By Louise Ure
About ten days ago I got an appreciative email from a reader that I want to share with you. Not that I want this man’s words enshrined anywhere (on the contrary), but to remind us all that there are some true crazies out there. I’ve removed his email address and signature line, just in case you’re so deeply offended (as was I) that you’re tempted to reply to him.
His message, complete with vitriol, bigotry, violence, illogic and original misspellings is as follows:
From: Crazy M-Fer
Date: February 20, 2010 9:38:52 AM PST
To: Louise Ure
Subject: THANK YOU for Liars Anonymous!!
Dear Mrs. Ure:
I want to THANK YOU so much from the bottom of my heart for your recent book Liars Anonymous that I just finished reading.
THANK YOU for redeeming Caucasian Christian Men, as you did in this book.
I was very worried when I first began reading, that your character was a bull dagger for her she was a woman who thinks she can act like a man and do the things men do, like kick ass, and protect women and children. This is NOT the job of a woman and your books proves how stupid, gullible, and easily led astray women are.
And you confirmed what men have been saying all along, only it means so much more because you are a woman – you are a real woman, yes? Not one of those girly men who’s transformed himself? For if so, then it doesn’t count.
We reaffirmed what men have been saying all along: women LIE! And women ESPECIALLY lie about being sexually molested as children, and especially to their best friends.
And their motivation is always their sick attempt to destroy men and to make the real women who love those men look stupid and hateful to their children when they believe their man over those spiteful, lying girls.
We all know women make up childhood sexual abuse, and if not to bring trouble to grown men, then because their bull dagger therapists lead to to ‘remember’ false memories because we know these women hate men and want to destroy us.
And I am further thrilled that it is a dirty jew that was the evil force behind real murders and another jew was eliminated (which should have happened to ALL of them years ago); and the other evil force was that rich woman. Women are ALWAYS the manipulators and real dogs and you have proved it with your story.
I hope you leave your character in jail where she belongs and make her serve even longer that most women in this country serve for murdering anyone. Thank you for contributing so emmensely to the exoneration of men and proof that women make up abuse to try to punish us.
You are such a credit to women and making sure their role is kept as God meant it to be. I look forward to your next book! MEN RULE!
Where to begin?
First of all, I think you’re a hateful, deluded, dangerous person and I can’t believe you actually read books – any books – let alone mine. Did it bother you when my protagonist kneed the guy who was trying to rape her and smashed his elbow with a crowbar? I’m surprised you had the nuts to keep reading.
Let me take this point by point:
1.“THANK YOU for redeeming Caucasian Christian Men”
Uh, no. I think Caucasian Christian Men are just as likely to be evil as anyone else and maybe even more so, as they often hide their own insecurities and obsessions behind their religion.
2. “I was very worried when I first began reading, that your character was a bull dagger for her she was a woman who thinks she can act like a man and do the things men do, like kick ass, and protect women and children.”
You’re dating yourself here, pal. I haven’t heard the term “bulldagger” (derogatory appellation for an aggressively masculine lesbian , more often one who is muscular or burly , who assumes the male role in lovemaking) for decades. Imagine the horror of a woman saying “I’m going to touch you here.” My God, we can think and feel for ourselves!
And I’m sorry you f-ing chauvinist, but I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself and anybody else I care for including other women and children. Women today are not waiting around for some man to save us.
3. “ … their sick attempt to destroy men and to make the real women who love those men look stupid and hateful to their children when they believe their man over those spiteful, lying girls.”
Ooh, sounds like somebody’s got some history here. Do the cops still have you on a sexual predator list? Did your kids disown you when they heard? Sounds like you’ve still got the little wife cowed, though. But I’ll bet you don’t let her friends come by any more.
4. “And I am further thrilled that it is a dirty jew that was the evil force behind real murders and another jew was eliminated (which should have happened to ALL of them years ago)”
Okay, there you go, right past the Tin Foil Hat stop sign and into the high speed zone of dangerous, deadly bigotry. Zip it, you pinhead. I don’t have the time or energy for your particular combination of stupid and hateful.
By the way, there’s not one character in that book described as Jewish.
5. “. Women are ALWAYS the manipulators and real dogs and you have proved it with your story.”
Don’t you get it? Stories PROVE nothing. They’re stories. Fiction. I could just as easily write a novel about an ignorant white man who abuses little kids and then hides behind his religion to get away with it. Would that story be any more true? (In your case, maybe so.)
