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

[LittleSarah]

Actually most broadsheet columns I am beginning to find horribly tedious. Only occasionally funny and more likely to be whingy, pretentious, pompous, arrogant, bitchy, malicious, snobby, etc, etc.

I rather enjoy Giles Coren's restaurant reviews though. (She admits worriedly).

[Heston]

Wow! What a response! You're right, it is weird to get upset about people making nasty, puerile comments about one's husband. I think I was just surprised that such poison would emanate from a website for mums. Although seeing how much time you all spend on this I can't believe you are mums. Are you all in institutions?

[GrimoireThief]

Oh no! I'm a bit gutted. I really like his conspiracy writing and went to see him at the Edinburgh Book Festival a few years ago where he was very funny and self-deprecating.

But if he's emailing individuals to complain about them slagging him off a bit on a public forum then he's obviously a tit.

Shame on you Jon. I hope this isn't some very lazy journalistic "research" for a column.

[GrimoireThief]

Hmm, Heston if I was in your position I wonder if I'd be posting the same thing? I really don't think so. I really suspect I'd be thinking what a bunch of wankers - they don't know my husband who I think is lovely, and going off to read something else.

Lots of people really like his writing and have disagreed with the people who don't. Tis the way of the world.

[Heston]

Jon has neither the time nor the inclination to bother with you people. As I said, this is his wife. Believe it or not.

[Firepile]

"Neither the time nor the inclination to bother" - except for directly emailing one of us to complain, that is...

[DrippingLizzie]

Is it me, or did I read that you won't be visiting this site again, Heston? Unlike us institutionalised morons rocking in our corners, haven't you got something better to do with your time?

[margoandjerry]

Heston, to be honest, you are not helping..."you people" as a description of his audience (some of us used to be fans - I was until I read this very thread actually).

I really am very surprised that JR thinks its fine to make a living mining his own insecurities and pointing up the oddities and neuroses of others - and then flies off the handle when some people say they don't like him or his work.

What about the neighbours he bitches about? Or the Paul McCartney comment which he outed himself about but was hardly sweetness and light.

Still think it's a hoax - I would have assumed he was too smart for this.

[CatIsSleepy]

yes i thought i had read that too DrippingLizzie

[beansontoast]

as weird as reading nasty stuff probably is...should i show some reserve when declaring how much i rate him?...

he makes me laugh...he tell a good yarn..he's just endearing enough and just annoying enough...and seems to be adored and tempered by his (good) wife!

dp rates his books too

[Heston]

Jon's email was entirely polite if, in retrospect, unwise. He was upset about the irrational outpouring of bile from that Aitch person. Couldn't really understand why she would nurture a 20-year grudge. Nor can I. But I can see that there's nothing to be gained from engaging with you lot. There, that should keep you going for a few days.

[Quiddaitch]

what on earth is going on in the ronson household today? LOLOL.

[CatIsSleepy]

goodness...
I find him occasionally amusing, occasionally annoying and can't comment on his speaking voice as I have no recollection of what it is like...

sorry to hear he can't take criticism...

look forward to hearing all about this in a future column.

[Enid]

I'd be upset if people slagged me off on the net. Aitch would you really have said Jon Ronson was a 'creepy little fucker' to his face

if so, grudging respect

Now can i admit I have no idea who Jon Ronson is

[Quiddaitch]

seriously, now. what was weird about jon's email was that:

1. he wrote it at all.
   
2. that he acknowledged that he hadn't actually seen what i had written about him.
   
3. that he wrote it at all.
   
   and i know that you know full well that mine was not the only letter of complaint sent to Time Out regarding Jon Ronson's columns. i've never liked his writing, he's been on my radar for 20 years, so that means i haven't liked his writing for 20 years. it's hardly nursing a grudge.
   
   plus, you had posted on here by the time i read your husband's email, so i think you should take responsibility for that action.
   
   i think his paranoia is getting to you, tbh.

[Enid]

come on kids play nicely

slag someone off - they can defend themselvse

you cant slag someone off and then crow about them being paranoid

theres only one way to settle this...

FIGHT!!!

[UnquietDad]

This is all going to be in his column, isn't it?

"I say to Elaine 'Have you been posting to Mumsnet about me?'

She says to me, 'What do you mean have I been posting to Mumsnet about you?'

I was expecting her to say 'What's Mumsnet?' That's how I know she is not telling the truth.

I shout, 'Why don't you let me fight my own battles?' and storm off to my study. Immediately I feel guilty. What if she was doing it in my interests? What if she actually cares about me?'

Joel says 'Can we go and play football?'

I say 'No, we cannot go and play football. I am worrying about the people on Mumsnet who are being nasty to me.'

etc, etc...

Piece of piss, innit? That's half a column already...

[Quiddaitch]

being a creepy little fucker is his whole persona, but i'd be more likely to call him Jon. unless he asked me what i thought of his columns in which case i'd happily tell him that as far as i read them he's a creepy little fucker.

what is the objection? the swearing? the fact that i said he is creepy? if he was an utterly sane and solid individual he wouldn't have a column at the front of the guardian every saturday.

this is ridiculous anyway, they only wrote to me in particular because they had my email address. [yawn] well, that and the fact that he's short on material. but he's not reproducing anything i write without my permission, afaic.

[foxinsocks]

oh how I miss Harry Hill

but thanks to Enid, I now have an image of Jon looking all nervous and Aitch running at him

[Quiddaitch]

no no enid, being paranoid is all part of the ronson thang, you see. it's What He Does. it's his schtick.

[CatIsSleepy]

LOL UQD that's uncanny

[UnquietDad]

Look out, I sense another lawsuit...

[margoandjerry]

I still don't know why JR is upset. I'd be far more worried if I was Euan Ferguson who really writes a load of incomprehensible drivel.

Sample:

"If, for some reason, I wanted to take a vicarious interest in pubescent meanderings which somehow manage to combine the intellectual rigour of a slurry souffle with the thrummingly onanistic self-indulgence of a very old man locked in a steamy room with many forgiving mirrors and one last breathless chance, then of course I wouldn't take my adult coins down the shop and buy my adult paper, would I now? I would instead join the throng and indulge in Modern Death by reading a blog, whereby all of life flashes before your eyes, with the crucial differences that a) it's someone else's life, and b) none of its quite unforgiveable pifflingness is made retrospectively bearable by anybody - neither the blogger nor, mercifully, yourself - actually dying. Or I would go online or something wouldn't I, join myspace or something, to celebrate the social revolution that has allowed us to move on in a mere 2,000 years from Pericles's funeral oration for the fallen Athenians to 'Hi I'm horny isn't Bush a cnut.'"

Mumsnet discussion of this nonsense here

[Quiddaitch]

sorry, just to clear something up about the email i was sent this morning.
you may have thought it polite, Elaine, but i found it obnoxious, stalkerish and unpleasantly passive-agressive. so there you go...

[Quiddaitch]

lol... aggressive