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Wednesday, July 11, 2007

The Best Website in the History of the World?

posted by on July 11 at 1:01 AM

Sorry if this is old news, but the site for Miranda July’s most excellent book of most excellent short stories is, perhaps unsurprisingly, most excellent.

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1

Yawn.

Posted by Angry Andrew | July 11, 2007 1:07 AM
2

i see the empress got a new set of threads. what a truly stupid site. i bet if miranda july made a website of her bowel movements, you'd hype it on slog. stop pimping this woman. she's not that cool.

Posted by stupid | July 11, 2007 1:38 AM
3

Why is The Stranger's editorial staff so utterly enthralled with non-entities like Miranda July and Chris Crocker? Seriously, does anyone know? Do they have compromising photos of Dan Savage or something?

Like the t-shirts says, I'm with Stupid. She's just not that cool.

Posted by Roger Williams | July 11, 2007 2:15 AM
4

Oh for the love of the sweet baby Jeezuz, stop pimping these losers! BLESS YOU #1, #2, and #3. These kind of "performances" are about as original as drinking and fucking. What on earth compels old man Sean and old man Savage to cover these hacks? Anyone??

Posted by Drake Bozarth | July 11, 2007 2:45 AM
5

Haven't had an opportunity yet to see if Miranda July deserves either the praise or the hate she gets here, but the website is sincerely cute.

That it's cute rather than cloying is due mostly to the sincerity of its earnst and whimsy, I think. (Yes, I know, "earnst" is nowhere in your dictionary, but it should be. I nominate it to replace the far too regular noun "earnestness.") That said, the downside of the site's DiY cred is that several of the photos are slightly blurry, just enough to be headache inducing if it went on any longer.

The same one-take authenticity that precludes re-shooting with a better camera mount also means no smoothing of any rough edges in the text, the kind of day-after light edit that can make a pleasing ramble out of a rambly ramble.

I suspect that's part of the point.

Posted by lostboy | July 11, 2007 6:23 AM
6

The Stranger has been in love with her forever. She's everywhere else right because Scientology publicists have been pumping her book. I guess its part of their hipster outreach program with Beck. I've only read that story in the last New Yorker fiction issue and finding out she was a scientolgist explains fame whoring and superficiality of it.

Posted by anna | July 11, 2007 6:44 AM
7

Whoa. She's a Scientologist?

That ruins everything.

Posted by Ryan | July 11, 2007 7:29 AM
8

anna, do you have any links about Miranda July and Scientology? I tried searching, but nothing comes up.

Posted by tom cruise | July 11, 2007 8:05 AM
9

Scientologist? Woah, I'm taking her off my Myspace page.

Yes, she's pretty fabulous, but No One.. has about three great stories and a bunch of others that are just like those three. I can't discern a difference between one narrator and the next, but I like the one narrator enough that I got through the book pretty quickly. And who sells short stories that well? It's a pretty big feat.

Old news, yes. Best book website ever? Yes, again.

((>)) forever, bitches.

Posted by bitch on heels | July 11, 2007 8:28 AM
10

Huh, that should have been (()).

Not sure how that happened, but I guess it's an html thing.

Posted by bitch on heels | July 11, 2007 8:30 AM
11

I give up.

Posted by bitch on heels | July 11, 2007 8:31 AM
12

The Preview button is your friend. ^.~

Posted by lostboy | July 11, 2007 8:42 AM
13

I'd like some information/documentation/linkage on this Scientology claim, please.

Posted by Levislade | July 11, 2007 8:59 AM
14

@12: And the obvious is yours. You're like those people who ask if you backed up your work after your hard drive goes down. Would I be crying if I did?

But just to please you, here goes:
((<>))

As it turns out, once you preview, it translates the annoying code you have to use to get a left carat to show back into -- what? -- a left carat. Once again rendering it invisible. So perhaps not my friend after all, Mr. Helpful.

Posted by bitch on heels | July 11, 2007 9:05 AM
15

I often point out the obvious when it seems it's being overlooked.

Likewise, I'm frequently helped by other people pointing out the obvious thing that I'm missing.