Back here in the reality-based world where I live, abuse happens to men, women and children all the time. And it’s assholes like you that try to excuse it away or pretend it never happened.
OK, ‘Rati Readers. I’m back, now that I’ve vented just about as much as he did.
I never did write back to him directly and hope to hell he doesn’t read this blog, but as hateful and misinformed as his email is, my real question is: does it matter? Does it matter that I didn’t intend to write any of those coded messages that he picked up? Does it matter that he’s misconstrued the basic nature of my characters and their battle with guilt, blame and responsibility? Once our work leaves our hands, can we still claim ownership of how it should be received?
The audience is free to interpret a poem, or a ballet or a piece of music. Does is matter that their comprehension is not what the poet, the choreographer or the musician intended?
Fire away, my ‘Rati friends. Either with your response to this Crazy M-Fer or at the notion of ownership of creative ideas once they’re loosed on the world.
PS: Tiny update on the situation at home. Bruce has fallen in love with those old-timey popsicles that have a joke printed on the stick. “What kind of clothes do frogs wear? Jump suits.” I’ll soon be a hit at all the kids’ parties.
Holy crap.
Just holy crap.
That would almost inspire me to create a story where the protagonist is a Jewish lesbian bodybuilder.
And one of the people she saves is an unhinged lunatic who lashes out at the world’s perceived injustices via e-mail.
Creepy, creepy… the malice just rolls off the screen. I’ve never gotten anything even half that bad.. I’m so sorry. My "stalkers" tend to be grammar police or men – I mean people – who seem to comb my books for factual errors. At least they’re combing the books!
This, though… you just want to call the cops. Or never leave the house again.
Sending huge love to you and Bruce.
Some people have truly chosen a strange path in life. But hey, he’s proud of it and sharing it with the world. All one can do is shake his/her head and walk away and think better thoughts.
Still much love heading your and Bruce’s way. Do you remember making homemade Popsicle with those plastic molds? Never quite the same as the real thing. I also remember when the Popsicle guy came around in his cart I once had a cinnamon flavored one; it was wonderful and apparently stuck with me to this day. 🙂
It’s scary how people see their own visions in fiction, movies – wherever they can get it.
When I’m published someday, I may substitute a comic book drawing for an author photo.
On a funnier note, I remember an oral report an elementary school classmate gave.
It went something like:
"Anne of Green Gable is about a girl who is a liar. She lies to her adoptive family and to her friends
and by the end of the book learns that lying is wrong."
I’m still wondering if she got some strange bootleg copy.
Wow! I didn’t know my wife’s ex-husband read your work.
I think he needs to be reported to the police. They will be able to identify him and find out where he lives which hopefully is not anywhere near YOU. Report him for the record. Maybe he does this to other authors. Maybe the police have had other complaints. You need to find out if he has ever done more than just email his ‘favorite’ authors. Maybe he is already being watched. How the hell did he pick out your book? The cover picture is not lurid or suggestive.
Louise. He uses the conspiratorial term "we". This is f****d up.
shudder
The hateful always carry shoehorns, to make their obsessions fit the opportunity. By their placards ye shall know them. I guess it’s good the sick bastards speak up these days; we’re not so surprised when we run into them. Forewarned, forearmed. And I expect you’re right about the unintended revelations.
Back in radio days, I used to hear a lot from people with freight to unload about language, voice and diction. Now, in corp communications, I get a lot of blowback from technoids still furious with dead English teachers. Resentment is a feast that leaves us lessened by each bite.
Glad to hear Bruce likes his popsicles, glad of the news from the front.
Louise,
i was gonna make some snarky remarks, then I thought better of it and decided to repeat some of what’s been said before…report this. YOu would be laying the groundwork in case this person escalates.
we write about this stuff, we don’t expect to live it. And because of what you do, you are dealing with all forms of public…it’s just maddening that something you enjoy, that is your work, would bring cockroaches out of the woodwork.
I see it this way…"dude, you want attention, you wanna say your piece, maybe it’s time to give you an audience that will really LISTEN."
one more thing…we write, that’s i,t that’s all….we don’t give out subliminal messages.
How our work is taken is on the shoulders of the recievers…it’s about time people started stepping up to the plate, it’s called accountability and personal responsibility.
ok, time to get off my soapbox, but honestly! some people’s children….
