5/16 Salon article on Storm Chasing (1st of 4)

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I've got a well-worn copy of PrairieErth. Great stuff. I like all of Heat-Moon's books. Blue Highways is great. I finished Riverhorse a few months ago. I don't think anyone gets into a region quite like him.
 
I, like many others, thought the book was too wordy. Most of the data in the book is already public (chaser) knowledge, so it was not all that exciting to me. There have already been other posts about the book, covering the poor research and the author's hatred towards some chaser(s) while leaving others untouched. I noticed the book is being moved to the 20 percent-off bin in some book stores. I was told by someone who attended a book signing in Kansas that the author is now claiming to be a "chasing" authority. What a load.

Mike
 
Despite my earlier criticisms, in fairness to Svenvold (and at the risk of offending some of you chasers) I don't think his book should be judged solely on whether or not hard-core chasers like it. Of course many chasers will probably dislike the book. That's typical for a general account of a specialized activity. That's also a problem every writer faces when they set out to cover a complex topic that has a devoted cult following.

Simply put, it's not the writer's responsibility or goal to make the people they cover happy. It's their responsibility to report the story honestly and with enough observational skill that the general reader will take something away from the book, some understanding of why these people do what they do, but without coloring the account with too much personal speculation.

Whether or not Svenvold succeeded in this is, of course, a matter of widely divergent opinion. I'm not a chaser, per se, and don't bill myself as one, so I can't speak to the issues raised by some chasers. My problems with the book (noted above) weren't from a chaser perspective, they were from a general reader perspective and from someone who felt some of Svenvold's more grandiose generalizations sprang more from his own mind than they did his observational journalism.

As for the speculation he's now passing himself off as a chasing authority, I think it's a bit unfair to be bashing him for something that's entirely beyond his control. I don't know him from Adam but I seriously doubt he gave himself that description. That just comes with the territory of writing about something. People label you an authority whether it's true or not. I wrote an article about the Cimarron River a few months ago. Soon after I started getting calls from county historical societies wanting me give talks on the history of the Cimarron because I was now apparently an authority on the Cimarron, based on that one article. This despite the fact your average junior high Oklahoma history teacher knows much more about it than I ever will.
 
I returned my copy for a refund and used the $29.00 for chasing.

I'm told he has emailed out a formal apology to several chasers he attacked?

Mike
 
There's a lot of smearing of this book going on and it's pretty obvious where it's coming from. I have a review pending with a national magazine that I'll post to ST as soon as I get the go-ahead, but in the meantime I want to say that Big Weather is a pretty good attempt by an outsider to examine stormchasing. It's an honest book, and that says a lot.

The chasers who are depicted in a less-than-glorious light (and I can only think of one at the moment) should have considered the reputation they were building as they built it, and not after someone wrote in a book what we've all thought and known for years. Too late now. I seriously doubt Svenvold sent any apologies. I'm sure some would like to create that rumor.

The book has flaws, definitely, and I think Chad's review is a good one. But it's the most in-depth effort to make sense of stormchasing that I've read so far.
 
This has already been hashed out in other threads. Just because the author decided to attack another chaser (like him or not), is not the main reason the book has failed big-time in mainstream publishing. It appears on no major lists and has received very poor public reviews -- moslty from non-chasers, I should add. From the book pubilicity site, the author is reduced to accepting talks at small coffee shops and no-name bookstores. FYI: I visited the Barnes and Nobel store today to pick up an atlas and was told the book is doing so poor it’s going on the "50 percent off bin" soon.

Mike
 
Now you're simply being misleading. The book recieved a starred review from Booklist, is slated for a series of national reviews (including mine), and has a respectable Amazon sales ranking, though that is a poor gauge of a book's performance. It is far from heading for the 50% off bin--LOL. I feel certain that you don't have any inside info on whether or not this book is performing up to the publisher's expectations.

This is a fairly transparent conversation, but I don't want to seem like a champion of the book. I take Svenvold to task for things in Big Weather, but his criticism of the one chaser you devote half your posts to defending isn't one of them. If anything, I think he went pretty lightly on you-know-who. Big Weather is worth reading.


EDIT: I also want to add that it strikes me that somebody who really didn't like this book either wrote multiple bad reviews of it on Amazon, or talked their friends into doing so, and that's pretty low-down. I can understand wanting to defend yourself, but stand up and do it in person. Don't be a snake. Reputation tarnished further--the hole deepens.
 
Amos, you are misinformed buddy. The matter concerning WF has already been resolved in other threads and discussions -- to my satisfaction and most others. Although I have always respected your posts in regards to chasing subjects -- this is out of line. Maybe you were out chasing and missed the previous discussions about all this. It’s become common knowledge that the author’s attacks on WF were based on false information, including his specific claim, for example, that "WF never worked as a consultant for Twister, which was garbage. WF even posted the original letter from Warner’s on his site. Have you even read WF’s response? Have you been turned to the “dark sideâ€￾ of hate and jealously?

Mike
 
Yes, I'm insanely jeaolous, especially of that horn that makes the three-tone whistle when he goes driving past. Where can I GET one of those? LOL.

