Shit Lit
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, former reporter for the Albuquerque Tribune, has churned out another book as part of her moneymaking machine. This one’s called The Husband Habit. Because I forced myself to read it, I know it’s about Vanessa Duran, a chef at an upscale Albuquerque restaurant. And—wouldn’t you know it?—she has the unlucky habit of unknowingly dating married men. What is a thirysomething to do? Swear off men, that’s what! Of course, that’s when a handsome man enters the scene. I wonder what happens?
~Erin Adair-Hodges, Alibi, July 9-15, 2009
That is the title and opening paragraph to a short review of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez’s latest book, The Husband Habit. The review appeared in Albuquerque’s Alibi, a weekly alternative newspaper.
Now, negative reviews, and especially downright mean ones—I mean, “Shit Lit”??—tend to function in the same way that positive reviews do. They catch your attention and make you want to find out what all the fuss is about.
I’m familiar with Valdes-Rodriguez. She hails from New Mexico and is widely known for the outrageous success of her first novel, The Dirty Girls Social Club. But before that book came out, I worked with her father at the University of New Mexico. He’d been my professor, then later an associate. (He and I once led a group of travelers to Cuba for a tour in the mid 1990s, during a brief time when travel to the island was allowed for academics and journalists.) I remember him boasting that his daughter had landed a job with the Boston Globe and was making more than he was. Clearly proud, he spoke of her often.
I moved on to a new job and didn’t hear of Valdes-Rodriguez again until her father sent me an email telling me that she was moving back to NM to start a family. She then called to inquire about jobs at my company, although she made it clear that she was a writer and wanted to work in that field.
The next time I heard about Valdes-Rodriguez was when her debut novel came out. What interested me most, more than the book itself, was the story behind it. Here, from the Encylopedia of World Biography, is the reason I was fascinated:
After Boston, Valdes-Rodriguez moved on to the Los Angeles Times in 1998, where she covered the Spanish-language music industry. She also married and became pregnant, and she and her husband decided to move to her home state.Her letter of resignation to her LA Times bosses was a lengthy e-mail screed that made it onto the Internet, and gained Valdes-Rodriguez a certain measure of notoriety. In it, she excoriated the paper’s editors for grouping the diverse nationalities of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean under a single umbrella term. “‘Latino’—as used in The Los Angeles Times—is the most recent attempt at genocide perpetrated against the native people of the Americas,” she asserted, according to a New York Times article by Dinitia Smith.
Not surprisingly, Valdes-Rodriguez had a difficult time finding another job in journalism thanks to that letter. She scraped by, doing freelance public-relations work for Hispanic entertainers, and had to rely on Medicaid to cover the cost of her son’s delivery. But when she submitted a proposal for a nonfiction book about Hispanic pop divas, the editors who read it asked if she had written any fiction instead. Valdes-Rodriguez had been working intermittently on a manuscript for several years, and decided to leave her infant son at home with her husband and head for the local Starbucks. “The staff thought that I was strange because I was there all the time,” she recalled in an interview with London Daily Telegraph writer Marcus Warren. “I would be there 10 to 15 hours a day for two weeks.”
The submitted manuscript sparked a bidding war among publishers, who had long sought a “Latina Terry McMillan” to jump-start fiction aimed at Hispanic-American female readers. Valdes-Rodriguez earned a $475,000 advance on the book’s royalties when she signed with St. Martin’s Press, though that had not been the highest offer tendered….
Someone loaned me a copy of The Dirty Girls Social Club. It was a fast read, and I could understand how it made headlines by rejecting the notion that there was such a thing as a homogenous Latino population. Valdes-Rodriguez went on to publish several other novels, some aimed toward young readers, although I’ve never read anything more by her. While I admired her for busting the myth of the Latino label, I didn’t find her writing to be epecially deep.
But even given my lack of enthusiasm for Valdes-Rodriguez, the Alibi review of her latest novel seemed brutal. Perhaps the reviewer was trying to get back at the author; The Husband Habit is set in Albuquerque and apparently mentions the city’s “juvenile alternative weekly.” Still, these snippets from the review strike me as being over the top:
The novel’s slight attempt at being something more than a cut-and-dried romance comes in the form of Vanessa learning that her snap judgments of the handsome man (Dave? Steve? I can’t bear the thought of picking up the book again to find out) were wrong.
There’s more to hate: The cartoonish boss, the drama involving Vanessa’s parents that seems to be important but is later completed dropped, the lines like “Men totally suck.”
