Green Room - Week 17 - Day 5

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

Tragedy is a funhouse mirror.

When something bad happens, they tend to look into it and see a distorted version of whatever it is they expect to see.

When a gun is involved, people will rush to the "see how dangerous guns are!" or "if only everyone else was armed!" depending on what side they already were on.

When it's suicide, they look for answers and talk about how more needs to be done about depression, or drug abuse or whatever it is that has personally impacted their own life. It's part of how people relate to the bigger world around them - by filtering it through what they know, and make things a little bit better by raising the dialogue on something they already care about in hopes that the attention will make even one more person stop to listen.

***

Real life tends to be complicated.

There are people who you admire in one aspect of their lives and really don't like other parts.

You may go back and forth, depending on what is going on - and what you are seeing from them at the moment.

Your favorite author releases a new book - you may run to get it. They start saying things that are racist or sexist... you may have a different opinion about them.

We've certainly had that discussion here - what do you do if one of your favorite authors has personal views/does something that you abhor?

For that matter - what if one of your favorites is a known plagiarist, lifting material from other people? Does that impact how you feel about other work that they do, where they *aren't* doing that? (like maybe they are plagiarize a series of books, but are also known for their charity work - can you separate those two people? Or does your opinion of one area shape the entire view of them?

***

If there is one thing in life that everyone can agree on though, and see in the same exact light, it's that the deadline for Idol entries is TONIGHT! So make sure to get yours in! http://therealljidol.livejournal.com/767515.html

Comments

[n3m3sis43.livejournal.com]

I don't separate art from personality. Maybe I should, but I don't. If you are a child molester, I don't care what you wrote. Etc.

[medleymisty.livejournal.com]

For me, with my issues - if that came out in their writing, like say I personally think it does in George R.R. Martin's work, I would find it incredibly triggering - which is why I had a breakdown a few chapters into the first Song of Ice and Fire book.

But if it didn't involve that subject, I think I could look at the writing just as writing.

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

You already know my opinions about this, but I say you shouldn't separate the art.

In the case of yesterday, that doesn't make Williams a monster, but it does really flesh out who he was. He struggled with depression for a very long time. I think in a great sense, it affected his art, and it kind of shows up even if you know nothing about him.

[veronica-rich.livejournal.com]

I'm lucky that my favorites are largely OK people, or seem to be. One of them threw a punch at Bieber a few weeks ago, which seems to have made him a few million other people's favorite for a while too.

As for the general question of art and artist, "Chinatown" was a really good film and nothing should be taken away from that. But because I'm not a gun person, if I ever met Polanski in the street, I'd still stab the little child fucker to death.

[medleymisty.livejournal.com]

I am completely unaware of celebrity culture, and I just like what I like and I don't really care about what the tabloids say about some people.

I figure if they are a not-nice person, that will come out in their work. Like I don't have to know that the author is sexist or racist or whatever to not like to read/view/consume work with racist or sexist overtones, and I am really really sensitive to sexually exploitative stuff in particular. I won't touch it, and it has nothing to do with the creator. I don't know anything about the creator. I just know that women in unnecessarily skimpy outfits and unreal proportions make me feel the heebie-jeebies, so I don't play games or read comics with that art style.

Also, with my internet history, I am very sensitive to how your impressions of people may not be the truth about them at all. I know a lot of people rejected my Sims work because of gossip and rumors and things that had nothing to do with me and that had no basis in reality. Which I've learned boundaries and self-esteem now, so now I can see that as just people missing out on some good stuff and that they wouldn't have been quality readers anyway. But at the time it really hurt.

I try my best to live up to my moral ideal of coming to art with an open mind and seeing it for what it is, without any prejudices based on what I think I might know or what gossip I've heard about the creator. I do reserve the right to reject art that comes off as creepy to me though.

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

Funny you brought this up, because it's one of the things I've been thinking about this morning.

Even a comic genius known for "improv" on each successive take may in fact have been giving other jokes from previous script drafts by the writers.

I'd rather not listen to Wagner, but Das Barbecue, a satire of the Ring Cycle done as country music, was pretty awesome.

I'm not going to see Ender's Game. Or watch a Roman Polanski film.

I think it's that I'd rather not financially support people I strongly disagree with. If JK Rowling lost a wing nut and started giving millions to Rush Limbaugh, I'd probably stop buying or reading anything else she wrote, but I probably wouldn't throw away the Harry Potter books I already own.

The artistic merit of a work isn't decided by the artist's character, but whether or not I want to buy it is.

[gratefuladdict.livejournal.com]

I concur. A person can create great works of art while still believing/saying/doing things that I find abhorrent. That said, once I know about it, I won't choose to support them and their work.

