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3 Messidor CCXI (Jun. 21, 2003) - 9:09 p.m. Harry Potter and the Manhunter from Marion, ILNo, no spoilers. I've read it. That's all I'll say about it in a medium where I can't give you something more than spoiler space. (At least, I don't know that I can. If it is in fact possible to do livejournal-style cuts, I can't find how on DL's FAQ page.) So I'll hand it off to someone I can trust. (Well, as much as you trust your sockpuppets, vigorously though he'd deny that's what he is.) At a very early age, someone should have told you that you can catch a lot more flies with honey than with vinegar. Sir. � Susan Ivanova to Derek Cranston, in "Hunter, Prey" (Babylon 5 (1994), season 2, episode 13) And a feud that began in email has spilled over onto blogs. I am going to respond to A Brown Eyed Handsome Man in kind. (Watch this space, once the offending post goes from his front page into his archives, for a permalink.) I discovered his site via a comment he posted in somebody else's blog that uses SquawkBox comments, or at least did at the time. (It might have been Barney Gumble's blog, I'm not sure.) I liked a lot of the articles - I consider that his two articles about Robert Heinlein say some things that desperately need saying, and I even had to admit his Matrix article makes a point. I even like many of the authors he lists as his favorites. Unfortunately, when replying to a comment I left on his site, he didn't bother to find that out first. (The comment was in reply to this post, and as you'll see, all I did was tell him who wrote one of his favorite books.) No, he simply assumed that the authors I list as my favorites in my profile were all the authors I liked. I don't know what he thinks of Eoin Colfer, just that he was convinced my literary tastes were completely in my mouth until he saw Philip Pullman on the list. In particular, he described Rowling as "tripe"; he evidently places Terry Pratchett and "Douglas Edwards" [sic] in the same category, if not necessarily the same word. Now, if you or I (well, I anyway) were writing our first-ever letter to someone (at least, if he's written to me before, I didn't keep it), we would not lead off by describing one of eir favorite authors as "tripe". But that's evidently what separates the Tuxedo Slacks and Canadibrits of the world from the Doc Nebulas and CINCGREENs. And I freely admit, my email reply was (as he says) snarky. (In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have expected him to recognize Solace or Mary's Place; I've no idea if he's ever the hell heard of Spider Robinson. And, much as I like the writing of the Callahan Chronicals [sic] and their sequelae, Spider's "Rah Rah R.A.H.!" is probably the earliest statement of the attitude that pisses the Manhunter off when he encounters it in Heinlein fans, that you should "give the Admiral your undivided attention, even when his informed opinions conflict with your ignorant prejudices" [as if neither side in the debate could have anything other].) But when I am greeted by somebody referring to "that Potter tripe", I will tend to react much the same way he would have if I had ended my comment with "Oh, and by the way, Steve Englehart isn't worthy to pick Kurt Busiek's nose". (Disclaimer: that is not my real opinion. The only Steve Englehart I've ever actually read was the last few issues of the pre-Crisis run of Green Lantern and the first few issues of Green Lantern Corps, but I liked it, and it sounds like I'd like his other stuff.) So, By generally accepted social standards, I'm not a likable guy. [...] I regard many social conventions in radically different ways than most people do you seem to have been understating the case. Quite frankly, having you show up in my inbox the way you did, mere days after CB told me she doesn't want to see me end up 40 and bitter, is more than just a warning. It's one of those synchronicities that lead a guy to question the validity of the very idea of coincidence, as well as the meaning of the word "hirsute". -30- � last time, on The Slack Shack - our next inciting exstallment 
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