InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "buzzzz kill"

randomsome1 (randomsome1) wrote,
@ 2009-07-26 22:33:00

Entry tags:

cooking, in ur novel eatin ur book

I've got this Harlan Ellison quote up in my profile. I found it, I loved it, I snagged it as a mirror of my own dirty optimistic leanings.

My philosophy of life is that the meek shall inherit nothing but debasement, frustration and ignoble deaths; that there is security in personal strength; that you can fight City Hall and win; that any action is better than no action, even if it's the wrong action; that you never reach glory or self-fulfillment unless you're willing to risk everything, dare anything, put yourself dead on the line every time; and that once one becomes strong or rich or potent or powerful it is the responsibility of the strong to help the weak become strong.

Imagine my surprise to find that Harlan Ellison, despite his words' implications, is a bit of an anti-woman racist douchebag. Not only has he apparently started throwing all sorts of strange slurs at a WoC (woman of color) blogger--he sexually assaulted one Connie Wilson, the guest of honor at the '06 Hugo awards, in front of hundreds of people.

I still love the quote; I still love the idea behind it. But to keep it up is to support the man, in all of his frothing, grabbing, overly-entitled insanity. So it's got to go.

(Strangely, the subsequent quote becomes much more appropriate.)

More's a pity, since I've heard so many wonderful things about his writing. (I don't remember if I've read any, but now it's kinda like Orson Scott Card--I'm not sure I'd be able to stomach it based on some of the things he's said/done.)

~~~

I made an awesome barbecue sauce last night with ketchup, creamy Dijon mustard, Old Bay, cranberry chipotle sauce, and a three-finger pinch of ginger. The mustard made it savory, the cranberry part gave it a sweet edge while the chipotle part kicked, and the ginger gave it an awesome smell & aftertaste. I ph34r I'll never be able to replicate it again.

So I went from overly complicated to ridiculously simple. About a cup of ketchup (I bought it by the gallon at Sam's. Don't ask.), about 1/2 to 2/3 a cup of dark brown sugar, and two or three heaping tablespoons of chili powder later (I used almost half of a new container), and I had something sweet & spicy that was very very tasty over chicken on the grill.

~~~

I think I cracked something in my ankle. D: Running circles 'round the bookstore's gonna be interesting . . .

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threeoranges
2009-07-27 07:26 am UTC (link)

First of all, I hope your ankle's stopped hurting by the time you read this! *healing vibes duly sent*

Regarding the infamous Ellison, if this were me I'd actually keep the quote up (though I might not visibly credit the guy with having said it, to prevent any misunderstanding on the part of spectators). My belief is that you have to divorce, to a certain extent, the art from the artist: what you are applauding is the principle being expressed, not the rl douchebaggery of the man who said it.

I was put in mind of the need to divorce the art from the artist only yesterday, when visiting the deservedly-famous YT sensation Wedding Dance to "Forever". One commentator was arguing - in all apparent seriousness - that because Chris Brown was a wifebeater the choice of music did not bode well for the bride's future happiness! :-O Where does that kind of thinking stop? I marched up the aisle to Wagner's "Here Comes The Bride", as do 99.9% of brides, yet Richard Wagner effectively nicked his wife from his best friend and his life was unrestrained twattery! I love the writings of Christopher Marlowe and Ben Jonson (nb. the writer not the sprinter), yet both of them killed people!

So I say, keep the quote up but take down the quoter, and if anyone asks explain that one can take inspiration even from the foulest of sources.

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randomsome1
2009-07-27 03:20 pm UTC (link)

I've wrapped the ankle in athletic and painter's tape. Don't ask. At least it's colorful. :P

Re: Ellison--I've got this thing for putting names to quotes, though. Call it making mental distance from a certain someone. And when a few seconds with google pulls up the original creator should anyone actually be curious, leaving off a name in protest becomes quite pointless. And if I were to add in a tag, "Quote from HE, who's an unashamed hypocritical douchebag; appreciate the words but not the creator" . . . Well, far more simple for me to make distance & make my own quote.

