IN OTHER NEWS MARGARET ATWOOD IS NOW ON REDDIT

BREAKING:

Atwood’s pilgrimage into the forests of social media actually makes me quite happy. I saw her read at Barnes & Noble in north Austin in 2003, and she talked about how she had to spend time with her grandchildren to learn how people cussed as research for a profane character in one of her novels. So I’m happy she’s well past that.

And really, if there’s a site on the internet that’s as cranky as your average novelist, it’s Reddit.

cont’d

…and as twitter is fast, the New York Times is…well

hrry

Oh my god somebody decided Twitter is too slow:http://t.co/q9Hw1Ouu

Tweet this, motherfuckers

My review of Best European Fiction 2012, in which Aleksandar Hemon picks a fight over Twitter and I pick one right back. At the always fantastic Bookslut. Get it!

Sam Brownback vs. the Hashtag

Sam Brownback vs. the Hashtag

Here’s everything right and wrong about social media and political speech. The right: a teenager got the goat of a major politician, Brownback’s attempt to fight back raised the number of the teenager’s followers exponentially (a good warning to future would-be censors), and Brownback eventually had to reaffirm his commitment to free speech, thus providing a nice public testament from a right-wing congressman about the free exchange of ideas, and giving Twitter more heft in the political exchange. The bad: the tweet was “#heblowsalot.” As you were, everybody.