OMG .. Jon Ronson's speaking voice ..

[Twiglett]

NOT what I imagined at all

just seen a strange ad on More4 with him in it

he sounds so drippy

oh gawd I'm not going to enjoy his columns any more now, cos I'll hear the weedy crappy voice

[ruty picks out fluff contentedly]

sorry Ruty, really nothing deliberate at all

I tend to have much less time to MN these days and so practise hit and run posting, probably missing half the people who have said things to me

Aitch I agree with Boco. An exaggeration based on real life reactions. I could write selectively about my life and make myself sound just as mad, without lying, very easily. I actually think half of what he says he does is quite NORMAL, just that most of us would lie about it

[ruty draws big sigh of relief and is momentarily released from frantic MumsNet paranoia]

truly sorry!

..adding my name to seemingly small list of people who like jon ronson - his column makes me laugh. Also he was really really kind to us once when my children emailed him because they'd missed his programmes and he lent us his copies and then had the courtesy to answer their thankyou emails. So - definitely not a bad person in our house

Aitch, I will answer your question, although I have already in a way with my obsessive posting on this thread.

I really liked Jon Ronson. I thought he was funny and clever. I now think he's unhinged.

If he wants to make a living making his inner thoughts public then he really can't complain when some people don't find those inner thoughts very edifying or interesting.

As his product is himself some of his readers will decide they don't like his thoughts and therefore they don't like him. What did he expect? Everyone in the entire world would fall in love with him?

His self-obsession now seems more arrogant than endearing. But then:

"Journalist becomes solipsistic - shock".

good to meet someone sane on this thread, mandj.

love ya, Jon.
but then, Aitch lost me with this post:
'i do quite fancy William Leith, always have'

i know . it's my secret shame. he wrote a thing about the coolest stereos having fewer knobs about fifteen years ago which not only made me laugh but showed a technological prescience that i admire. plus he's kinda manly for a writer. or at least hairy, which amounts to the same thing. although v poor treatment of the delightful scampadoodle. however the dieting business did make me think less of him, i admit. i like a bit of bulk.

did he really write 'your behaviour' aitch?

I never want to know anything about writers or musicians that i like, it's always disappointing and spoils my enjoyment, - i'd never read autobiographies or celebrity magazines - don't really want to read interviews with favourite musicians either, it's a let down if you find out that they're a bit prattish or dull or not too bright.

I like reading Jon Ronsons stuff, he's good at it, it's funny, i relate to it - i'm not all about the navel, but i certainly feel a large part of my life is spent cringing and its comforting to read, makes me laugh - and laugh at myself. I don't actually want to form an opinion of the actual JOn ronson because it doesn't matter.

I loved Mil Millington's gadget column thingy in the weekend. What happened to that? Twas very funny.

i love mil millington, apart from the hair. [circular]
and yes, boco, i got a lecture about my behaviour from the patronising twerp.

LOL @ Mil Millington

[on magic roundabout emoticon]

Aitch it makes perfect sense to me that he emailed you to whine about you writing mean things. This is the kind of thing he writes about doing, all the time. Did you all think he made it all up?

Is he going to make a column out of this?

well, it would be excessively hypocritical of him to do so because no doubt i and other detractors would come out in an unfavourable light.

so considering he took such offence at me and you saying what we thought of him online in front of a few MNers, i rather doubt he'd be able to square ridiculing me/us in a national newspaper with his conscience, would he?

oh hang on... that's what he does every week, so i actually think that the creepy little fuck will be fine with it. at least he doesn't talk about wealthy celebrities though, because that, i can see, is Really Bad.

yes, franny, i really didn't think he could possibly be such a twat in RL.

aitch, I think you are wrong, he doesn't ridicule other people: he ridicules himself. He always comes out of his column 'badly'. That's why I like it. He is useless, hopeless, inept, he does the stuff you shouldn't do, he can't help himself.
[waves at Jon Ronson]

hhhm, i think if you were his neighbours you might not agree.

but i'm sure JR would agree with you, however.

don't you think he might be tossing and turning at night bitterly regretting emailing you in a fit of pique?

no. judging from the email his monumental sense of self-righteousness will be soothing him gently off to sleep.

Nope, point taken, he does poke fun at other people. A wooden-spoon sort of poke.

when poking fun at himself he uses a bayonet

am loving him more the more I think about his comedy genius

seriously now, a self-administered bayonet will onl poke at the bits he's happy to poke at. if i were his neighbour i wouldn't want him writing about me at all, wooden spoon or not. but he doesn't give them that option.

amazing, really, given that he couldn't bear to think taht a complete stranger might have said something about him on the internet somewhere, so much so that he hunted out an address for them and and emailed them to whinge at them directly. yet anyone who comes into contact with him (and isn't famous) is fair game.

it's a bit like when i first heard nigel slater, but i'm strangely drawn to jon ronson's voice