Chris, I’m liking this Jewish lesbian bodybuilder character.
Alex, it is creepy. When I first printed out his email to show Bruce, I was carrying it around by the corner like it had cooties.
PK, Bruce had me out looking for those popsicle molds when I couldn’t first find the original flavors. If I ever find them, I’m going to try that cinnamon version.
Shizuka, I don’t know that I disagree wholeheartedly with that Anne of Green Gables summary. That’s about all I remember, too.
Jim W, you’ve been traveling with a rough crowd it sounds.
Anon (and later Kit), you’re probably right. I should report him to the police. But he isn’t actually advocating violence against himself or anyone else. So would they even take the report? Being a bigot and an abuse-apologist isn’t a crime.
Tom, if I were a plagiarist, I’d be stealing lines liberally from your comment. "The hateful carry shoehorns …" God, what an image and construction. And "resentment is a feast that leaves us lessened by each bite." Dead right. And so beautifully expressed.
Kit, you’re right, you’re right. I’ll check in with my friendly SF law enforcement guy and ask what I should do.
During my days as a musician, I was always aware of the composer’s dependence on the performer/interpreter. The composer can write whatever he wants, but is still dependent on the performer to transmit his imagined sounds to an audience. A good performer interprets the music as closely as he can to the composer’s intention, but individual personalities and tastes always have to be taken into consideration. Some musicians take matters into their own hands and turn a piece of music into somehting wholly unintended by the composer; fortunately, they are few and far between.
The same is true of writers and their interpreters, also known as readers. Most readers are interested in what the story has to say, and how the author says it. There will always be those unfortunate few who will shoehorn (great analogy, Tom) their beliefs into whatever you wrote. You can’t carry their willful misconceptions on your shoulders.
We always have some of those popsicles around our house. Love ’em.
Wow. The vitriol and ignorance is astounding. Adding another vote for reporting this to your local pd.
Wal-Mart usually has popsicle molds in seasonal stuff closer to the summer. It appears the "traditional’ Tuperware ones are no longer in their summer catalog. Hmph. That’s ridiculous.
Glad Bruce is enjoying his popsicles!
All the best,
Rachel
Louise,
Your inbox should never be polluted with such garbage. True, once published, a reader is able to stake their own claim to an author’s work, sometimes viewing it in ways an author never intended. But only to a point. Sure, I remember discussing short stories in college where we all dissected those stories to death, talking about what symbolized what and the point the author was trying to get across. And I’m sure had the authors sat in on those discussions, they would have argued against some of our interpretations. But there’s a difference between intelligent discussion and delusion. Authors definitely retain ownership of their ideas. Though they can’t tell readers exactly what to think of their work, readers shouldn’t be free to twist anyone’s work to make it fit their hateful views.
Louise,
I can only go on my own knowledge and experience…..in hunting, or tracking…you don’t wait for the whole animal…you observe the signs.(not that you are hunting and tracking..example only)
bull dagger(which I’ld never heard of before) and especially *jew* would say RED FLAG, pay attention! Caucasion Christian Men ..would be another…like following scat.
my instinct would be to lay the groundwork, just in case, that way if it did escalate…you wouldn’t have to go through 20 ft of bullshit to get to a point.
So it looks like that guy took your mind off other stuff for a minute.
I was trying to figure out how I missed the Jewish people in your book.
So I guess if we consider subtext in our writing it proves it is in the interpretation of the reader no matter what our intent. Can you read a book backwards like you play an old record backwards?
It’s a good thing for Bruce that it’s winter. After we ate those popsicles in the Illinois summer, Mom would hose us down. At least he doesn’t have to put on his shorts and head for the back yard.
Nice to hear the smile in your writing – I loved the visual of you holding the paper by the cootie corner.
Hugs.
You’re right, Dana. The interpretive powers of a musician can totally change a composer’s work. And as a reader, I kind of like being compared to a musician or a translator.
Rachel, would you believe there’s no WalMart in San Francisco? I’ll have to check out the online catalog.
Pete says: "Readers shouldn’t be free to twist anyone’s work to make it fit their hateful views." I feel like that’s what’s been going on with the Bible and the Koran for hundreds of years.
