blamebrampton: 15th century woodcut of a hound (Default)
blamebrampton ([personal profile] blamebrampton) wrote2009-08-14 12:25 pm

Gosh, John C Wright

Two days ago I did not know who John C Wright was.

Yesterday, in the wake of his fantastically bonkers argument on how teh gay is ruining the world, I asked Mr Brammers if he had ever heard of him. After a Google, Mr B said 'Erk. Yeah, picked up one of his books in a shop, put it back down. Shitful writer.'

Today I see that the post has been amended to discard all the comments to it and to do the internet equivalent of sticking his fingers in his ears and shouting 'LALALALALA I CAN'T HEAR YOU!!'

I'm going back to my position of two days ago, but I feel the need to say that if that's what he thinks passes for argument, then Mr B may have been overly generous in describing what Wright thinks passes for writing.

I like to think of American speculative fiction writers as being smart, talented and visionary, so I'll go back to thinking about Ursula K Le Guin, Ysabeau Wilce and Kim Stanley Robinson. MUCH nicer, and far less likely to provoke eye rolling at the stupid.

ETA: I received a reply to a comment I left on his original post. He apologised sincerely for his rudeness in the way that he wrote about the gay community. So in fairness, I should add that at least he has manners and the grace to apologise. I'd love it if the episode led him to think a bit further on the Christian message of love and charity and reflect on whether an anti-gay message fits that. Because that line of thought leads to the inevitable conclusion that it does not, since Christ's teaching was all about compassion.


[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 01:45 pm (UTC)(link)
Not even manipulative plot twists?

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 01:52 pm (UTC)(link)
Yes, it was just a personal apology. However, apologies are so rare these days that I have a small amount of respect for anyone big enough to make one. If only it could be coupled with compassion, or a comprehension of the world as it is not as expressed through prejudice.

Ayn Rand makes me want to invent time travel so I could go back and shout at her. And why is she such a fundamentalist hero when she was a deeply pervy shagmeister??

[identity profile] grey-hunter.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 01:53 pm (UTC)(link)
What! You think I'm kidding? *shocked*

But... oh well... Free hugs! ^_________^ *hugs back*

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 01:55 pm (UTC)(link)
AIEEEEEEEEEE!

I don't think she read the same books I did for either Harry Potter or The Bible!

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 01:56 pm (UTC)(link)
That would be so much more fun ...

[identity profile] vashtan.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I would travel back even further and give her hugs and love as a child, so she didn't have to grow up into what she did become.

[identity profile] grey-hunter.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:09 pm (UTC)(link)
It'd make for an interesting fanfic, tho'!

[identity profile] grey-hunter.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh. It was about Torchwood? I started watching it last week (because of a crossover I've read). *nods intelligently*

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:12 pm (UTC)(link)
You're a much nicer person than I am, and I think that your method would probably work better, too!

[identity profile] grey-hunter.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:19 pm (UTC)(link)
To the trolls, my religion, which you despise, forbids me to despise you as you deserve.

Huh. But if he thinks they (or whoever) deserve being despised then doesn't that mean he already does despise them and is just in denial?

'Christ's teaching was all about compassion'

[identity profile] wemyss.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:29 pm (UTC)(link)
I hold no brief for this Wright person, but am impelled, with the deepest love and respect for you, dear Brammers,to note that saying 'Christ's teaching was all about compassion,' is utter balls.

Mind you, returning from the grouse moors to encounter this Wrightrubbish on the one hand and what passes for debate w/r/t to the NHS and is in fact merely the collision of two hasty forms of ignorance, in which both sides are making utter asses of themselves and should all of them put a sock in it, has not precisely wondrously improved my temper. I am in fact sorely tempted to return to a grouse butt in N Derbs for the foreseeable, but have, as you know, writing to do.