…I’ll say this: I’d rather snort a basket of dog farts than have to read this again.
There does seem to be more than your average amount of controversy surrounding Valdes-Rodriguez. An incident from earlier this year had to do with her apparently coming out as a bisexual in an email interview with GLBT website After Ellen, then later denying it. The website’s editor explained the debacle in a column titled The Woman Who Cried “Bisexual.”
And if you do a Google search of her name, you’ll find several other unflattering items, which I had not read until I decided to do a post about the mean-spirited review. I’m not particularly interested in a rehash.
All of which leaves me with this. When I first came across the Alibi review, I asked myself, Is it Envy?? That would make sense. Valdes-Rodriguez did and continues to do what most of us only dream of. But now I’m left thinking that maybe it’s Earned. I don’t know. I suppose it could be both. In fact, it very well might be both.
If you figure it out, would you let me know?
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Postscript: Speaking of Envy, don’t forget the Out of The Blue Films “ENVY Contest” at red Ravine. Read the essay Cracking Envy (Or How I Learned To Stop Romancing A Deadly Sin) and then go to the Contest Submission Guidelines to learn how to participate and compete for an Amazon Kindle.
I would make a terrible critic, because I only will write positive reviews. I don’t like to dwell on the books that leave me flat. Maybe I’m too ‘nice.’
This reviewer sounds very crass, not classy in the least, with an imagination that runs to the scatological, with the image of a face near a dogs hindquarters.
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To the average reader of that review, it feels like there must be a backstory there. Something must have happened between the Alibi and the author, because otherwise there’s just no reason to trash the book in that kind of way. If it’s that bad, wouldn’t you just refrain from giving the book any attention at all?
I’m like you, christine. Only positive reviews. I’d only want to write reviews of books I loved. I can’t usually finish books that I don’t like immediately.
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I think negative portions of balanced reviews have their place. The reviewer couldn’t find anything nice to say? I seldom (if ever?) have read a book that didn’t at least have something good about it. Though maybe I don’t continue to read if the book doesn’t hold some appeal. That said, there is a difference between a negative review and a crass, mean, hit below the belt review.
If there is a personal conflict, it doesn’t need to be spread on the pages of a newspaper, no matter how alternative or how local that newspaper is.
Juvenile tactics, for sure. But it also makes me wonder why people can’t just be nice to each other, treat each other the way they’d like to be treated? Sure, maybe I’m naive, but if people would practice the “Golden Rule” it would be the kind of world I’d choose to live in. Yeah, that really does sound naive. I can still wish though, right?
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There is a tone that is seemingly more and more acceptable in media of all types, where formality and professionalism go out the window. On purpose, as a way to be younger and more hip and more in the know. Not sure if you’ve seen that or experienced it, Bo, but I’ve been observing it for a while now.
Perhaps blogging has influenced journalism in this way; maybe it’s journalism trying to compete with blogging.
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ybonesy, when I read your piece, I was reminded of the recent dynamics between writer Alice Hoffman and freelance critic Roberta Silman. In a review, Silman said Hoffman’s recent book “lacks the spark of the earlier work” which led to Hoffman responding on Twitter in less than flattering ways about Silman. From there, it all blew up into a huge deal. [See Alice Hoffman Is Ready to Rumble (LINK) for background.]
It was amazing to watch this all unfold on Twitter. And though it’s the opposite scenario, it reminds me of what you are talking about above — where the casualness and conversational tone of social networking can lead to a lack of professionalism that might never have happened prior to the Internet.
Here’s a quote from the link article:
In the case of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, my personal opinion would be that the reviewer has gone over the top in being critical. Unnecessary and only throws a sad light on the reviewer’s lack of tact. It could possibly be envy at work.
But your question — is part of that attention earned? It’s a good one. Do some draw that kind of controversy or maybe even thrive on it? I don’t know.
If you got a review like that for one of your books, would you respond to the critic in any way?
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QM, I wouldn’t respond to the critic at the Alibi. It gives credibility to someone that really doesn’t deserve it. But the other example I cited re: Valdes-Rodriguez’s interactions with AfterEllen did, I think, show how challenging social media can be in erasing the boundaries between authors, reviewers, and readers. And if you following that link to the comments, you’ll see that there was interaction between all of the above, and there were blog posts that eventually got erased (wonder if they’re cached out there somewhere).
Blogging is a tricky thing for individuals who might want to maintain a certain persona or privacy. Now for a writer like Heather Anderson (Dooce) who became a blogger first (perhaps the godmother of bloggers) and then became a writer–she surely has a much different relationship with social media, since social media established her readership.