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

I won't listen to Wagner either, but I may check out Das Barbecue. Sounds interesting.

[fidget]

Hey. Anybody up for a game of Cards Against Humanity tonight? You know, to forget about the general suckiness of the world for a few hours.

For those of you who don't know, there's a CAH clone online. I don't have the address right now because I'm on my phone.

[kandigurl.livejournal.com]

Send me a reminder closer to go time, I will probably join.

[kshandra]

I presume you're thinking of Pretend You're Xyzzy...and now I'm thinking about Robin Williams playing CAH and my sides hurt just from the concept of how hard that would make me laugh.

[favoritebean.livejournal.com]

I might be game. Can you pm me with an address?

Totally different topic - Submission Op

[whipchick.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure some Idolers have work that this magazine is looking for for the Oz and Mythology themed issues :) I don't know the mag so this isn't really an endorsement, but I saw the call and thought our writers might want to check it out.



NonBinary Review & Zoetic Press Call for Submissions

NonBinary Review, the quarterly literary publication of Zoetic Press, wants art and literature that tiptoes the tightrope between now and then. Art that makes us see our literary offerings in new ways. We want language that makes us reach for a dictionary, a tissue, or both. Words in combinations and patterns that leave the faint of heart a little dizzy. We want insight, deep diving, broad connections, literary conspiracies, personal revelations, or anything you want to tell us about the themes we’ve chosen. Literary forms are changing as we use technology and typography to find new ways to tell stories—for work that doesn’t fit neatly into any one genre, we’ve created a separate category to properly evaluate submissions of a hybrid or experimental nature.

Each issue will focus on a single theme.

Issue #1 (June 2014): Grimm’s Fairy Tales is available for free download from the Apple store, http://ow.ly/xj6fa

Upcoming themes:
I
Issue #3 (reading period closes Oct. 31, publication December 2014): L. Frank Baum's The Wizard of Oz

Issue #4 (reading period closes Jan. 31, 2015; publication March 2015): Bulfinch's Mythology: The Age of Fable

We are a paying market--1 cent per word for prose/hybrid work, $10 flat fee per poem, and $25 flat fee for art.

Please note that at present, the Zoetic app is accessible through iPad only, with future updates to include iPhone and Android versions. When submitting your work, please note that if selected for publication, your work will appear in electronic form only.

For more detailed guidelines, please expand the guidelines box of the genre you’re submitting to on our Submittable page.
https://nonbinaryreview.submittable.com/submit

Re: Totally different topic - Submission Op

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the heads-up!

Re: Totally different topic - Submission Op

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Thanks for spreading the word!

Gee, with my regular word-count, I could earn as much as about $7.50 to $10.00. Darn that micro-ficcing! ;D

[dreamsreflected.livejournal.com]

I can and do separate the person from the action. I have to, it's my nature but also if I can't separate the action from the person then I probably need to take a long hard look in the mirror and see if I can live with the reflection. It's sad that the world lost such a brilliant artist yesterday he will be missed by many I'm sure.

[ryl.livejournal.com]

I agree with everything you've written. People are more than just one thing. If we choose to focus on one facet of someone's life then we're missing out. And what if someone does the same to us, pick out one decision of ours, one action we took long ago, and judge us by that forever and engrave it on our tombstones? You would say that's unfair, right? Right.

[bleodswean.livejournal.com]

I've been closely following the "news" (see what I did there?) regarding Nik Pizzolatto of True Detective and his Thomas Ligotti influence. There is absolutely no question that Pizzolatto was HUGELY influenced by Ligotti's "philosophy" (did it again). But the accusation of plagiarism is a serious and provable one and so far there isn't direct lifting of words but direct appropriation of thought processes. Every single one of Rust Cohle's brilliant rants is a creature birthed from of Ligotti's mind-womb.

This doesn't bother me. I think, for the most part, this is influenced thought/writing. And many times - my Beloved Nick Cave, the singer/songwriter has wrestled with this - a writer will have a line or two rolling around in their heads and those lines, in fact, are almost verbatim from a work they read long ago and that stayed with them.

The universal unconsciousness tends to cycle in blocks of time.

I'm more concerned about people in power having a shadow side than artists.

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

I will admit to being a tad shallow at times - I like what I like and I don't really care if the author (et al) is a Bad Person per se. If Jack the Ripper wrote a brilliant piece of work, something that I really loved, it wouldn't bother me. I still shop at Walmart and places that sometimes get a bad rap because they are convenient and I like what they sell and I honestly don't think that me not shopping there will affect them negatively at all.

