SELF-INDULGENT SELF-INDULGENCE

Just finished reading the Emily Gould piece (here). In case you're not part of the incestuous New York publishing industry, or at least read about it (like me) on Gawker, Emily was an editor and blogger at Gawker who's increasingly personal revelations in her New York-centric posts made her the subject of great love and vitriolic responses amongst Gawker's snarky readership. Gawker is like a restaurant where the waiters are instructed to be snooty to the customers-- on Gawker, no one is ever good enough to get good treatment.

Emily had an affair with her fellow editor, Josh Stein, and posted about it in a semi-anonymous, private blog, that quickly became known and public amongst her friends, readership, and senior editors. She and Josh broke up (by IM! how modern!), and the two quickly flamed out, quit Gawker within a year, and then lashed out at each other in tit-for-tat blogs and articles.

Of course, Emily's account from the New York Times a few weeks ago ripped open a new a-hole of accusations and recriminations and name-calling and a round of "she thinks she's so fucking great!"

The story is about her obsessive self-indulgence and need to reveal, so it's hilarious that it's most constantly critiqued as, hold on, self-indulgent and too revealing. Good call! New York Magazine even did a word count and calculated the amount she made for the number of times she used "I" -- $860!

Then, there's Josh's account. To be fair, I'm sure the Times has better editors than the Post. Whereas she tells a story, he lists a series of events-- almost a defense statement.

Photograph by Elinor Carucci for the Times