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threeoranges
2009-07-27 08:11 pm UTC (link)

OK, I suppose it helps if the douche is a deceased douche; that way you don't have to feel like you're acting like an unpaid publicist for him. Hmmm... You could always attribute it to George Orwell? He seems to be the Big Untouchable Saintly Writer whom people feel good about attributing stuff to. I've seen quotes that Orwell would never have said in a million years being attributed to him, so yeah.

I do get your point about "mental distance", though, so fair enough!

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	wingedrivers 2009-07-27 01:19 pm UTC (link)
	Mrow, sorry to hear about the jerk-face quote thingy! I guess it only applies to white men, huh? And want foods! XDXD When you gonna have that party? (Reply to this) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2009-07-27 03:06 pm UTC (link)
	I have no idea, but I'm running out of summer here so I'd better pick a date. (Like September. I think I have two open weekends in September . . .) (Reply to this) (Parent)

yonmei
2009-07-27 01:25 pm UTC (link)

Yeah, I know that quote, and I know that since it became clear that Harlan Ellison is a nasty foulmouthed bully who harasses women and who has said - as openly as he said it to K Tempest Bradford - that black SF fans ought to be grateful to him for "discovering" Octavia E. Butler - since then, I have been unable to read the last line without wanting to retch.

The "responsibility of the strong to help the weak become strong" is just sickening when it comes from a man who routinely sexually harasses women at any convention where he's allowed through the door. (After he assaulted Connie Willis, a lot of much less famous women came out of the closet and talked about getting verbally harassed and/or handled by Harlan Ellison, and how his status as Big Name Writer - and the mass of his fans - had meant they'd never felt they could complain about it too much.)

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	randomsome1 2009-07-27 03:23 pm UTC (link)
	(I get an excuse to use this link, too!) Apparently someone needed to spell out to these women that it's okay for women to be angry. Also, to throw elbows. (The elbows part is my suggestion.) (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

yonmei
2009-07-27 06:11 pm UTC (link)

No, I think those women felt that it didn't matter HOW angry they were about being molested by Harlan Ellison: (a) no one would listen to them except their immediate circle of friends (b) everyone else who wasn't a hardline fan would shrug it off as "oh well, that's Harlan", and (c) all of Ellison's hardline fans would mob them, attacking them to defend Harlan Ellison. Harlan Ellison used to tell how he'd tied a woman up naked and left her for her parents to find, as a funny story. (He told it as one of a trio of stories, all of which were supposed to be things that really happened to him/he really did.) That story is still available, though I'd guess Ellison doesn't tell it any more, but his fans reaction to saying that is an example of Ellison committing sexual assault by his own confession are derisory - they claim that since the young woman consented to bondage, it wasn't assault when (as Ellison claims) he just walked away and left her tied up unmovably for her parents to find when they got home. (I admit I suspect the whole thing is just Harlan Ellison's derogatory fantasy of how he would have liked to humiliate a woman who wouldn't go out with him: but the fact that this was his fantasy and he thought it was amusing to repeat, says a lot about him.)

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	randomsome1 2009-07-27 06:14 pm UTC (link)
	And I'll point to that as a side note to n00b bondage enthusiasts--Never with a person you can't/don't trust completely. Don't know them that well? Don't do it. Now that I think about it, this applies to lots of things. Kenpachi icon for implied forthcoming violence. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

yonmei
2009-07-27 07:32 pm UTC (link)

And I'll point to that as a side note to n00b bondage enthusiasts--Never with a person you can't/don't trust completely. Don't know them that well? Don't do it.

Goddam right.

The only time I ever let someone I didn't know that well put me in inescapable bondage, it was in a hotel bedroom that I had booked myself - and she/her husband had booked the room next door. (Yes, her husband. I had reasons for quitting sex with married women.) My point was that she and I both knew that if she turned out to be untrustworthy, realistically the very worst that could happen to me was the total embarrassment of having to explain to the hotel staff that yes, I did have cuffs on (or shackles - depends what point we were at) and yes, they were going to have to find me someone who could remove them before I could leave the room, and yes, would they please notify the police that the couple who had booked the room next door had committed criminal assault.

