blamebrampton: 15th century woodcut of a hound (Default)
blamebrampton ([personal profile] blamebrampton) wrote2008-06-23 01:10 pm

Flames I have not written ...

There have been a lot of flame-related posts of late, from people receiving their first ones, to a sweet young one on a comm who was cross about one that turned out to be harshly worded concrit (a fine distinction, I grant you).
It made me think about the art of flaming. I don't think it's a good idea on principle, because surely you could receive a more visceral buzz from going out and actually kicking a puppy or stealing a small child's sweets (easier to do than you might think, they have short attention spans). However, I recently made the mistake of mentioning to some friends that I had read the worst story ever. They hastily corrected me and pointed me in the direction of the actual worst stories ever.  I suspect the nadir may have been reached. And I could see why people flamed. Indeed, I had Strong Urges.

So strong, in fact, that I wrote them all down, but here, not in the several theres that inspired them. Rest assured, dear flist and casual readers, none of these were directed at any of you.

* If that is truly how you believe gay men behave, you need to change your reference material from Teletubbies to Queer as Fuck.

* Stop now, remove Word from your computer, and contemplate accountancy. It pays very well.

* That manoeuvre would have resulted in hospitalisation and a very embarrassing recuperation.

* No English person, in the history of the world, has ever said that. There are laws against it.

* No Malfoy would ever shop there.

* The Dursleys are Middle Class, not retarded. There is a clear distinction.

* Boys do quite often shag just because they would like to have sex now, thank you. It is unusual for them to wait for a lengthy monologue on the nature of love to be completed first. Not impossible, I grant you, but unlikely. Most boys I have known would have made a cup of tea, played a quick game of internet spaceships, or had one off the wrist in that fifteen minutes. The nice ones would have made two cups of tea.

* I pride myself on a willing suspension of disbelief, but Isambard Kingdom Brunel could not have bridged these plot gaps.

* Is it just the HP women, or all women who make you this angry?

* Have you ever actually seen a penis?

* I admit I have not exhausted the variations, but I am fairly sure that you can't have sex like that. Unless you are an elephant. In which case you missed an animagus scene.

* The Queen is not happy with what you have done to her English.


What about you lot? Anything you've wanted to rant on but have kept inside? Stop bottling, let it out. No names, no URLs, just vent the badness ...
drgaellon: Van Hansis as Luke Snyder and Jake Silbermann as Noah Meyer (Luke Lean on Noah)

[personal profile] drgaellon 2008-07-03 12:11 pm (UTC)(link)
Bless you for trying! (Only a friend could cause that much pain...)

The Eye of Argon is generally accepted to be the worst piece of sword-and-sorcery fantasy ever spewed forth. It was written in 1970 by a science fiction fan from St. Louis, who was 16 at the time — Christopher Paolini he is not. The author, Jim Theis, was described in SFX magazine by one reviewer as, "a malaprop genius, a McGonagall of prose with an eerie gift for choosing the wrong word and then misapplying it." (The reference is not to Minerva, but to William Topaz McGonagall, who is renowned as one of the worst poets in the English language.) Theis went on to become a journalist, but never wrote another piece of fiction. He died in 2002 at age 49.

SF critic Dave Langford observed, "The challenge of death, at SF conventions, is to read The Eye of Argon aloud, straight-faced, without choking and falling over. The grandmaster challenge is to read it with a squeaky voice after inhaling helium. What fun we fans have."

[identity profile] blamebrampton.livejournal.com 2008-07-03 01:12 pm (UTC)(link)
It's almost enough to make me want to make a podcast of it ...

Not only was I already familiar with that McGonagall, but I have in fact seen the Spike Milligan film biography. Which was reasonably atrocious.