I went through this phase where I would stay up all nice watching IFC (sleeping has never been a skill of mine). I saw a lot of weird shit. The film, Naked Lunch, still stood out for it’s strangeness. It was my first introduction to William S. Burroughs, an author I loved in my late teen/early twenties. Not that I don’t love him now, I just have so many other things to read.
I wonder if I would have picked him up if I’d known he’d killed his wife playing William Tell? It wasn’t premeditated murder or anything–they were both drunk when it was decided (I’m not sure by whom) that it would be a good idea for William to shoot a gin and tonic off Joan’s head. He hit her face. She died, and he fled all possibility of punishment.
Finding this out colored my perception of him, but before that I had all those lovely moments with his stories, with his steam powered dildo, his talking asshole, and all his other skits. My stronger impression was of William S. Burroughs, the author, not William S. Burroughs, the drunken murderer.
Now, with social media, you can’t even make a poor attempt at satire without having to offer an apology. (Cached version of the original post here.)
Did Hugh Howey lose some business with that post? Yeah, yeah he did. Am I sorry that this is my first introduction to his writing, and not his book, which is currently in my TBR pile? Yes, honestly. It’s just, it was bad. Comedy, and specifically satire, is not easy. I’d rather my first experience with him be good.
Howey doesn’t strike me as much of an asshole though. Life will continue for him.
What about those authors whose idea of marketing is declaring things like: Suck my dick! Buy my book! The authors who spam social networking sites with their ugliness, like a small child that misbehaves to get attention. There was a time when their bad behavior was limited to a small subset of those around them, those who are directly affected by their behavior.
Now, they can go on Reddit, Twitter, GoodReads, WordPress, and spread their shit like a conscientious farmer. Will there be anymore great asshole authors, or will they all crash and burn before their careers start? Should we trust on these rare geniuses overwhelming misanthropy to keep them away from social media long enough for them to make their debut? Or will their overbearing egos cause them to seek and audience, and then crash and burn before they make their pen their opus?
While the changes wrought by technology aren’t necessarily bad, they’re still changes. I find myself writing shorter and shorter paragraphs, largely because they seem to read better on my Kindle. New words and tropes filter into our stories. We communicate with our readers and each other in different ways. It will be interesting to see if there are any new Bukowskis among this generations literary greats, or if assholes get the cold shoulder in the world of social media. I think some will survive. People will tolerate a fair amount, provided you’re able to entertain them.
Antoinette M-- 
People tend to overreact on GR. And some people are always looking for a fight. I’m glad HH didn’t take the blog down, and I wish he hadn’t apologized. He was writing naturally, not censoring himself, not second-guessing every word he put in that post, including the word that is driving some women crazy.
And now, for those who are thinking it was the “C” word… NO! THAT one, I could understand everyone getting upset about, but ‘bitch’? Come on. Not that offensive. And it perfectly described her behavior. And yes, if that had been a man, he would have been called a prick, dick, or asshole, and probably, no one would have been offended.
Some people need to drink more. Remember, angels fly because they take themselves lightly. 🙂
You know, I think he could have gotten away with bitch. It was “girl” (how often do we refer to a man in his early twenties as a boy?) combined with “bitch” that set the tone for the piece. I don’t think there was enough hyperbole, so comments like “I’d slap that bitch” were probably a little too close to home for people who have been slapped and called bitches.
I should note too, he did take the post down. It’s just, on the internet, there’s no such thing as really taking a post down. What I have up is a cached version.
I think HH is probably a really nice guy, and he didn’t mean to offend anyone. He was just sharing a story. How unfortunate he got caught up in that.
I don’t think he’s an asshole either. Really, it was just some bad writing. I think he could have expressed those same thoughts, and had he tweaked with the language, it wouldn’t have offended anyone. It will blow over though. Even if he can’t erase his words, people will forget.
Also, happy first day at work! I hope it’s as awesome as it sounds it will be!
Me too! 🙂