Sometimes I am not the brightest bulb.

[seanan_mcguire]

Having been provided with a handy link wrap-up of the way my post on the digital divide has spread, I made the natural "hey, let's open this box Pandora left me" mistake, and clicked some links. I quickly discovered that...

1. I am a man.

2. I am advocating that authors, without support from publishers, agents, or the reading public, continue to slam ourselves against the brick wall of martyrdom in order to keep a dying medium alive.

3. I am swathed in moralistic superiority, rather than genuinely concerned.

4. I hate all technology, and it's a miracle I was willing to write my post on a devil machine, rather than committing it to beautiful calligraphy and pasting my broadsheets all over town.

5. Poor people don't want to read anyway, so why am I bothering?

6. Saying that some poor people won't be able to afford an ebook reader, or wouldn't waste the money on one if they could, is just stupid, and I'm totally wrong.

7. Also, no one in America goes to bed hungry. American poverty is actually pretty nice.

8. Did I mention that I was a man?

9. My view of poverty is romanticized. (This was actually the one that really made me go "WHAT THE FUCK?!" out loud. Once the word "cockroaches" enters a discussion, the romance is dead.)

10. I'm an idiot.

Well, yes, point #10: I am an idiot, and should not have looked at those links. Thank you. As to the above, wow. The range of interpretation possible on the internet is incredible. Also, before you quote any of those things out of context (please don't), they're not true. And no, I'm not saying "wah, some people didn't agree with me." Lots of people didn't agree with me, and some of their disagreements were fascinating and thought-provoking. I'm saying "I do not have a penis, children go to bed hungry, and if you think my view of poverty is romantic, I do not think we should continue this conversation."

I hereby declare comment amnesty on this post. I am too tired to play nicely with the other children, and think that I should just stay in my room.

Cranky blonde is cranky. And armed.

Comments

[holly-evolving.livejournal.com]

:(

If I had thought that your words were not important, were badly written, or were in any way unclear, I would not have shared them. Some people just enjoy being trolls, I think.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

Thank you.

(And yes, I have amnesty, but I can reply if I wanna.)

Sometimes I wish I were allowed to carry bricks.

[fabricdragon.livejournal.com]

i have always wondered about some of the ways MY words have been interpreted, and i do not write as well or as clearly as you do. you have my sympathies.

also the comments when *I* shared it were very poilite

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I saw those. They were. <3

[mpoetess.livejournal.com]

I was wondering if you were aware of your penis-havingness, but didn't think it was my place to inform you if you hadn't noticed.

What I do feel you need to be informed of is the fact that at this moment in time, there are exactly 666 comments on that post.

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I really wish I'd known before the road trip I just took. Peeing in the bushes would have been SO MUCH EASIER.

[naamah-darling.livejournal.com]

. I hate all technology, and it's a miracle I was willing to write my post on a devil machine, rather than committing it to beautiful calligraphy and pasting my broadsheets all over town.

I just busted out laughing. Oh, lordy. Beautiful.

[kaleidors.livejournal.com]

On a side note, what an awesome urban project! Like the Mysterious Paper Sculptures (http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html) or guerrilla knitting (http://www.flickr.com/groups/guerilla-knitting/)

[archangelbeth]

I am terribly disappointed to learn that Mira Grant does not have a penis collection buried in her back yard, where the zombies dropped them in their terror to get away from her.


Also, even if I did not agree with anything else you had ever written (this assumption is an untrue "if"), I cannot agree more that there is nothing romantic about cockroaches. I grew up in Austin, often near enough to water for water-roaches to get into the house. These things are approximately the length (barring the tail) of a young mouse, fly badly, and will fly into one's face at night. I hunted them often with stick and bug-spray, in the middle of the night.

[phoenixsansfyr.livejournal.com]

...I live in Austin right now and spent six months going round and round with property management about the killing of the hated things, and how you do not just kill the ones in my unit, you firebomb THEM ALL.

Once I mentioned the health department and my buddies there, OH MAN the speed with which my problems were fixed.

Also, I hope Mira Grant now has a penis collection. That would be awesome.

[reedrover]

Poor people don't want to read anyway, so why am I bothering?

I used to volunteer in the library as a child. Then I volunteered to teach ESL as an adult. Pardon me while I go beat someone bloody with a rolled-up, preciously-treasured, much-checked-out "ESL: Write English Right" workbook.

[valkyrwench.livejournal.com]

Stupid people are stupid, and will insist on responding to things they know very little about. I am sorry that you currently have the bullseye painted on your back, and I sincerely hope this conditions rectifies itself at the earliest possible time.

In the meantime, have a frosty adult beverage and a cookie, and ignore the stupid people.

To make your blood boil...

[mrs-norris-mous.livejournal.com]

The following was retweeted by @doctorow "Not a joke, latest Republican take: Registering poor-voters is un-American: http://t.co/HBVW984r "

[phoenixsansfyr.livejournal.com]

You really gotta sort out those gender identity issues, because WE ALL KNOW that women cannot have proper opinions on ANYTHING.

