Enter the Octopus

Snark: it’s the lubricating oil that keeps the joints of the internet running smoothly. Or at least, it has been.

I’ve been thinking a lot about internet snarkiness lately, and what I keep coming back to is that snark was a defense mechanism that evolved perfectly in the truth-deficient, cynicism-rich compost heap of the Bush era. When most of everything that’s told to you is bullshit, it’s easier to treat everything with suspicion. Genuineness is met with skepticism. Enthusiasm with ridicule. Optimism with derision. It’s easier to keep things at arm’s distance that way – keep them where they can’t hurt you.

Blogging really came into its own in the Bush era, and because of this some people see cynicism and a sort of low-level chronic hostility as being necessary and synonymous with the act. I’d love to say that this sort of thing has contained itself to bottomfeeding celebrity stalker websites and sub-literate YouTube comment trolls, but it hasn’t: snark is alive and well here in speculative fiction land. Although we’re all guilty of it to a greater or lesser degree, some of us have made it our calling card – even made a good living at it – and it’s influenced the nature of discourse among us all.

Rather than supporting and promoting creativity and fraternity among readers, writers and fans, we’ve wasted our energy sharpening our spears and setting traps. We ran optimism into the ground and became a lot of cynical bastards after learning that after all these years the crowds at the coliseum still like a little blood. Or at least that’s what our page counts tell us.

I say that we put it all the negativity away for a little while. It’s a good time to be hopeful. Let’s talk about the things that we’re passionate about – the books, the movies, the people – and not waste our time with those that would foster our negativity and stoke our cynicism and anger for the sake of their bloating page counts, advertising dollars or their own twisted needs. Let’s try to make 2009 the beginning of the Post-Snark Era, at least in our little corner of the web.

(Thanks to the Crotchety Old Fan for inspiring this post)