Not that I seriously thought she was going to: like me, she was totally in favour of the kind of commonsense precautions that ensure nobody has to panic and everyone can enjoy themselves. Nothing more reassuring than a Top who insists on making sure the hotel you're staying at has everyone's card details...

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	yonmei 2009-07-27 07:36 pm UTC (link)
	...well, okay, not the VERY worst. But we had documentary evidence from each other what our intentions were, and the husband never entered the room I was staying in. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	randomsome1 2009-07-27 07:44 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, the difference between pros and ridiculous fantasists. (Reply to this) (Parent)

shikomekidomi
2009-08-13 09:13 pm UTC (link)

This is a thought I've had repeatedly just watching TV (I seem to recall an episode of something where this happened to a guy).
For that matter, you know, I'm not particularly in favor of having sex with people you don't know that well either, but that's partially the fact I don't see people as well people and not ambulatory set dressing until I know them. Sorry, UNTRUSTWORTHY ambulatory set dressing.

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	randomsome1 2009-08-14 03:27 am UTC (link)
	Well, that's what most people are. Or some days, walking organ banks/food that you're not allowed to eat. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

shikomekidomi
2009-08-14 04:05 am UTC (link)

All days, my dear friend, all days. Luckily, I usually remember to eat something on days that involve wandering around in public. Usually.
After all, there's nothing for building healthy people like a diet of fruit, vegetables, and healthy people (because who's more likely to have the correct proteins all lined up, a healthy person or a cow?).
Hm... Did you see the new Willy Wonka? It was surprisingly good, even though Johnny Depp is no Gene Wilder.
Why did I bring it up? Because I just had a flashback to when they first get into the factory and Depp goes "Everything in this room can be eaten. Even me. But that would be cannibalism, dear children and most societies frown on that."

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	randomsome1 2009-08-14 04:12 am UTC (link)
	I haven't seen it. Maybe one day we'll netflix it. Netflix is awesome, by the way. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	shikomekidomi 2009-08-14 04:50 am UTC (link)
	I've heard that, though I don't use it. Is that the one that basically rents you movies a few at a time? Because you know what's more awesome? The absolutely free way I got my hands on a copy called a 'library card'. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

randomsome1
2009-08-14 04:56 am UTC (link)

Driving into Pgh for a decent library is sorta rough. Far easier and more fuel-efficient to watch them through the X-box, get a few new DVDs in the mail every few days, and so on.

And yeah, it's sorta like that--you request a movie, they mail you the DVD, you watch it & send it back and they send you the next one. It's very easy to get more than your money's worth.

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shikomekidomi
2009-08-14 05:01 am UTC (link)

See, over here at least, all the libraries in the county are part of system that lends materials to people at any library in it so I can put movies on hold without the local libraries having a copy. Not only that but I can put holds for things online, thus allowing me to do pretty much exactly what you're talking about except I do have to make short trip to a nearby small town.
So I guess stuff being mailed directly to you is a little more convenient, but you have to remember I've been using the library system pretty heavily from a young age and the limits on what you can check out at once can be pretty high so it's hard for me to see paying anything as being my money's worth unless I'm permanently buying a copy.

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	randomsome1 2009-08-14 05:57 am UTC (link)
	Short drives must be nice--at least the gas & time traveled won't factor in quite as heavily that way. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	shikomekidomi 2009-08-14 06:38 am UTC (link)
	And that's only to pick up not to place orders. And really only when I use my home county system since I work at a library in another county so the drive is something I'll be doing anyway. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2009-08-14 02:44 pm UTC (link)
	That makes more sense, then. :P (Reply to this) (Parent)

randomsome1
2009-07-27 06:38 pm UTC (link)

Did I mention that this doesn't excuse his douchebaggery? Didn't think so.

But yeah, if a big thing with bondage is trust in your partner to, y'know, not leave you or kill you or get carried away, then there's some strong words to be said to someone who'd trust a person just because of their big name author status.

I'm trying to avoid getting into "blaming the victim" territory, but I'm seeing it as along the lines of getting an STD--equating "Jacket or jack it, buddy," with "Sure, you can tie me up--after I'm sure I can trust you." Do (general, non-gendered)you trust the person well enough to go without protection? With your life? Just because they wrote some books/bought you dinner/are really pretty? If you're making the conscious decision to have sex, you also need to be conscious of how protected/safe you are.

