybe so. He really is a decent guy, so hopefully you can both get past the snarkety snark snarkaroonie.
You’re wack! It’s spam, delete it if you don’t want to read it. It’s so ironic that you were trying to be funny by saying Ned isn’t funny. (cause you really aren’t!)
Neds book is good.. Try reading it so you’ll know what you’re talking about.. I bet you never got so many hits to your little blog.. Imagine the money, Ned’s raking in… you know the guys that made American Pie just signed up to make his “little book” a movie.
NOUNS ROCK!!!
But you responded by stringing him up and letting him dangle a little on your blog
I don’t know what you mean by “stringing him up.” This is a blog about book design and the publishing industry. Ned’s persistant SPAM is unusual, as is his website, as are his exceptionally loyal fans. And my first impressions of it aren’t favorable. “Stringing him up” would be if I registered www.ihatenedvizzini.net or something at least slightly more devious than my usual bitchy antics.
Imagine the money, Ned’s raking in
When I really like an author . . . I mean, really, really like an author I imagine how much money they make, and then I imagine me, playing in the money, making money-snowmen and throwing money-balls.
Salman, if you’re willing to let me into that big vault, believe me . . . we could have a good time.
He really is a decent guy, so hopefully you can both get past the snarkety snark snarkaroonie.
Now really, it’s not like I knocked his lunch tray out of his hands.
If you have any questions about my bitching, or what I like to bitch about, I can be reached at ejohnston@snarketysnarksnarkaroonie.com
It’s spam, delete it if you don’t want to read it.
Yes, Mia, we do — but that doesn’t make it right. Spam is spam. Unsolicited. Unwelcome. (In teenaged words: he started it.)
IMHO, he also escalated it by titling his entry “Haters!” rather than taking a little ribbing like a big boy. And I’m quite sure our constituencies don’t overlap, so he probably found the entry by egoGoogling. ’Nuff said.
Imagine the money, Ned’s raking in
No thanks, I’d rather imagine him raking in some more responsibility or perhaps stronger morals. (Although certainly neither is needed to work with Hollywood — they’re perfect for one another, as is.)
Ned’s put a semi-parodic apology and a resolution to stop spamming 800+ people (which is an awful lot, I should think) on his blog*, so with any luck this will discourage the next generation of writers who try to force their way into our inboxes and bookshelves. There is a lot of verbal hand-wringing involved, that reminds me of when I used to have to ask my parents for the car on weekends.
My girlfriend, who has worked with teenagers in the past, has been pretty much agog ever since Ned “struck back.” Not just that this so quickly became an issue but that kids, who are supposed to be skeptical or at least semi-independent, would demonstrate such a fantacism.
To summarize:
FOREWORD RUELZ!!!!!!!!!!
Do you happen to think maybe someone else entered your email into the engine? I do it to people who piss me off. Maybe one of your friends read his books and liked it.
First off, Ned didn’t “buy” off your email, he’s too poor.
Send of all, Ned’s a nice guy.
And third of all, email him and ask for it to be taken off, instead of b**ching to the world in your lame blog about it.
Months later, and people still show up to defend this guy. Too funny!
Ned’s a great guy worth months of defense. brian’s right soemone might have entered their email into it maybe to intorduce you to a good book or maybe because they wanted to annoy you, though i cant think why anyone might want to bug you of all people.… but did u ever read any of the books?
Okay…i have one opinion and it agrees with Kathryn. You have to read the books to appreciate Ned…i for one. FOUND ned. “Not only teenagers are going to his wesbite because he sends out bulk emails to anyone whose address he can get ahold of.” I emailed Ned and got an automated response saying he was sorry he had to send one and he’d get back to me later. and surprise surprise he did. Ned Vizzini is a great guy not to mention author. Do you honestly think bashing his personal life is going to mean shit to us fans? We are very loyal. and yes we can be disturbing and we can be a bit surreal…but its all in fun. Ned is a great author. i don’t want to insult you. but i think alot of people that commented against Ned. need to take their heads outta there asses. and realize you cannot form a opinion until you read the literature. okay? i, like many others, have found the joy of ned’s work. He is wonderfully funny. and the East Side Oral you were talking about is very popular and has many great artists. So maybe you should check your facts first. So all hail Brian the Boy Wonder when i say Stop Bitching and pull your head out of you ass and realize there is more to reality than your own little bigoted fucked up world.
Whoo, Reagan, worked yourself into a good tizzy there, didn’t you? Feel better now? Good. Because as of now, comments on this are closed. You and the other kids can go profess your love for Ned — or whatever it is — somewhere else.