trials and tribulations

[calimac]

Here's my latest concert review. I mentioned the concert on LJ here. I got an e-mail suggesting that I would have liked the following day's performance. What makes the writer think I didn't like this one?

The review I published last week created a small but unwanted problem. One of the orchestra members sent me an anguished note revealing that he'd mistaken a comment on his performing style as a criticism of the competence of his playing. As I'd thought it clear I'd not meant that, but it was obviously possible to misread this, I didn't attempt to rewrite the comment itself (could I be sure of preventing such misreadings?), but I depersonalized it and removed his name, in deference to his concerns. I wrote back saying so and have received no reply, so I guess all is OK.

I've begun writing my Mythcon paper on the Inklings in fiction, starting with James Morrow's Blameless in Abaddon, which I've just re-read. (This is the one about a legal suit against God for causing evil. God's defense lawyer is an obvious stand-in for C.S. Lewis.) As I typed the bit about the guy having no telephone, mine rang with one of the numerous wrong numbers we get with nobody on the other end of the line. (Apparently one of B's ex-cow-orkers has her on speed dial, and every time he sits down with the phone in his back pocket it dials our number. We've tried to get him to stop this, but apparently it doesn't work.) And as I finished the writeup with a reference to the "character witnesses for God," the doorbell rang: it proved to be someone who wanted to tell me all about these wonderful prophecies in the Bible!

If it's going to go on like this, I may have to abandon the paper.

Comments

[scribblerworks.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Oh, don't give up! It just means that someone is paying attention! Surely that is not a bad thing.

I have to admit, I might find it a bit disconcerting too, if it were happening to me.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

If you get some really weird stuff for Charles Williams . . .

[(Anonymous)]

Oh my ... changing a review because of a disgruntled player? I really think that's unnecessary. While players may have hurt feelings, it's the nature of the business to occasionally read something one isn't happy with. I would really hate to think a musician would have control over what you write. Just write honestly and well ... I think that's all a musician can really ask.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

If my words are misunderstood and cause someone unintended grief, I think I have a responsibility to clarify myself. I also have a responsibility in the first place not to be abusive or gratuitous in my negative comments. I am a journalist; my words are not engraven in gold. I do, however, stand by my judgments and perceptions, and did not alter them in this case or any other.