When Authors Respond to Negative Reviews

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]While I enjoyed this book, I'm afraid I do have a few quibbles that prevented me from giving it five stars out of five.

[00:00:07]For one thing, though, I liked Bart Leby as a character and especially his legendary quick quips, which have brought him so much fame across the galaxy, I did find it unrealistic that immediately following the death of his father, he took an extended trip to New Las Vegas to spend the weekend getting high while playing space poker. Well, that's just because you don't understand human nature.

[00:00:26]>> What? People are irrational sometimes. I don't know what to tell you.

[00:00:29]>> Right. But what I'm saying is that the the irrationality of that episode is not really addressed in the text itself. It felt more like the author just that's me. Careful what you say next.

[00:00:39]>> Felt like you just forgot that his dad had died in the previous chapter. Oh, so suddenly characters are supposed to be paragonss of virtue. Is that what you're saying?

[00:00:47]>> No. No. It just it just feels a little inconsistent, you know, especially because you had already established Bartibbey's deep love for his father. He loved him dearly. That's right.

[00:00:54]>> Right. So then how come after he dies, Bartleby doesn't acknowledge it at all?

[00:00:57]That's human nature, man. I mean, haven't you read the stranger? Monural did the same thing after his mother died, and that's considered a classic work of literature.

[00:01:04]>> Uh, I don't think.

[00:01:05]>> Do you think Albert Kimu was an idiot?

[00:01:06]I'm just saying that in this particular case, this particular character's reaction to his father's death doesn't seem surprising in an intentional way.

[00:01:15]Okay. Okay. Shakespeare, if you're such a good author, why don't you tell me what else my novel supposedly did wrong?

[00:01:21]Huh?

[00:01:22]>> Well, it's kind of awkward now that you're here.

[00:01:24]>> No, no, no, no. Please. I I would love to hear your thoughts.

[00:01:27]>> All right. Well, if you insist. I was also a little bit takenback by that scene where Bart Leby goes on a rant about how jet fuel can't melt steel beams.

[00:01:38]>> He's passionate about the subject.

[00:01:40]>> Okay, but did it need to go on for 80 pages? You couldn't have trimmed it down a little.

[00:01:44]>> Would you trim down the Bible?

[00:01:45]>> But what I don't understand is why he would even care about this in the first place. I mean, this book takes place 12,000 years in the future. They specifically refer to America as a mythical empire from the dawn of time.

[00:01:56]Why would he even know what 9/11 was?

[00:01:58]Maybe he's interested in history. But there are so many other anacronisms, too. I mean, like, in another scene, you have a character refer to the Beatles as an old-fashioned band. What's wrong with that? You think that makes sense for somebody 12,000 years in the future to say, I mean, that would be like if I called the architecture of Gobecé old-fashioned. Well, the best world building, in my opinion, leaves the reader with more questions than answers.

[00:02:21]Not this many questions. I always want to leave certain details up to the reader's imagination.

[00:02:25]>> I just I don't think that these feel like intentional choices. They just seem like oversight.

[00:02:30]>> And who are you to say that? Hm. How do you know what's going on inside my head?

[00:02:33]>> No, I'm just saying.

[00:02:34]>> Why can't you just judge a piece of art on its own terms instead of basing your opinions around what you thought the author's intentions were? Haven't you read the death of the author?

[00:02:42]>> It's kind of hard to pretend the author is dead when he's sitting right here talking to me. You know, we authors have it tough, okay? We have to come up with all these story ideas. We have to turn them into full length novels. And on top of that, a Claude subscription is like $100 a month.

[00:02:55]>> Okay. But I'm not saying it's a bad book. I still enjoyed it.

[00:02:58]>> Really? Cuz it doesn't sound like it.

[00:02:59]>> I did.

[00:03:00]>> Well, if you have all these criticisms, if you think I'm apparently such a talentless hack, what did you even like about it?

[00:03:05]>> Well, I mean, I loved the smut.