This is a good, brave, and correct #take, Jia. Thank u for speaking truth to power.

When a devoted reader of your work tries to have civil dialogue with you it’s perhaps not best to say “if you don’t like it, don’t read it,” which is what “you are free not to read the blog posts” is saying. I’m under no illusions that I deserve a more thoughtful response, but goodness that’s rather negative.

I won’t argue whether or not it’s worthy of mention. But I can’t help but wonder whether the “problem” has been blown up a little. You even admitted many times throughout your analysis that many of these things are fine.

Oh Look - another Franzen post on Gawker Media - they always make sure to tell us that he’s a great writer but also a dick... name ONE great writer who wasn’t a dick?

Personally I think you are a good writer, and I have the patience to both read Purity and then read your analysis of the book once you’ve finished reading it. But 35 pages is a little hasty. Kind of like reading the headline then rushing to add an opinion to the comments section. Anxious as the Internet is to destroy…