Perhaps it's because the obvious so easily escapes me that I feel a sense of accomplishment when I do get it.

Posted by lostboy | July 11, 2007 9:27 AM
16

She is not a Scientologist.

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 11, 2007 9:36 AM
17

I saw Me and You and Everyone We Know in theaters and it made me want to die. By far, the worst movie I saw that summer, and that summer I watched 200 of them.

Posted by MBI | July 11, 2007 9:39 AM
18

Miranda July kicks ass and looks good doing it.

Posted by Sally Struthers Lawnchair | July 11, 2007 9:48 AM
19

She's a fraud. Precious loser gothic tripe.

Posted by malwana | July 11, 2007 9:53 AM
20

I had no idea she was so divisive. I thought MAYAEWK was great; her Web site is perhaps a bit precious, but unique and fun, so why the hate? I don't think she's the most incredible artist in the history of ever, but she's interesting and funny and does things that I haven't seen done before.

And Mr. Poe, your claim of her not being a scientologist is exactly as convincing as previous claims of her being one. Seriously, what's the story?

Posted by Levislade | July 11, 2007 9:59 AM
21

Thanks, (almost) everybody! I almost forgot why I'd sworn off reading the comments on Slog.

Posted by A-Train | July 11, 2007 10:08 AM
22

And yet comments on the Slog are still a million times better than comments on YouTube.

Posted by Jordyn | July 11, 2007 10:24 AM
23

@Mr. Helpful, aka lostboy,
Sorry so snarky. Stressful day ahead of me. I was saying the same thing to myself, and you just amplified it.

Posted by bitch on heels | July 11, 2007 10:24 AM
24

@20

Other than the fact that she has never disclosed that she is a Scientologist? Has she? Where? To who? I don't believe she has ever said what her religion is.

So if she is, I could care less, because she keeps it to herself and does not pimp to the world like say Cruise, Travolta, or Presley. I also would not care for the mere fact that I love her to death.

But I do not buy it in the least bit.

Posted by Mr. Poe | July 11, 2007 10:42 AM
25

I love her to pieces, and she's an awesome writer, but her book was depressing to death. None of the uplift that you got from MAYAEWK.

Posted by sniggles | July 11, 2007 11:24 AM
26

@24 - fair enough; I certainly wouldn't want this to turn into the witch trials or something ("How can you prove you're not a Scientologist?"), I just figured there might be a reason behind this rumor.

But you're right, if she's not spreading it all over the place, all it really means is she's an adherent of a bizarre set of myths with no basis in reality, which unfortunately describes the bulk of humanity.

Posted by Levislade | July 11, 2007 12:05 PM
27

Late to the party with the website. But I digress...

Re: scientology, Dianetics commercials on television made me obsessed with Volcanoes when I was a little kid.

I attended the free Miranda July thing at Neumo's just like the rest of the heard who tends to acquiesce to the pseudo-fascist style dictations of The Stranger (which are usually quite good, just to be clear). And I had a good enough time; Awesome and Lavender Diamond were, well, awesome, and I thought C-Frizzle's Q&A was decent, even if Ms. July herself was dead in the water in terms of providing interesting responses to questions.

I had a good time, but I went because other people were going. Wait, no, I went because it was free I think. That's pretty much the main reason, and I love gatherings.

But Miranda July doesn't DO anything for me, personally. Anything. Pretty average. And when I ask people why she's so rad, they don't really have answers that make sense. Like I'd say "what does her writing do for you?" And they'd reply "Her prose is so periwinkle, man, she just gets it" or some similarly atmospheric, vaguely intellectual in a stoned art teacher way claptrap.

Hmm.

My conclusion: Emperor's new clothes. A fad to be enjoyed before we move on to the next oddball writer with a cute name + website.

Posted by jackie treehorn | July 11, 2007 12:30 PM
28

this comment thread is weirdly similar to Ms. July's writing style. is this viral marketing?

Posted by Tim | July 11, 2007 12:43 PM
29

re: scieno - Gawker and Huffpost, about as reliable as Slog, take for what is worth. If you really like her work, membership in an especially idiotic cult shouldn't bother you.

Posted by anna | July 11, 2007 12:51 PM

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