That said, I could not let dodgy theology pass, even from you, love. (I love Plato, as Aristotle said, but Truth more.)
Edited 2009-08-14 14:31 (UTC)

[identity profile] calanthe-fics.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I was tired and thus tactless (more so than usual ) this morning, so sorry about that. But I know you've got the nouse to spot when a cause is lost and when there's a point to fighting, and this guy's got NO HOPE stamped all over him.

Re: 'Christ's teaching was all about compassion'

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Admittedly, I am not a Christian and you are a FAR more reliable source of doctrinal understanding than I am. But that's the overwhelming message that I received from the gospels. Paul then served to undercut a lot of it, but Christ's actual teachings seemed to centre around caritas and agape.

Yes there were moments of rage and authority: cursing the tree (fig tree? I need to reread the Bible) and overturning the tables in the temple, but they were directed at specific outrages, while the message preached to individuals and the acts shown to them were again and again of compassion and a wish to guide people to understanding rather than condemning them.

Admittedly, my only church visits since leaving school have been the standard hatch, match, dispatch set, and I only remember the words to Jerusalem because I like Blake. I'm far sounder on Austen, which is a bit dreadful considering the differing weights of the texts on our Western canon.

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)
You were sensible, not tactless! And quite right, which also counts ;-)

I was impressed that he took the time to apologise to me, but saddened that he didn't make it a far broader apology. And I never believe there's no hope. Just not a lot, much of the time.

'you are a FAR more reliable source of doctrinal understanding than I am'

[identity profile] wemyss.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Now that is truly frightening, really.

And I suppose it turns on what we mean by compassion. When I've met the Deadline You Wot Of, we'll discuss Eliot and the wounded surgeon, shall we? Privately, I mean: this sort of public show serves only to bring in the lumpenfen w ill-digested views.... (I am indeed difficult to deal with just now, I do realise that....)

[identity profile] calanthe-fics.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:54 pm (UTC)(link)
I thought he blocked the comments?

Re: 'you are a FAR more reliable source of doctrinal understanding than I am'

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:57 pm (UTC)(link)
You are always a delight. Even when you are a delight who may need a comfy chair and cup of tea with something well-aged slipped into it.

Alas, I am practically a heathen, but with a fine mezzosoprano that saw me forgiven for my polite non-Dawkinsesque atheism by many school chaplains.

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 02:59 pm (UTC)(link)
Personal message to me, and he edited the original post to say 'You're all ghastly. For the most part.'

[identity profile] calanthe-fics.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Have you thought about taking up UN peace work?

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 03:05 pm (UTC)(link)
Only if Liptons sponsor me. You can accomplish a lot with gentle words, but miracles require tea.

Damn it, woman!

[identity profile] wemyss.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 03:35 pm (UTC)(link)
Can you not at least leave me with a character for being a grumpy, blimpish old curmudgeon? You'll have the world once more believing I'm a fluffy bunny and an old dear at bottom, and then where will I be, eh? (See: http://wemyss.livejournal.com/206811.html.)

Mind, I'll not say no to the cuppa and a dram.

Re: Damn it, woman!

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 03:42 pm (UTC)(link)
I meant to tell you how much I loved those posts! Sadly, at the time of reading I was in no fit state to construct a sentence, let alone a proper comment, but they lightened my heart and took me back to a time I often miss. I am the better part of the decade behind you in memory, but there were common moments in the landscape. Though, obviously, not what one was getting up to in the landscape.

You will be relieved to know that as you were writing this I was describing you to a friend on IM as a talented curmudgeon, and she, being an flister, agreed.

My reputation is saved, then. I'm greatly obliged.

[identity profile] wemyss.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 03:46 pm (UTC)(link)
And the other was rather too Line of Beauty for words, wasn't it.

Re: My reputation is saved, then. I'm greatly obliged.

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
It had a humanity that Hollinghurst can bury under artifice.

[identity profile] shiv5468.livejournal.com 2009-08-14 04:16 pm (UTC)(link)
As someone deeply rooted in the filthy practice I would prefer no dragons other than ones to eat those who resist my genius

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