As for the "dark side," I *have* noticed that Neal Rasmussen sounds a little like Darth Vader on that crappy cell phone he has. Perhaps....perhaps he's my father! Does that mean I have to do time-lapse for all eternity?

I don't want to say anymore about the book; I'm stealing my own thunder. I'll post my review in this very thread (oh no! more people talking about what you don't want them to) when the editor says I can.

AM
 
I'm sure the review will be interesting and all so fair -- given the already slanted preview of your feelings towards Mr. Faidley. I'm sure
WF's lawyers will want a copy.

My final post in this tread -- I still respect you Amos as a chaser but
I disagree with your one-sided attitude -- kicking a fellow chaser
when he's down.

Mike
 
Oh, here we go with the freaking lawyers. Always with the lawyers. You sound like one of my undergrads after they get their grades: "Where is the English Department office?" Uh oh, I'm in trouble now!

You guys can save your rhetoric for somebody who's impressed. You can tell Mr. Faidley that I would be more than happy to go to court with him any day of the week. I'd welcome the opportunity to put this "speak to the lawyers" child-ish BS to bed.

In fact, if you want to PM me right now, "Mike", I'll send you the name and address of my attorney. My phone number too.

You guys think you can scare people into not talking about you by pulling out the laywer nonsense. It's asinine. This is a public forum, and free speech is protected. What I write in a book review is protected as well. Of course you people don't have any respect for that.

But hey, I'll tell you what I will do for you, "Mike." I'm going to contact the publishers of Big Weather so they can look into this topic and the multiple bad reviews on Amazon.com coming from strange aliases. They probably would like to know more about your 50 percent off bargain bin comment as well. Their marketing people might just be pissed off enough to send an email to a few REAL lawyers. I'll do that first thing in the morning before I leave for chasing. You can freaking bank on it.

I would ask the moderators allow this thread to stand. It is a perfect example of why the chaser in question has the reputation that he does.
 
I've heard some good reviews, and I've heard some not-so-good reviews. So far, the only bad reviews I've heard have usually centered around extraneous language (a pretentious excuse to display the author's vocabulary, perhaps?) or defense of one particular polarizing figure. Pretentious language isn't enough to push me away (read House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski if you REALLY want pretentious language...still an excellent book, though), and I could care less about the polarizing figure in question. I plan to pick up a copy as soon as possible, and the lawyers be damned. ;)

Applause for Amos. I look forward to reading your review.
 
Well, I was not going to reply to this, but since I just watched
South Park, and had a few beers... I cannot help it.

Amos.... get a life buddy -- you are loosing control. If you publish anything that is "false" about a person you are not protected by any "editorial" law. It's called "defamation." A review is no excuse -- especially now that you have threatened to do so in a public forum.

You need to relax buddy. I did not mean to push your buttons.
Let's drop this mean-spirited thread. OK?

Mike

PS: Don't worry about the moderators, they hate WF also and would never remove a thread about him.
 
Well, I was not going to reply to this, but since I just watched
South Park, and had a few beers... I cannot help it.

Amos.... get a life buddy -- you are loosing control. If you publish anything that is "false" about a person you are not protected by any "editorial" law. It's called "defamation." A review is no excuse -- especially now that you have threatened to do so in a public forum.
Click to expand...

This is true, although having spent a sliver of time studying first amendment law for various journalism classes*, I can say pretty confidently that it is highly unlikely that Amos could say something actionable in the review of a book. For one thing, he's only commenting on what someone else wrote. If anything would be actionable, it would be the original book that he's commenting on, unless he makes libelous allegations that extend outside the umbra of what the book suggests. He'd have to be way further over the line that you're imagining for it to be even worth a cursory glance from an attorney. In fact, it would seem that Warren has gone out of his way to make himself a public figure. One you're a public figure, there's not much at all that one can't say or print about you and get away with it. You literally have to prove that someone knew something was false and then maliciously printed it to intentionally defame your client, and then you have to show tangible evidence that your client has been somehow fiscally harmed by the statement. That's way harder than that even sounds.

So, while waving cartooney lawyer threats around may make you feel better about the whole thing, it doesn't mean very much in terms of legal reality. You may stifle the comments of people who aren't experienced with publishing or law or whatever, but in case you didn't notice, Amos doesn't seem to fall into that category. You're probably more than welcome to sue Amos for whatever he writes, but it'd be a waste of your time and money, and I daresay it'd make you a bit of a pariah around here. I'd stick to watching Southpark, were I you.**

For what it's worth, likely the book publishers would have no ammo at all to sue Warren, even if it were to be shown that he somehow convinced people to write negative reviews on Amazon. AFAIK, there's nothing illegal about writing lots of bad reviews for a book. :D

*I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. As always, you should seek competent legal advice from a real attorney.

**"Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, I have one final thing I want you to consider: this is Chewbacca. Chewbacca is a Wookiee from the planet Kashyyyk, but Chewbacca lives on the planet Endor. Now, think about that. That does not make sense!"
 
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