I have to admit that I’ll roll my eyes whenever I read a scene where a woman beats up some male street criminal twice her size. Not that there aren’t very tough women in the world, it’s just that the woman in question is usually average sized with no combat training. And let’s face it, even if they were fighters, it probably wouldn’t make much of a difference against a normal sized man since he would be physically stronger.
There is a brilliant novel by Sara Gran called DOPE that has a female lead, and it’s one of the most realistic female detective novels I’ve ever read. She’s tough as hell, but she’s also not superhuman, and the author wasn’t in denial about what would happen to a woman who went face to face with some 250 lb drug dealer in an alley. What makes her character so great is that she’ll get beaten up, raped, and left for dead, but she still gets up and keeps going. The only way to stop her is to kill her, and as a result she’s an absolute bad-ass.
I think a lot of crime writers who have female protagonists feel they need to keep up with the men, and that’s just not true. Women have their own skills, and we don’t have to pretend physical strength is one of them when in most cases it isn’t.
BTW, the guy who wrote this letter might’ve been crazy, but there’s something about it that makes me think it was a joke.
Like following scat, Kit? Absolutely. His words are like radioactive droppings. You don’t need to see the beast to know what you’re following.
Judy, maybe he did read the book backwards. "Paul is dead" must be buried in there somewhere if you scan the lines in reverse.
Mason, wasn’t DOPE the most extraordinary book? I loved the raw power of it. And I agree that female protagonists shouldn’t be superhuman in their physical responses. But neither do I think that all women cower, simper and wait to be saved.
Was this guy’s email a joke? I don’t know. There’s too much hate in it for me to think so. But I do have several writer friends who thought the author was a female.
"wasn’t DOPE the most extraordinary book?"
It breaks my heart she’s not writing anymore. ‘DOPE’ and ‘Come Closer’ are two of my all time favorites.
Louise – While in his book "review" this crazy seemed to identify with you and therefore was not too much of a threat, he may be smart enough to Google you and find your posting on Murderati. That would not be good. Go ahead and make a law enforcement contact now, just in case he crawls out of the woodwork somewhere down the line.
Mason, she’s not writing anymore? Oh no! I hope her heart is well and that this is just a necessary break. I’d love to read more from her.
And Carl, you may be right. I thought long and hard before posting this email. But you know what? If he googles anything, I’ll bet it’s his own name and Caucasian Christian terms.
Wow, that is some impressive wackiness. LIke Mason, I’m wondering if there’s any chance it could’ve been a joke. Maybe I just don’t want to believe that there’s anyone out there who’s actually that twisted.
Continued good thoughts to you and Bruce……
Oh Rae, you sweet naive Petal! Of course there’s this kind of hatred and craziness out there! It’s on the news every night.
When I initially read the guy’s email, I thought it was a joke, too. It’s so over the top and covers all of the clichés. I also thought about it being from a woman. But I don’t think you should try to figure it out.
That’s what the pros do. They read this stuff all day long when they are looking for internet sickfucks and predators. They will recognize it for whatever it is. There are patterns. They are trained to spot phrases that might lead to action. Report it. Won’t do any harm. And think of this…. right now he may be thanking you and revering your work. What if he reads something that you have written that he DOESN’T like? He might turn on ya.
He may have Googled you right after he wrote it to see if he got a rise out of you. But it has been sometime…..so maybe he won’t find this blog. I would have to go back to your website to see if you link Murderati. Maybe he lurks here, as well. Seems we would have heard from him, though, ‘eh?
Have any of you other Murderatis gotten really creepy mail?
Yikes. I’ve so far been spared anyone this crazy reacting to my fiction.
The newspaper columns, now…I’ve got some real doozies over that, especially in the run up to the Iraq War. My favorite was the one who told me "They hanged Benedict Arnold, you know," which managed to be both vaguely threateining AND historically inaccurate.
And the racist loons came out of the woodwork after Obama got elected. I’ve been debating whether or not to reply to one guy to let him know that while I’m not sure what a "Joo" is, I’m pretty sure I’m not one.
Scat, Louise.;)
take care, kit
Anon, you’re right. The pros know how to evaluate this stuff.
JD, I figured your newspaper column had generated drawerfuls of this dross!
I finally broke myself of the habit of shooting back an e-mail asking if the sender had the balls to meet and say that to my face.
Yikes, JD, control that impulse! There are too many concealed carry laws being relaxed out there. Who knows what a face to face encounter could bring.
