Tom Scocca writes: “Here is a piece of writing that has attained a certain length. Share it, this quantity of reading.” He’s talking about Longread culture. He’s talking about many things in his essay “On Smarm“, published by Gawker and puzzled over these last few days like a magic enigma coming to us in this depth of confusion, to make sense of all this. (Like Ja Rule.)
It’s a long text – it has attained a certain length – and its main topics are snark and smarm. Snark, that’s the negativity either created or just unlocked. Smarm, that’s the blinding Sincerity (with a capital S) that’s a reaction to snark. Except it’s the other way around, argues Scocca. Snark – or hatin’ – seeks to deconstruct smarm. Snark is the Newswire of The AV Club (these days at least), Smarm is Upworthy.
The main villain, the head of the Smarmistas, is Dave Eggers. Eggers, who begged people to not be critics, to only dismiss a book until you’ve written yourself a book, to not dismiss a movie if you haven’t directed one. The same Eggers who has written a novel about tech companies while admitting he has never set foot on a tech campus.
Eggers as an architect of contemporary culture is an intriguing if slightly irritating idea, but there’s something to it. I’ve personally thought that Eggers – and McSweeney’s – is more a force of good than of ignorance, even if “Away We Go“ was horrible. And even if his plea to “not become critics“ is insulting.
I’ve always thought that it’s not about smarm and snark, but not being an asshole. Because the trend is still to be an asshole. The internet’s obsession with rants is an example of this, the enduring popularity of late-period Carlin another (yes, you’ve heard me.) Rage and hating is decidedly adolescent. But I believe there is a place for sincerity, as there is for criticism. For adulation and for fury.
But then I found a reply to Scocca’s text on Thought Catalog, Smarm Central. It’s written by someone who professes to be “a human, maybe“. So I don’t know.