Posted by Mark A. Rayner
on August 24, 2009
But is it art?,
Parody & Satire /
No Comments
Okay, this one isn’t entirely original, but I have tarted it up a bit. Made me laugh because of its truthiness, and lest you think I am judging, I fall into the “bloggers” category too!

I found the original at The Atlantic here.
You may also want to check out another older one, Economies of Despair:

The commentary is a hoot.
Now, please help me prove this second one wrong by going to my publisher’s website, and buying a copy of Marvellous Hairy. (Only $16.80 Canadian.) Let me know you did so in the comments, and I’ll send you a bookplate (with my signature if you want it, just say so!)
Then you will prove the diagram actually looks more like this, and I think we all want that:

Tags: books, despair, hypocrisy, publishing, readers, reading, venn diagram
Posted by Mark A. Rayner
on May 23, 2008
But is it art? /
17 Comments

Update:
This little Venn Diagram satire was noticed by Sheila at Gawker yesterday, and some self-satisfied, sanctimonious, humorless dork took it upon himself (I’m assuming MisterHippity is male) to correct the “inaccuracy” of my diagram. I’ll admit to not being an expert at creating Venn diagrams, and I sometimes get stumped on those little math quizzes you find when you need to verify you are a human being. However, I can read. And this is a powerful tool.
Having a look through the comments, it’s actually quite funny. He clearly understands the diagram I drew, yet was unable to perceive its humorous intent. You, dear alert readers, will also notice that MrHippity (who clearly isn’t) did not actually recreate the original diagram, because the original third (tiny, anguish-inducing circle) reads: “People who buy books written by bloggers.” (Not “read” as his diagram indicates.)
Here’s his “correct” version:

Of course, if this was more truthy, there would be no need for despair, because then promoting a book with a blog would be no problem. I think my version is way funnier. (Plus it has pretty colors and a nice font.)
I will let you be the judge.
Neither this source of humor, nor this one are sanctimonious, though there may be some self-satisfaction going on.
Tags: book promotion, cconomics, humor, marketing, Monkey Kin, murketing, satire, venn diagram