I can see where Alice Hoffman’s tweated response to her critic ended up getting blown up. Twitter, in particular, can be super-informal, so if someone is trying to maintain a professional or other certain persona with fans, then yeah, Twitter can get you in trouble. I think it invites “thinking outloud.” Not that everyone uses it that way, but a lot of people do.
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Lots to ponder here.
I have to agree with Bo. I can see where negative criticism has a place and can even be helpful, but this type of attack is unprofessional at best, crude and puerile at worst.
I’ve often thought lately that social networking as done on the internet can lead down some disagreeable and sometimes distressing paths. Places like Twitter make it easier to, as you wrote, “think outloud,” without the usual social restraints of having to face the person you’re criticizing or insulting.
This particular review just seems over the top to me.
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Very interesting post and comments. It has me wondering what this critic’s other reviews look like. Is the crassness and lack of social decorum part of her writing style when critiquing books are is this an example that stands apart from her other reviews. Maybe I will do a little research . . .
As for the changing societal norms regarding writing style and conversation, I sometimes find myself wondering how far behind the times I am or am I just “old fashioned” in what I believe are the right and wrong ways of written and oral communication?
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Styles of communication are changing super fast, R3. I’m personally having difficulty adopting to Twitter. QM’s really caught on with it, though. Which is an interesting thing in itself, as QM is the red Ravine turtle, whereas Twitter is seemingly rabbit energy, and I’m sort of the red Ravine rabbit (or least sometimes rabbit energy) yet can’t adjust to the speed of Twitter.
And yet, other fellow bloggers who I have come to think of as the kind of people who, like QM, stop to smell the roses (Robin and Bo are definitely among them) have all been early adopters to Twitter and seem to make it work so well. I bet it’s just that I haven’t found the Zen of Twitter. 8)
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yb,
As a computer consultant I see Twitter as the latest attempt to depersonalize our lives. I really don’t see it lasting long because people tend to get bored easily and move on to the latest Internet fad. That is based more on the concept of Twitter as being a social outlet to open your life to the world (a thought that scares me on so many levels). Although there are differences between a personal tweet and a business tweet both need to be tempered.
I respect the internet and try to limit how much of myself I put out there but I think through IM, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other “social networking webapps we tend to become synthesized to personal privacy and put more and more information about our personal lives out for strangers to peruse and capture. What ever happened to the “don’t talk to strangers” attitude we grew up with? For some reason that message did not carry over to the Internet.
So before I put things out on Facebook, MySpace, blog comments I often find myself reviewing what I post and the impact it has on my privacy.
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OOPS, that should have been “desensitized to personal privacy”
Somehow my musical muse took over my fingers.
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I agree, R3, except perhaps for the part about Twitter being short-lived. Maybe we’ll adapt. Maybe Twitter will. Or at the very least, seems like it will take a while to reach saturation and boredom. So much to learn about so many different people, things, etc.
And excellent points on personal privacy. Just to provide proof of the desensitization, when QM and I started out, we had pretty strict shared guidelines about what we would and could share. I’ve relaxed those over time. I’m not completely transparent, but still. You do gain a trust, I’m sure a false trust, of the medium. What I like about Facebook is that you control access. I don’t “friend” anyone who isn’t someone I know well, from my past or present.
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Oops, well, except for politicians. Hee hee. I have friended a few of them.
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p.s., great advice on reviewing what you post and asking yourself, what is the impact on my privacy. My boss, who is a FB friend, also adviced to use the “mother rule”–would this make my mom ashamed? I like blogging for the fact that it can be a contemplative medium, if you use it as such. I guess Twitter could be, too, although does that defeat the purpose? (What’s on your mind? Hmmm, let me go think about that.)
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“The Zen of Twitter.” I like that, YB.
I also like the “mother rule” and it’s one I generally follow on my blog because my mother and father have both been known to visit my blogs. That keeps me somewhat careful about what I write about (too careful at times, I sometimes think).
In addition I have the “husband rule.” I mention my husband but rarely say much about him on the blog out of respect for his privacy. I figure if he wants to blog about himself, he will. In the meantime, it’s not up to me to do so. This also puts restraints on what I can and will write about.
