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More copies of this ISBNThis title in other editionsSnark: It's Mean, It's Personal, and It's Ruining Our Conversationby David Denby
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:What is snark? You recognize it when you see it — a tone of teasing, snide, undermining abuse, nasty and knowing, that is spreading like pinkeye through the media and threatening to take over how Americans converse with each other and what they can count on as true. Snark attempts to steal someone's mojo, erase her cool, annihilate her effectiveness. In this sharp and witty polemic, New Yorker critic and bestselling author David Denby takes on the snarkers, naming the nine principles of snark — the standard techniques its practitioners use to poison their arrows. Snarkers like to think they are deploying wit, but mostly they are exposing the seethe and snarl of an unhappy country, releasing bad feeling but little laughter. In this highly entertaining essay, Denby traces the history of snark through the ages, starting with its invention as personal insult in the drinking clubs of ancient Athens, tracking its development all the way to the age of the Internet, where it has become the sole purpose and style of many media, political, and celebrity Web sites. Snark releases the anguish of the dispossessed, envious, and frightened; it flows when a dying class of the powerful struggles to keep the barbarians outside the gates, or, alternately, when those outsiders want to take over the halls of the powerful and expel the office-holders. Snark was behind the London-based magazine Private Eye, launched amid the dying embers of the British empire in 1961; it was also central to the career-hungry, New York-based magazine Spy. It has flourished over the years in the works of everyone from the startling Roman poet Juvenal to Alexander Pope to Tom Wolfe to a million commenters snarling at other people behind handles. Thanks to the grand dame of snark, it has a prominent place twice a week on the opinion page of the New York Times. Denby has fun snarking the snarkers, expelling the bums and promoting the true wits, but he is also making a serious point: the Internet has put snark on steroids. In politics, snark means the lowest, most insinuating and insulting side can win. For the young, a savage piece of gossip could ruin a reputation and possibly a future career. And for all of us, snark just sucks the humor out of life. Denby defends the right of any of us to be cruel, but shows us how the real pros pull it off. Snark, he says, is for the amateurs. Review:"Denby's strong narrative voice propels the reader through the text, and even turns a history lesson into entertainment as he traces the roots of snark back to the ancient Greeks." Rocky Mountain News Synopsis:From a New York Times-bestselling author and a writer for The New Yorker comes an argument against snark — the nasty combination of snide and sarcasm — with lessons on how to live without it by thinking and debating with true wit and intelligence. About the AuthorDavid Denby is a longtime film critic for The New Yorker; prior to that he was film critic for New York Magazine. He lives in New York City. Table of ContentsThe First Fit: The Republic of Snark The Second Fit: A Brief, Highly Intermittent History of Snark, Part 1 The Third Fit: A Brief, Highly Intermittent History of Snark, Part 2 The Fourth Fit: Anatomy of a Style The Fifth Fit: The Conscience of a Snarker The Sixth Fit: Maureen Dowd The Seventh Fit: What Is Not Snark Reference List Acknowledgments What Our Readers Are SayingAdd a comment for a chance to win!Average customer rating based on 2 comments: 
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