I have only two things to say about that email:
Holy and shit.
Louise, considering that some of the legal work I do can piss off some very unstable and violent people, I’ve traveled armed for years. Yet another good reason for me not to get into a face to face with a nutball.
OK. This is a book. Gun toting lawyers, paranormals, romance killers, kick ass demolition broads, crazy motorcycle riders, murder writing doctors, ex-debutant with crazy family issues, Neo-Nazi inciters and more………you guys could each write your own chapters……..a pride of scheming authors trying to solve the murder of Crazy M-Fer…….and all suspects, as well !!!………………Murder on The Murderati Express
Louise,
I’d report it — get it on record. It’s not a joke. Jokes are funny — or at least try to be. The stream of consciousness quality of it hiding in the guise of "rationality" is mighty scary — this is a person trained as a therapist speaking. Report. It.
As to what happens to our works once they’re out in the world . . . we sure don’t have much control. I thought my last book would be good to use in religious studies classes. Turns out the readers that I thought would most understand it, didn’t.
You just never know.
And please accept my good, warm energy for both you and Bruce. Not too warm though; don’t want to melt those popsicles.
Amen, RGB. I’m with you.
JD, although I hate the confrontations you’ve faced, I’m glad that you’re protecting yourself.
Anon: "a pride of scheming authors…" Awright! I wondered if a bunch of authors were a bevy or a gaggle or a murder. But a pride? Too cool.
Pari, I hear you. I shall report it. And heaven help me if I ever really tried to write a "message" book. I have no idea what the readers would really take away from it.
Aw, Louise… this man just sucks. And he’s nuts. And I’m so sorry you had to read all of that at any time, let alone now.
If it cheers you up any, I had an old homeless guy follow me down Shattuck in Berkeley a year ago calling me a "bulldagger" repeatedly while I walked to lunch with a visting writer pal. She is southern and very girly looking, and I was wearing jeans and sneakers and a polo shirt. So *obviously* I’m gay, I guess. But the antiquated terminology was the oddest part. I was like, "dude, what are you? Some Forties jazz saxophonist who just fell into a time machine while drunk and got splatted out here on the sidewalk in front of Andronico’s with packing twine for a belt?"
I thought of "murder" or "sleuth" but when I think of you guys I don’t see crows or bears and I didn’t think you would understand the ‘collective’ if I used some of my real favorites:
sord of mallards, shiver of shark, murmuration of starlings, knot of toads, sneak of weasels, hurtle of sheep, piteousness of doves, storytelling of crows, bloat of hippopatami, implausibility of gnus, fesnying of ferrets, dissimulation of birds, and one of the best….rhumba of rattlesnakes.
Wasn’t there a mystery writer who titled all her books with collective nouns?
Gary Larson, the cartoonist, inspired me to ‘collect’ when I was a kid.
Sorry. This has nothing to do with your post.
Yeah, Cornelia, why are we taking Packing Twine Belt and Mr. Batso Crazy seriously anyway?
Anon, I used a similar (but not quite so complete) list of collective nouns in The Fault Tree, as the repetition of the words was like a lullaby to my protagonist. Now that I think of it, I’ll bet that authors are more like the group of hippopotami.
Dear Louise,
GAH–there really are too few words to describe all that’s hideously wrong with that letter writer. And I’m really sorry you had to read that poison, especially now. Go hug your husband and know, thank God, most people–even some nasty pieces of work–would be WTF? about the attitudes this guy has.
Better things tomorrow, I hope.
~Ev
Target and Bed, Bath and Beyond have the popsicle molds. If you go to Amazon and search for *pop molds* you get a gazillion hits. When my kids were small, I would make ice pops using little dixie cups, too.
I personally have an addiction to the Dreyer’s Fruit Bars and paletas-a Mexican popsicle. My fav is made with cucumber.
That is some sick shit in that email but two things strike me…I think it was written by a woman and I don’t perceive immediate danger because the writer views the book as validating his/her stance. I didn’t see an implicit threat beyond the crazy. I have to agree with the others that contacting the police as laying ground work is a good idea. Geesh, you didn’t need this. I’m so sorry it happened. Actually, nobody needs this.
Thank you, Ev. I’m wrapping my arms around him extra tight today, holding on to the good stuff in the world.