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Great discussion on Social Media. I think it’s a conversation that will be going on for quite some time. People seem very opinionated about it, too. And like to defend the social media of their choice. I don’t know…it’s all a learning thing for me.
ybonesy, it has been strange how I’ve taken to Twitter. But it’s important to note that I Tweet as part of red Ravine and not a personal account. As such, I treat our red Ravine Twitter as I do comments and posts on red Ravine. I use the same boundaries and guidelines and structure and try to Tweet about what might be of interest to our red Ravine readers — mixed with some personal (much like in this blog space).
I have yet to have a personal account for anything — yet I am getting close to joining Facebook. I’m one of those people who prepares ahead, sometimes to a fault, so I’ve been studying how people use the different social media. It can sure eat you alive in time spent if you don’t watch it.
I think on Twitter, I am still the turtle compared to other Twitterers out there. I’m kind of slow and methodical and only post what I’m genuinely interested in. Some use it for marketing purposes only. Others are using it for their personal lives which doesn’t fit with who I am. I tend to be a pretty private person.
I think I’m probably using the same privacy standards we originally set up for red Ravine. But that may change as I move toward Facebook. I like your “Mother Rule” as I know my mother reads red Ravine (and so does Liz’s)! It’s a great rule of thumb.
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Oh, ybonesy, I wanted to mention the comment I made to you, I think it was last week, about how coming back to red Ravine after Twitter is a relief. The blog is a place I can slow down and take my time and type as much as I want, get in depth about the issues. I like that I can do that here. Yet Twitter is easy and fast and I like the haiku-esque aspect of 140 characters. It’s a challenge to square your thoughts down to that small of a space. Was it you that said red Ravine’s like a long slow drink compared to the chugging down of info on Twitter?
R3, I think Twitter’s going to be around for a while. Can’t see it going away. I see lots of authors and publishers using it for a marketing tool. There is an art to this — you have to mix personal with professional, much like on this blog. Those who self-promote too much are not welcomed as followers. Those who get too personal make people uncomfortable. It’s definitely an art form. It’s going to be so interesting to see which of these social media survive and which fall by the wayside. Everything is ever evolving.
Then there are some days when I wish I was in a cabin up on Lake Superior, somewhere in a place far far away with no Internet access. Sometimes I miss the days before the Internet. Yes, I’ve lived long enough to have known them. 8)
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Oh, R3 — Your question about the critic is a good one:
It has me wondering what this critic’s other reviews look like. Is the crassness and lack of social decorum part of her writing style when critiquing books are is this an example that stands apart from her other reviews.
ybonesy, have you read other reviews by this critic? I am kind of curious now as it might add to or inform the nature of this particular review.
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QM and yb,
I took some time to read some of her other reviews and it seems that this review in particular took the “personal venting” angle. One other that I read seemed somewhat harsh but when I read a link off of her review it appeared she was echoing another critic’s review.
This makes one wonder if there was a hidden message in either the book or her review because they both work(ed) as journalists at the same company. Maybe there was some identifiable characters on this book if you knew her associations well enough.
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R3, thanks for that feedback. Some good sleuthing. Now I’m intrigued. Your analysis seems possible, given they worked at the same company. Wouldn’t that be strange if her characters were too much based on real people and it came back to bite her? Hmmm.
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QM, no, I had not read anything by this critic. Thanks, R3, for digging a bit. Provides more food for thought.
QM, I admire how you use Twitter. I especially like that you promote others and experiment with their events. And you do meter out the personal in a smart way.
What kind of gets my goat when it comes to any social media, people seem to be attracted to the emotional wrecks out there. The scandal or controversy, let-it-all-hang-out, or the mean-spirited. What is that about?
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Robin, I should follow the husband rule more often. Jim hasn’t minded when I’ve published pictures of him on red Ravine nor on my Facebook account, but I tend to act and then ask if it’s OK later. Is that what happens when you’ve been married as long as we have?
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ybonesy, thanks. About Twitter, I heard a piece on NPR yesterday and the guy didn’t like Twitter at all and didn’t think it would be around for long. He was a computer geek, too, and it reminded me of R3’s comment about Twitter. He said it’s not a very stable platform and he hadn’t been impressed with it thus far. I wonder if it will last?
Some people are on Twitter all day long. It’s amazing to watch how people use it. Some days I like it. Others, I just need a break.
Robin, I like your husband rule. I try to use the partner rule but sometimes I have to watch it. I asked Liz in the beginning of blogging if it was okay if I used her name. She said she didn’t mind. But I have to be mindful. I will sometimes ask if it’s okay that I write or comment about certain things. You are right about not revealing too much.