Though with this case in particular we get to bring coercion into the mix, which takes personal choice out of the matter and makes things especially ugly and can I just get back to wanting to whack him with a shovel now? Otherwise, I has a hole. *digdigdig*

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yonmei
2009-07-27 07:25 pm UTC (link)

But yeah, if a big thing with bondage is trust in your partner to, y'know, not leave you or kill you or get carried away, then there's some strong words to be said to someone who'd trust a person just because of their big name author status.

Well, not really. Remember, all we have that this woman ever existed - let alone that she let Harlan Ellison tie her up unmovably on first acquaintance - was Ellison's own "funny story" about it.

I found it quite easily at Ellison's own website - it's "the 3 most important things in life" - and this is the killer quote:

She was watching me, naked lust in her face, her lips wet with unconcealed desire. Nice quiet Jewish kid from Ohio. But what the hell, I'm adaptable.

Bogart asserted himself. My voice dropped four octaves. "You like a little smacking around, right, shweetheart?" She nodded, bonking her head on the carpet. "Okay," I said roughly, "get naked."

She looked troubled for a moment. "Naked?"

"Now!" I said, my voice a brutal rasp. I got off her. I stood over her as she stripped out of her clothes. My eyes slitted, my jaw tensed. I watched silently. When she was naked -- and pretty terrific she was, I might add -- I said, "Okay, lie on your back." She lay down again. (For a crazed moment I wanted to tell her to "make an angel" the way we used to do it when there was a heavy snow in Ohio. You lie on your back and flap your arms up and down, making angel wings. But I didn't. That would've been really crazy.)

The heavy drapes on the living room windows were secured by thick gold cord ropes with tassels. I unhooked four of them. I wrapped one around her left leg, secured it, and tied it to one leg of the baby grand. Then I did the same to her right leg and attached it to the piano at the other side. Then one arm stretched above her head and fastened to a leg of the massive sectional sofa. The other arm to another post of the sofa. She was spread-eagled, right in the middle of the word PHUQUE! (without the .) out flat on her back, her perspiring body trembling with barely-restrained passion.

"Can you move?"

She tried, then shook her head.

"Tied down tight? Can't get loose?"

She nodded again, breathing raggedly.

"Terrific," I said, heading for the door. "Say hello to your mama for me, and thank her for the chicken soup."

And I ran for my life.

See, it really, really reads like a fantasy Ellison had about humiliating a woman who wouldn't go out with him. But in any case, he claims it happened in 1962.

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	randomsome1 2009-07-27 07:31 pm UTC (link)
	. . . Yeahhh, rolled like that it does sound like some ridiculous fantasy. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	yonmei 2009-07-27 07:27 pm UTC (link)
	and can I just get back to wanting to whack him with a shovel now? Otherwise, I has a hole. digdigdig Listen, I think there's a QUEUE. That winding line, over there, on your right, that loops all around WTF mountain? That's the queue to whack Harlan Ellison. Orderly pursuit of happiness. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2009-07-27 07:31 pm UTC (link)
	I can get behind order. hops in line (Reply to this) (Parent)

	shikomekidomi 2009-08-13 05:21 am UTC (link)
	Hm... He's got the 'don't be meek' part down right but not the 'help the weak become strong' part. But this is why I generally try to learn as little as possible about the private lives of people who make things I enjoy. Just assume most of them are jerks and enjoy what they produce on its own merits. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2009-08-13 02:59 pm UTC (link)
	And possibly heckle them when they come out in public: "NO. YOU STOP TALKING TO PEOPLE AND GO MAKE MORE ART." (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	shikomekidomi 2009-08-13 09:14 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, a number of artist of various stripes should probably be confined for the good of all and just given enough materials to make art with. Musicians should all probably be watched so they don't self-destruct, for example. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	randomsome1 2009-08-14 03:28 am UTC (link)
	They seem to have a strange tendency to do that, the poor dears. "No, Kurt, that bong's loaded!" (Reply to this) (Parent)