On Fail
August 9, 2009
I've had the privilege of being quoted or mentioned in a lot of newspapers and magazines over the years, but as an minor-league word nerd, this one ranks as among the most gratifying: This week's "On Language" column in the Sunday New York Times magazine quotes from my post "The End of Fail":
The fail phenomenon has its naysayers, most prominently Anil Dash, an influential tech-culture blogger, who wrote a strongly worded post titled “The End of Fail.” For Dash, politicized fail has not moved far from its snarky roots. “ ‘FAIL’ isn’t advocacy; it’s the tool of those who don’t know how to be advocates, who don’t know how to persuade,” Dash argues. “It puts the ego of the complainers ahead of the cause they’re trying to advocate.”
In reviewing the etymology of "fail", Ben Zimmer makes a few really interesting observations, most notably that the term has forked a bit, reflecting both the mindless non-critiques I railed against, as well as the harmless, even charming, use of "fail" on sites like Fail Dogs. Zimmer also elides any mention of ubiquitous meme-starter 4chan playing a role in the development of "fail", which is probably just as well.
I'm actually so pleased with this one I'll probably run out and grab a print copy of the magazine shortly after I post this.
1 TrackBack
Phew! Seems like there are a ton of people talking about the topics we've all been discussing here lately. Here's some highlights: Startup.gov After I... Read More
3 Comments
Leave a comment
- Earlier: What Works: The Web Way vs. The Wave Way
- Next: The Web on The Web Way
If only there were a photo, with a t-shirt...
It is probably just as well that the site likely responsible for the start of a meme is avoided talking about? How is that good journalism?
Why would you disapprove of use of language on the internet when it is obviously shorthand for an idea that is so intuitive? I first heard this use of fail on "Epic Fail" of Attack of the show. I heard that not too long after hearing someone use the phrase "this is full of win" as a statement of approval and I simply thought of this as its antithesis. Such colloquialisms are almost out of the jurisdiction of literary critique because they weren't invented for that in the first place, they were probably thought of in an attempt to describe something someone felt needed to be described in a unique way. For example: "this is just ... fail" (for want of a better word, and a failure to produce). As unhelpful of a critique this is, sometimes a critique isn't meant to be helpful, almost to express that it can't be helped. Please forgive me if the use has changed sense your original discussion of this word to something less distasteful. I hope you see its virtues, in its current state, as an expression meant to be left for interpretation or a simple expression of a simple idea.