How do you win a twitter fight? Outclass your opponent by writing about it for a well-respected English newspaper. Katie Roiphe doesn’t tweet, she blogs for The Financial Times.
The feminist critic finally weighed in on her so-called twitter feud with Ayelet Waldman, or, as she refers to Michael Chabon’s wife, “Mrs. C.”
According to Ms. Roiphe, a twitter battle isn’t a battle if it is one-sided. She has never used Twitter (although she says her daughter set up an account to give herself a follower).
Ms. Roiphe found out about Ms. Waldman’s tweets after acquaintances began bringing them to her attention, and blogs started writing about them.
“Indeed, it’s beginning to seem like everyone I have ever stood next to in an elevator suddenly harbors a great desire to talk to me about Mrs. C. They want to hear what I have to say about Mrs. C. How do I feel about Mrs. C? The only thing I know for sure, by this point, is that half of New York City is very closely following the twittered moods of Mrs. C.”
Instead of firing back on twitter, Ms. Roiphe went after one of the bedrocks of the Internet—schadenfreude. But that doesn’t mean she didn’t get in a couple of shots at Ms. Waldman:
“Would Mrs. C., if she ran into me at a bar, confront me, or maybe throw a drink at me? I would say probably not (though Mrs. C. may be a bit volatile, so I can’t be sure).”
@Ayeletw has been uncharacteristically quiet in response. Either she is too busy weighing in on the narrowly averted government shutdown, or she knows that her knives are useless in this gunfight.
