This week’s New York magazine has a cover story on Gawker, called “The Age of Insolence.” It’s guaranteed to get your cocktail party started, especially if your cocktail party takes place in a fashionably messy and high-priced Brooklyn loft. Your Scanner writers, Sarah and Nicole, spent a little time this morning IM’ing about Gawker, and we wanted to share our thoughts. It struck us that this was fitting, since Gawker often runs IM exchanges between high-powered publishing types, and that is us, if by “high-powered” you mean “loves to get hiiiigh.” In the interest of full disclosure, we should mention that we both know Choire Sicha, one of the editors at Gawker, and consider him to be one of the funniest people with whom we have ever shared a smoke. Also, do we wish we had as many readers as Gawker? We do. Also, we are wearing no underpants.
In the following exchange, which has not been edited for punctuation or capitalization or stupidity, "MissThunderstood" refers to Nicole and "DJTanner" to Sarah. Those are not their real IM names. But maybe they should be.
MissThunderstood (11:43:55 AM): so I got sucked into reading the nymag gawker story
DJTanner (11:44:48 AM): oh good. do you want to write about it?
MissThunderstood (11:45:35 AM): yeah i do. i mean its really long
MissThunderstood (11:45:49 AM): ok heres the deal w gawker
MissThunderstood (11:45:56 AM): they work so much on crappy crap
MissThunderstood (11:46:00 AM): they cant write anything else
MissThunderstood (11:46:22 AM): when do they have time to pitch, research, and write stories?
DJTanner (11:46:52 AM): their creative energy is gobbled up taking shots at other people
DJTanner (11:47:02 AM): and taking shots at other people inherently makes you more afraid to write and to create something meaningful, because you understand that there are people out there taking shots at you
MissThunderstood (11:47:26 AM): i think its the process too, and the time
MissThunderstood (11:47:28 AM): its stunting
MissThunderstood (11:47:33 AM): 12 posts a day
MissThunderstood (11:47:35 AM): thats huge
DJTanner (11:47:52 AM): i compare it to this: if you are a writer, you want to run a marathon. and blogging is like training for a marathon by running wind sprints
DJTanner (11:50:27 AM): i think they're funny. funny and smart. But i also think they seem chattering and insecure, like bullies on the playground
MissThunderstood (11:51:08 AM): well yeah its bred of insecurity clearly
MissThunderstood (11:51:14 AM): and its mindless usually
MissThunderstood (11:51:17 AM): sometimes funny. though they used to be funnier. its sloppier now
DJTanner (11:51:38 AM): i'm sure.
DJTanner (11:51:45 AM): they have more content, more interns writing
DJTanner (11:51:56 AM): they've fallen into a certain easy schtick
DJTanner (11:52:23 AM): should we publish this im exchange?
MissThunderstood (11:52:59 AM): eh maybe
DJTanner (11:53:06 AM): think about it.
MissThunderstood (11:53:07 AM): i mean they publish im exchanges all the time
DJTanner (11:53:26 AM): it could be like, gawker found this im exchange between two bloggers they don't give a shit about
DJTanner (11:53:33 AM): because we're not, like, julia allison
DJTanner (11:53:35 AM): or in the misshapes
MissThunderstood (12:19:24 PM): what's the best way to say “eel-on-woman” sex
DJTanner (12:19:44 PM): hmm. I think just “eel sex”