And Mary Lynn, I will hie myself to BB&B (or their online store at any rate) tout de suite.Cucumber popsicles sound like the single most refreshing thing I’ve ever heard of.
I’m not sure about the woman thing, but right now I don’t consider the letter writer a threat to me either. In the meantime, I’m still carrying mace.
I do not believe this letter was sent from a Caucasian man. It sounds like a Jewish woman bitter at what you’ve written and trying to point out what she believes is discrimination.
Wow, Ivy, that’s a take on it that I never would have expected.But it would surprise me if any Jew, even trying to build a case of discrimination, would ever say "all of them should have been eliminated." That’s too much, too much.
Last summer, the LA Times ran an article with recipes for paletas. Here’s a link to the cucumber recipe: Cucumber paleta recipe
Paletas article
I’m thinking they were being way over the top tongue in cheek. As offensive as they possibly could be to make their point. It’s just my gut feeling. Have you googled the email address? Does the email account check out [many addresses will pop up elsewhere] or is it a shill account?
tried to put in hot links, but it didn’t work. sorry. here are the cut and paste links
http://www.latimes.com/features/la-fo-paletarec1aug22,0,4663429.story for cucumber paletas recipe
and the article: http://www.latimes.com/search/la-fo-paletas22aug22,0,1519895.story
Jewish women are too intelligent and educated to fool around with this juvenile kind of dreck. Besides, when they want to bring up discrimination they don’t try to sneak it through the back door……..they’ll throw it straight up in your face and double dog dare ya to argue with ’em. …..and they’d be a lot more humorous than this weirdo……but more revealing is the fact that, allowing for typos, a Jew would go to his/her grave before misspelling a word !
I know ; – }
Fighting fires and fools with advanced popsicle technology – that’s imagination!!
Thanks for that marvelous recipe, Mary Lynn.
Ivy and Anon, we may never know the truth behind the hate speech in this letter. (And no, I haven’t tried to check out the email address. I just wanted to distance myself from him.)
Tom, you may have just had the final word here. And a good word it is.
I agree with the people who said a woman wrote this, but I don’t think it was a joke. Sounds like a woman whose husband abused their child(ren) or some other close friend and she is in denial. About all sorts of realities. This is just too heartfelt to be made up:
..to make the real women who love those men look stupid and hateful to their children when they believe their man over those spiteful, lying girls.
Serious problems there. I’m sorry it intruded on your life. I’ve gotten nasty email as a result of comments I’ve made on blogs (including one sent recently after a comment I made here). Some people think I’m funny and some people . . . just don’t. Only one of them ever truly scared me and, looking back, maybe I should have reported it to someone. Well, it didn’t turn out to be a problem.
I think this person honestly admires you (as abhorrent as that seems). What’s scary is that a person like this could just as easily have taken the opposite stance.
I hope you also receive boatloads of wonderful fan mail from people who love your books and understand them on a more rational basis.
Basterd. Louise, let me know if you need a lawyer to get a restraining order or if you just want me to beat him (or her) up. I’d do either for free.
Joke or no joke. Ha. Takes all kinds, why you need a bit of a wall between you and "THEM." (Sounds like a creepy movie. Loved Judy’s "holding it by the cooties corner…" More fodder for writing what we believe.
Root beer popcicles…mmm.
See some of you at Cara’s and David’s reading tonight at Book Passage?
Dude… creepy.
When I first read that, I thought it was a joke as some other people here. But, then, I figured that if someone was to take their time and type such an email, obviously to freak someone out, they’re just as sick as someone who clearly believes that.
I say report it.
Sending lots of good thoughts and prayers to you and your husband… 🙂
BCB, sorry you’ve been tarred about something you wrote here. That just shouldn’t happen here in ‘Rati Land. And yes, for the most part, I’ve taken great joy in reader cooments about my work.
I feel sick.
Okay, on a lighter note . . . anyone who loves words (I figure that includes everyone over here) will get a chuckle out of this:
http://fuckyeahpuns.tumblr.com/
Don’t anyone tell me Twitter is a waste of thyme. Or time.
BCB the pundit……………thanks for the link to the tumblr site…….great……..some are really excellent
So much is wonderful on tumblr………worth days and days of discovering what all our creative people have put out there…….I caught onto a blog by a little gal (I think she was 19) from The Nederlands with her photography and journal and links……..teriffic. A true artist and free spirit. She made a 59 year old friend (moi) from the USA. She thought it was funny and loved it. Now I am a regular on her blog. Some of the best photography and poetry that I have heard in a long time.
