To preface my comments, I have some homework for you. Read this article: FreeDUMB of Speech? . . . which is in response to this article: An Open Letter To Gorezone Magazine. Please take the time to read the article and its comments, and you’ll understand why I and a lot of others are so upset.
Thank you to @thedarkhours on Twitter, who reportedly scored this article from @MikeCadaverLab.
To summarize, Dangerous Jamie wrote an open letter to Gorezone Magazine, respectfully criticizing their lack of proofreading and their continuous exploitation of women. Since then, Gorezone has threatened the author with legal action (calling the article “slander”) and has sent scores of its “faithful” readers to comment. The comments attack Dangerous Jamie personally, and are threatening. Gorezone readers have promised to spam the site until it crashes. The editor himself has commented (various spelling/grammar errors blemish his post), and he behaves just as ridiculously.
He posted his email address, so if you feel like you want to respond to Gorezone’s unacceptable actions, feel free to email him (I have): b.hammond@gorezone.co.uk
I’m not surprised. This has been my experience with so much of the “horror community” since I’ve become more and more involved in it in the past three years or so. “Horror fans” (many of whom often consider themselves to be the be-all-end-all of horror) who write, publish, blog, podcast, or whatever, tend to be hyper sensitive when it comes to criticisms about their own product, taking anything other than “Great job!” as a personal attack. And “horror fans” who religiously cling to some figure in horror — whether it’s an actor, director, magazine, podcast, blog, or whatever — also take criticism toward their beloved figure as a direct, personal attack (under the guise of being “loyal” or “faithful”). These people are no different than the terrorists who carry out actions because of their loyalty to Al Qaeda. That’s right.
I hold some pretty unpopular opinions. There have been times when I’ve expressed them — respectfully, thoughtfully, and without namecalling/attacking/etc. — and I am mobbed by angry Internet people who hold a different opinion, and don’t think that I am entitled to mine. It’s happened time and time again — I’ve experienced it directly.
It’s sad. Diversity of opinions is a wonderful, healthy thing to have. Yes, some people are right and some are wrong, but when respectful debate rots away to attacks, namecalling and threats, it’s out of hand.
The “horror community” already has enough negative stigma attached to it — everyone knows that. And things like this do nothing to clean up that image.
Having been sued three times myself, I can start of by saying that this wouldn’t make it to a deposition. There’s nothing slanderous about his article; he only states his opinion and that he feels there’s some grammar problems in their magazine. Feh. I wou;d also take the time to point out that Jamie has a ridiculously bad@ss mustache.
For some reason a lot of people that produce indie horror fiction and blogs develop a weird hypersensitivity to criticism’ maybe they also have this over in the realm of Lost and Disney podcasts and fan fiction as well…I wouldn’t know. It’s as if a synapse if misfiring, and the train of thought is, “I’m a writer, Stephen King is a writer. Stephen King is talented and successful, so I am talented as successful, because we are both writers. You can’t critisize me, because Stephen King and I are the best selling authors of all time.” I prefer podcasts to talk radio and there’s definitely some great independent horror fiction out there, but you have to call a spade a spade. A simple boycott of Gorezone would resolve the issue. F*ck ’em if they can’t take a joke.
“The “horror community” already has enough negative stigma attached to it — everyone knows that. And things like this do nothing to clean up that image.” that right there says it all my friend, just like i was trying to say back on the old forums. people take things way to serious. grow up already people! if you dont like a movie, hit the stop button if you dont like a book dont read it. welcome to america, freedumb of choice.
i read the article awhile ago and thought it was well executed. never thought there would be any backlash. but then of course i put too much faith in the maturity of the horror community. way to go.
I’m not so sure this reflects badly on the horror community, but rather, on people in general. My opinion on this may be a matter of serendipity. My daughter is currently suffering at school for expressing skepticism about global warming. For a culture that elevates words like “diversity,” I don’t think there’s a lot of respect for divergent opinions.
The horror community does itself no favors, of course. Because we live on the Internet (brick-and-mortar bookstores won’t have us, and the movie theaters assume we are all 15, male and hopeless), we are prone to Internet excess. Nothing like anonymity to spark up a few flames.
That said, I was pleased to see so many supportive comments on Dangerous Jamie’s post. I hope that’s where he focuses his attention. It’s too easy to become disheartened by the threats of opinion fascists.
Although I agree that these attacks are foolish, I still resist the use of the phrase “horror community”. Several conflicts similar to this that happened recently proved themselves to be, on closer inspection, the result of a few individuals stirring up shit. I’m only objecting to the notion that this amounts to some faceless army that threatens to ruin the reputation of some larger group.
Those who are loudest and most passionate are heard most often, but that doesn’t mean they represent a popular view. What is worse, these people actually want this validation, so attributing this ability to them is actually enabling them. In other words, they become even bigger jerks when those around them give validity to their ridiculous views.
Fools should be laughed at, and whenever possible, publicly.
I think the best thing anyone can do for any supposed community is to filter out these individuals and confront them specifically, removing the power of numbers that quite probably doesn’t exist anyway.
I’d like to point out something that we all know but may forget: it’s possible for rabid assholes to create numerous email identities and bombard their victims giving the illusion of that faceless army. I suggest, to the best of one’s ability, not responding to the illusion unless it’s proven to be fact. Even then, it’s possible to call out those individuals.
People have the right to be confrontational jerks, it’s the threat of litigation that actually steps over the line here. That may not be a big deal, it happens every day. I’d like to ask people who work in the court system just how much time and money they spend tossing out stupid lawsuits.
I suggested elsewhere that this litigation should be challenged. If there is any true horror community, they should be the ones to organize fund raising or rally those capable of supporting such a challenge. The result of this could be to expose the magazine to public scrutiny and the fools will be laughed at due to their own public folly. That’s certainly better than massing against the faceless army and matching their idiocy by returning arguments.