Pounding Your Head on the Desk Hurts

One of the ways the internet has ostensibly increased the pleasure of the reading experience is the amount of access and information we now have about our favorite authors. Whereas in the old days the writer was a fairly mysterious figure, this system of tubes allows us to stalk follow writers and other industry figures pretty closely.

I’m beginning to believe, however, we have reached the point of diminishing returns. I find myself increasingly more likely to be repelled by an author’s actions and views these days, and I’m feeling that a lot today, after a weekend in which one publisher basically called his readers stupid, another indicated he hated it when people actually read the books he sells, and a third showed she doesn’t have a clue what “ad hominem” means. This on the heels of recent laugh riots such as RaceFail, GenderFail, and NippleGate (no kidding).

Then I, much after the fact, learn of the depressing case of science fiction writer John C. Wright. I don’t follow science fiction any more (see RaceFail, See GenderFail, See Nipplegate), so I didn’t recognize the name, although he seems to be quite a successful author. Apparently Mr. Wright posted on his website his view of homosexuals. In his words:

“I am equating homosexuality with sadomasochism, pederasty, necrophilia, bestiality, and other sexual neuroses. While a technical distinction can be drawn between them, they share the fundamental property of being objectively disordered appetites.”

Ugh. Mr. Wright certainly has a right to his opinion, and at least he has the good sense to blame it on the Catholic Church, but wow, that is seriously warped. I’m not a politically correct extremist (I thought NippleGate was phenomenally silly), but it is surprising that an educated person in 2009 could still believe gayness to be a sexual neuroses. All this adds up to a feeling I’d be better off retreating from the web, but I’m probably too dumb to do so.

A much better summation of this can be found at my friend Matt Stagg’s website Enter The Octopus, which you ought to be reading anyway. While I am writing inane, juvenile posts concerning entertainment based around a giant radioactive mutant hamster demolishing Albuquerque, Matt deals with important issues in well reasoned fashion.

Now if you will excuse me, I need to find my Home Trepanation Kit to see if I can get rid of this headache.
‘