Dennis Lehane Would Like His Tweeps to Chill Out
After teaching himself to use Facebook so he could call out a Globe review of his new book, author Dennis Lehane took to yet another social network – Twitter – to ask his fans to stop flaming the reviewer. Wednesday night, Lehane sent out a series of Tweets (which he cross-posted on Facebook) to fans:
If anyone is sending or considering sending hate mail to the Globe reviewer, STOP.
— Dennis Lehane (@dennis_lehane) October 10, 2012
She wrote a bad review. She didn’t threaten my children. Perspective, please. — Dennis Lehane (@dennis_lehane) October 10, 2012
It was a blunder, not malicious. I blunder 22 or 23 times a day. Sometimes more. — Dennis Lehane (@dennis_lehane) October 10, 2012
Can’t have this going on in my “defense” or in my name.
— Dennis Lehane (@dennis_lehane) October 10, 2012
The freelance reviewer, Eugenia Williamson, hasn’t returned a request for comment, but Lehane’s tweets do suggest that his fans have been letting her have it. Lehane had taken issue with her this week when her Sunday Globe review referred to a character in his new novel Live By Night as a stereotypical “magical negro.” Lehane pointed out that the character is white, and the Globe ran a correction.
When famous people sign up for social media, someone should probably give them a Spiderman-style lecture about great power and great responsibility, because all this points to the pitfalls for famous people, who occasionally launch reactions far larger than they intended when they speak from such a large soapbox.
Lehane is very, very open about his aversion to social media. After launching his initial response to the Globe review via Facebook, he followed up to say that his assistant had to show him “how to find” his account in the first place. And last night’s tweets made just sixteen total that he’s ever sent. (One of them charmingly reads, “Probably should have tweeted that my book came out today.”) He spoke at more length about this aversion in this interview, where he says, “It’s not something I’m interested in. What you want from me is for me to be working on the book. You don’t want me tweeting. You really don’t.” We’re not so sure about that, actually. Sure, he stirred a few of his fans into a bit of a rage, but on the other hand, he’s showing a classy penchant for cleaning up any unintended consequences of sharing his opinions on social media. Tweet away, Lehane.