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Oh, ybonesy, about people being drawn to the mean-spirited or the scandals, I don’t know why that’s so popular. But remember Election season last year? People got downright nasty. Sometimes I think people vent toward public targets to not have to focus on their own stuff. And other times, I think it’s to try to make social change happen and to increase awareness. It’s the way people do it that makes the difference. I’m not interested in focusing on the negative for very long. A person’s approach can make all the difference.
Hey, yb, remember when we were starting up red Ravine on WordPress and we discussed the privacy issues? About that same time, there was a huge scandal in the blog world. A group of bloggers personally attacked a woman on their blog (and in the comments on her own blog) and raked her over the coals. It was VERY mean-spirited character assassination and delved into her private life. They even gave out her address online.
I think that’s why we decided to use QM and yb. It was really bad at that time. I also want to say that one of the reasons I chose to us QuoinMonkey when blogging every day was also to protect the anonymity of those close to me. Especially if I am writing about personal things on the blog; revealing my own name also reveals theirs. It’s definitely a fine line to walk. It’s something that R3 and I talked about, too, before publishing his piece last week.
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YB: I don’t know if length of time in a marriage has as much to do with it (it might!) as the husband in question or the photo/story in question. My husband and I will be celebrating our 33rd anniversary next month and he’s such a private guy that I automatically knew when I began using the internet that I should not tell his stories (not without asking him first). I occasionally post a photo of him, but it’s usually from far away or he’s turned away from the camera. I don’t ask for permission, but do let him know I posted the photo (or show it to him) after the fact. If, however, I was going to post a full out shot of his face or something I’m not sure he’d approve of, I would ask him about it first.
The hard part is that very often his stories are my stories as well so I have to walk a fine line between telling my story and including him in it in such a way that it doesn’t cross over into his privacy concerns. For a long time he wasn’t very keen on the social uses of the internet (strange coming from an academic/scientist who was involved in email long before the general public). After meeting some of the folks I’ve met through the internet, he’s loosened up a little about it all.
We’re friends with some of my husband’s colleagues so that also plays a role. I wouldn’t want to blog about something that has the potential to embarrass him with his workmates.
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[…] ______________________________________________________________________________________ Note to red Ravine Readers: This Writing Practice is related to the Topic of Envy posted for the Out of The Blue Films “ENVY Contest” at red Ravine. For background and inspiration about Envy, read the essay Cracking Envy (Or How I Learned To Stop Romancing A Deadly Sin) and the piece The Case of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez: Is It Envy Or Earned? […]
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[…] Dad always made a big deal out of giving me money. It was a process. First he said nothing, then he complained, then he took out his wallet and looked through it slowly and carefully, and finally he handed me the money, but reluctantly, like he might pull the bill back just as my fingers made contact. His final final step was to pull out the miniature spiral notebook from his breast pocket, open to the current page and note in his teeny-tiny handwriting the amount he’d given me. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Note to red Ravine Readers: This Writing Practice is related to the Topic of Envy posted for the Out of The Blue Films “ENVY Contest” at red Ravine. For background and inspiration about Envy, read the essay Cracking Envy (Or How I Learned To Stop Romancing A Deadly Sin) and the piece The Case of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez: Is It Envy Or Earned? […]
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[…] July 24, 2009 by ybonesy evil eye, a belief held by many cultures that if a person envies you or what you have and stares at that object, the object will be cursed, pen and ink on graph paper, doodle © 2009 by ybonesy. All rights reserved. ______________________________________________________________________________________ Note to red Ravine Readers: This Writing Practice is related to the Topic of Envy posted for the Out of The Blue Films “ENVY Contest” at red Ravine. For background and inspiration about Envy, read the essay Cracking Envy (Or How I Learned To Stop Romancing A Deadly Sin) and the piece The Case of Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez: Is It Envy Or Earned? […]
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I had never heard of her or her novels but now I will definitely put her on my short list of writers to read. I’ll let you know what I think.
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Fascinating stream of comments and another great post on rR, yb!
Sure sounds like ENVY to me, but I’m seeing it everywhere lately.
It reminds me a little of that recent story about the poet who was up for a big academic job and was feigning horror at whoever was responsible for the bad things being said on the internet about her main rival..
Turns out she was the guilty one! Ay, yi, yi.. ENVY. 🙂
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Oh man, isn’t that amazing!? I mean, wouldn’t the fear of being caught keep someone from doing such a thing even if they thought to do it?! We’re all human, we all have evil thoughts once in a while, but the idea that some people act on them…that’s what I have a hard time coming to terms with.
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