Apathy. I haz it.

[minikin.livejournal.com]

I've never been one to support boycotts -- it gets hard to keep track of them all.

I think it's wonderful that even "bad" people can show a good side. It helps to illustrate the flip side of we are sinners: we are all precious beings. It's helpful when there's something concrete to point to.

For those wondering...

[clauderainsrm.livejournal.com]

It's now official, binaryorchid has selected who will be receiving Black Spots!

They are... no one. She opted NOT to use her power.

Re: For those wondering...

[kajel.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there is no way I would use that power myself! lol I had a hard time in Exhibit B having the power to give an immunity or save someone. I can't remember what it was called. I swear it was burning a hole in my pocket.

It was weird, because I felt the only fair way to use it was to choose someone I didn't know to use it on. Does that even make any sense? ;)

[xo-kizzy-xo.livejournal.com]

I think it's interesting that at work only two people mentioned anything about Robin Williams. Both comments were of the "How horrible" sweep-it-under-the-rug variety.

The lack of talk about him shocked me at first. Not that I expected people to be all "OMG!" about it, but I guess I was sort of expecting general conversations about his movies, perhaps, or even about Mork & Mindy for those of us *ahem* who remember it (I never watched it because I thought Mork's character was one of the most inane on TV at that time, but I digress). I brought up Good Will Hunting to one person and it was like I was speaking Latin :boggle:

Then two things dawned on me: 1) I'm betting the majority of my younger coworkers only know of his name and weren't around for the majority of his work, and 2) the whisper of "suicide" and mental issues which, of course, shall never pass most people's lips in public.

Fresh Air on NPR rebroadcasted an interview with him back in 2006. I listened to a chunk of it on the way home, and OMG, I now truly have more of an appreciation of him than I ever did.

[theun4givables.livejournal.com]

My brother and I shared a very brief, and subdued, conversation about Robin Williams. We're both on the young side, but Hook was one of my brother's favorite films, and I lovelovelove Dead Poet's Society, as well as a few other Robin Williams hits (Aladdin, Mrs. Doubtfire, etc).

I just can't imagine what his family is going through. And I'm a little surprised myself that people aren't talking more about it offline -- my fb feed blew the hell up last night when the news broke.

But I guess it's safer to talk about those issues online than it is in person. =/

[tonithegreat.livejournal.com]

Everything is a funhouse mirror in the age of Facebook. Tragedy and comedy alike. Blech.

[minikin.livejournal.com]

Ooh, look me, turning in a home game entry before the actual deadline. :) (http://minikin.livejournal.com/692479.html)

[ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com]

I have battled depression most of my life and have been suicidal many times. While I have always found something to keepme going that is not always the case. I have gotten threw things on my own each time as I generaly have had no one I could talk too. No friends, well none that were humans. Granted this has made me more self reliante, I do not even really know how to ask people for help.
While people talk about doing more for depression there really is only so much that we can do and only those who are close can even do that much.
When I have been suicidal it was because I fealt and was very much alone. I had no one to lean on. No one to talk to. No one at all.
You might ask about my parents but keep in mind, my father once offered to get his pistal and load it so I could just blow my brains out and get it over with. I was not even talking about being depressed, I had given him permision to beat me because I knew it did not matter. He did stop beating me.
--------------------

All that said and done here is a little lighter banter I wrote up.
http://ashgaelsonaria.livejournal.com/291185.html

[crimsonplum.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you've gone through all this, and I'm glad you're still here to tell your story.

[ellakite.livejournal.com]

I has been said that most idols have feet of clay... and so I'm willing to forgive most of the "character flaws" of my favorite authors. For example, Isaac Asimov was well reputed in SF fandom as being the quintessential "Dirty Old Man". And Harlan Ellison is notorious for being temperamental, especially in regard to any perceived slight against himself personally or any of the various causes he believes in. While I sometimes admired his passion when his ire was justified, I once personally witnessed Harlan verbally abuse a fan at a SF convention... and what set Harlan off was that the fan was chewing gum. Not blowing and popping bubble gum... just chewing. To say that Harlan's reaction seemed extreme to be would be an understatement.

So: Asimov and Ellison. Wrote great stuff. Flawed human beings. Should their flaws negate my enjoyment of their work?

I will admit that there are certain character flaws that I find unforgivable. For example: I will never again watch a movie by Woody Allen... because I simply do not believe that he waited until Soon-Yi was 18 before he started a "relationship" with her. Yeah, Asimov was notorious for chasing skirt, but all the incidents I've heard about the ladies in question were old enough to legally consent. What I believe Allen did just turns my stomach...