; – }
Louise, as a Caucasian Christian man myself, I can honestly say that I have two things in common with that nutjob: My race and my gender. Anyone who spouts that lunacy is not a Christian. Regardless what he may think/call himself, he’s not a member of any religion or creed I profess, and that includes Christianity. Period.
Gah, the fact that douchebags like that run around without being shot for offending the laws of nature, let alone God, are what give people like me (sinner, but I try to be a good person as best I can) a horrible name.
Oh, and caount me in as another in favor of informing the cops. That guy needs to be locked up simply for being allowed to type or utter that crap in the first place, and worse is that he DEFINITELY could pose a threat to you if he finds your completely apt response here.
Take care.
As someone who’s been in the front line of fighting for gay rights, I can tell you that this kind of vitriol is more common than you think. There are a lot of people out there with hatred rotting them inside, and an anonymous keyboard to use as a vent.
And it’s true, I don’t see any danger to you, Louise, in this "fan" mail, but there is violence barely contained underneath. As long as you’re a perceived ally, you’ll be safe. I’m glad you’re going to report it, though.
However, yay for popsicles with humor! Hugs to you and Bruce!
BCB and Anon. I’m spending some serious time on those sites tomorrow.
Jake, you’re a wonderful representative of Caucasian Christian men and I’m so glad to have you here.
And Fran, you’ve been hurt by experts, honey. I’m still dealing with the amateur class.
Sorry I came so late to the discussion – it’s the end of the night and I’ll be lucky if even Louise reads this!
Pretty freaky, Louise. I’m sorry you had to endure this. It is fascinating, to read this man’s words, to know that he actually exists out there. I remember when I was working on the film Outbreak. Dustin Hoffman was in Germany with the film crew shooting a scene (I wasn’t there) and he went into a charming little store in a little village. A man in the store saw him and said, "Dustin Hoffman." He said, "Yes?" And the man looked at him eerily and said, "Juden."
It’s all around us. I worry about the folks out there, the ones who live in weird little worlds in their own heads. The stalkers and Armageddon lovers. I hate to think that we invite these people into our lives, simply by publishing fiction.
In other news – I’m with Bruce on the popsicles. The jokes are terrible, but they work. It’s vaudeville-on-a-stick.
I missed some commenters with my last post.
Allison, I’ll take you up on that restraining order. And I’d love tooho to the signing, but these days my route is the grocery store-doctor’s office-pharmacy triangle.
Barbie, let’s just convince ourselves it was a joke. I can deal with that.
Naomi, sorry to add unpleasantness to your day but you’re right. It’s sick.
Stephen, the anti-Semitic notes here (and in your Dustin Hoffman story) are truly spooky. Vaudeville on a stick? Great line.
Louise, I represented all at the signing and bought my usual round for everyone (my penace until I’m published)….they were great. David was funny, irreverent and then in his own way, totally on and real. Cara’s description of her (omg 10th??) book was awesome and Dominic is reading Dostoyevsky and you can tell by how he talks but this is the f4th and final book in this arc for him about North Beach…
Hey Anon, that book we all get to write a chapter of? I’m the gun toting lawyer (Louise, get behind me). You hear from this person again, and that’s it. I’m running to court and then some. Night all…sweet dreams, no bullshit. The dog’ll bark if anyone comes near.
Count me in on the book. I grew up in the Ozarks and had my own gunrack in my pickup. These days, they would never see me coming…I’m the fluffy old lady riding the mobility scooter. Last fall, I managed to clear TSA at LAX and at Reagan in DC with a large pocket knife and about 15 cigarette lighters in my purse.
Freak alert.
I don’t think that you or any writer should worry about what the deranged will read into written work product – if we can’t control the interpretation, at least we can ignore the misinterpretation. Crazy interpretations should not matter.
In a less "holy shit" example of this, a non-reader family member proudly tells the story of being forced to analyze poetry in college. The subject poem (I do not know which) had images of darkness – so this literal-minded non-reader confidently wrote a two line analysis explaining that the poem was about the Black Plague, period.
Oy, I still feel sorry for that (probably long-dead classical) poet….