This is going to be self-justification for why I don’t use Twitter, citing a recent conversation with Thomas Chatterton Williams, a self-identified liberal with opinions seemingly contrary to the label. Williams writes on topics similar to Ta-Nahesi Coates, specifically being young, educated and black in the U.S., but fiercely criticizes identity politics.
In his remarks to America magazine, Williams says he engages with critics on Twitter, “but it also puts things in such binaries, and it turns things into a kind of team dynamic in a way that I think is really against what it means to be a writer.” He suggests writers should avoid team affiliation, adding that the process of producing a book or long essay can take months or years but only take a reader a day or week to read. The disparity of time and effort between writer and critic is intensified by Twitter, he says, because the critic’s reaction can appear instantly.
It makes me think of the well-known fallout between Albert Camus and Jean-Paul Sartre over the latter’s affiliation with the Communist Party. As a novelist, playwright, essayist, and journalist engagé, Camus may have objected to Sartre’s affiliation with any political party as much as his support for communism.