Whatever Best of 2012
Posted on December 24, 2012 Posted by John Scalzi 10 Comments
Hold up there, Daisy! Before we get to 2013, here’s my hand-picked selection of the best of Whatever through 2012, a year filled to the brim with politics, geekery, and of course, straight white men. They’re presented to you today in alphabetical order:
- Amanda Palmer, Kickstarter, and Everything
- Athena Encounters the Technology of the Ancients
- Dave and Liz and Chicago Save the World: A Short Story
- A Fan Letter to Certain Conservative Politicians
- Gawker, Reddit, Free Speech and Such
- How to Be a Good Commenter
- How to Build a New York Times Bestseller (or Maybe Not)
- An Incomplete Guide to Not Creeping
- A Note to You, Should You Be Thinking of Asking Me to Write For You For Free
- Reader Request Week 2012 #1: Snark and Insult
- Reader Request Week 2012 #6: The Cool Kids Hanging Out
- A Self-Made Man Looks At How He Made It
- A Small Meditation on Art, Commerce and Impermanence
- Some Quick and Final Post-Election Notes to Some But Not All White Men (plus notes for the GOP and the Democrats)
- Speech and Kirk Cameron
- Straight White Male: The Lowest Difficulty Setting There Is
- What Happens in the Acela Quiet Car Stays in the Acela Quiet Car, Unless Twitter is Involved
- Who Gets To Be a Geek? Anyone Who Wants to Be
- Writer, Professional, Good
- You Never Go Full McCain
And now, onward! To 2013! Lead the way, Daisy!
Merry Christmas my friend!
Look at that face!
I missed most of these, particularly July-Oct, when I was finishing a book, packing up my apartment, couch-surfing for six weeks, then being poisoned by sewer gas in my new house, etc. (Yes, it was a busy year.) I just read the Gawker/Reddit piece, and various other articles, by following links, about that matter on Gawker and In These Times, both very interesting articles. The points made in these pieces resonate strongly with me. One key reason I’m not a big internet hobbyist (in fact, I had never even heard of Reddit until reading a piece about it on Jim Hines’ blog a few months ago) is precisely because of the syndrome discussed in these pieces: Free of the normal social constraints of ACCOUNTABILITY and CONSEQUENCES for what they say, far too many people behave like unhinged assholes on the internet–and associating with unhinged assholes, in real life or online, isn’t how I choose to spend my time. Far fewer people use internet anonymity to share something of value on the internet than use it merely to behave in an offensive and irresponsible manner without any of the consequences that such behavior carries in real life.
John, I just discovered your blog about a month ago. I spent the morning reading most of your “Best of”. Really enjoyed it with my morning coffee and cigar! Most of your writings were exquisitely on-point… some would have made good menudo. Looking forward to reading your blog and books in 2013.
Are you going to do a “best comment thread” list? Because the Existential Horror of Betaness was epic. I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a thread more.
This pic of Daisy disconcerted me for some reason. I’m not sure if it’s the eyes or the wide open mouth, or both.
Naw, it’s just Daisy jonesing for a tummy scritch. Good girl!
I wonder if, millennia hence, straight white male will be any more significant a term than optimates is today, four baktuns after the sacking of Rome…
Note: I will be measuring multi-centurial history in baktuns until I grow bored with it. I suggest everyone else do likewise to confuse future archeologists :)
I love the fact that (though I am 53, father of 4, veteran, university grad) I learn something interesting and/or useful *every time* I visit Whatever. What a nice gift! Hope you like the gifts you receive just as much.
Can we comment on some of the selections? I’m going to comment on some of the selections.
My favorite thing this year was the creeper juggernaut, including the comments on all the various posts. It was really interesting to see all of that hashed out. While really it sort of just comes down to respect and common sense, I think there is still a lot of uncertainty there, and it deserved the time it got. So, yay.
I think “You Never Go Full McCain” is my favorite of the year. It struck all the right notes and still reads well even 2 months after the election.