In other news, I hand you a sock with half a brick in it. Have fun!

[p-m-cryan.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that you're being misinterpreted. Crazy Internet is crazy.

Timing's everything for me... it was the merest coincidence that I added you the very day you put up that post. I added you because I carry your books at my bookstore and I enjoy what you write.

Don't let the turkeys get you down. i recommend cat-snuggling.

[4hour-ramona.livejournal.com]

regarding being poor and reading; being poor sucks. and the need for books, for escape, in those conditions is absolute. if you don't have a rich outer world, you had best have the ability to develop a rich inner one - or else you are lost. completely fucking hopelessly lost.

[p-m-cryan.livejournal.com]

ABSOLUTELY.

[Sorry to shout in Seanan's blog, but this statement so, so, so on the mark.]

I have living proof residing under my roof that reading saves minds and hearts for those people who are financially poor.

Thank you.

[sheistheweather]

Ugh. That is all.

Your post was amazing, and several folks (not all, but several) are missing the point.

[aliciaaudrey.livejournal.com]

Welcome to the "secretly a man" club! (when I was an admin at a very large fansite, absolutely nothing I did, from posting pictures to voice chatting to entering into a heterosexual marriage with another admin, could kill the "really a man" rumors). I would give you an official position in the "apparently secretly a man" club except I fear you'd manage to render me useless with your army of highly self motivated clones.

Also I have been told if you aren't aggravating someone you aren't saying anything productive. So clearly you're productive! :)

[seanan-mcguire.livejournal.com]

I am SO PRODUCTIVE. Me and my magic penis.

[keestone.livejournal.com]

"Once the word "cockroaches" enters a discussion, the romance is dead."

However aggravating the idiocy that prompted this post, these are words of wisdom I will cherish and somehow find a reason to quote.

[tarsa.livejournal.com]

That statement *so* needs to be a con button!

[random-girl.livejournal.com]

Not related to your rant, but possibly nice/fun regardless: we were in Target yesterday hunting down labels for David's ongoing canning projects (from hell) and they have so much orange in there it hurts me (jewelry, night clothes, shorts, shirts). Then we hit Old Navy (despite our hatred for their old commercials), and they, too, have TONS AND TONS of perfectly good sweaters and shirts and tank tops (all on buy 1, get 1 75% off) in orange.

I thought you needed to know.

[flitterkit.livejournal.com]

Well I am sorry people were idiots and managed to annoy you, though the round up was pretty hilarious.. devil machine? Really?

On this subject, I am up in Seattle, and this (below) was in today's paper. Someone agrees with you.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2016318907_brier26.html

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

The internet, in many ways, is really what you get when you set a bunch of monkeys in front of keyboards before (if ever) they get to Shakespeare.

That being said, cockroaches, by themselves, can be romantic - look at Wall*E

[pghbekka.livejournal.com]

Gah! I know! The movie ended and I was all happy and tearful and then I realized it had made me think a cockroach was cute and adorable. Me! The person who proudly announced her first cockroach kill at 3 by dangling its body over my innocently sleeping parents!

[misachan.livejournal.com]

As someone who has vivid childhood memories of waking up to find a roach staring at me (and they do so stare) from my headboard and not being able to sleep in that bed for two days, I could not agree more about the roaches. *shudder*

[dqg-neal.livejournal.com]

#9 Clearly you haven't read enough erotica. I'm sure there is some romance in there. *grin*

[archangelbeth]

While Kafka fanfic according to rule... 34, isn't it? ...probably exists. I DO NOT WANT TO KNOW.

[stormsdotter.livejournal.com]

The Internet is full of assholes who ruin other people's days. I will happily join you in hitting them all, but I prefer tonfas to bricks-in-socks. :)

In a vain attempt to cheer you up, I saw this article on a virus killing breast cancer: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/234882.php

My first thought was, "Hurrah! Ending cancer is wonderful!"

...my second thought was, "Oh shit, is anyone researching how to cure the common cold?"

[dewline.livejournal.com]

If they're using an offshoot of the common cold to provide this cancer cure, then the common cold has finally justified its existence.

[brianh]

In hopes of distracting you from a killing rage, a reminder that there is awesome in the world:
http://community.thisiscentralstation.com/_Mysterious-paper-sculptures/blog/4991767/126249.html

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

And completely dead in the black RIGHT. (The only thing questionable was reading the comments. You know you don't read the comments. *winks*)

[apocalypticbob.livejournal.com]

I read your post aloud to the boyfriend. Both of us, like you, have been at least once in our childhood denizens of extreme poverty, and both of us found our escape in second hand books as well. I'm so incredibly sorry that your insightful and accurate post has come round to nibble you in the buttocks.

[geojlc.livejournal.com]

hugs. I thought it was a very insightful post that helped me see (and at least partially understand) another world. I'm really glad you posted it!

[nekomata.livejournal.com]

As someone who grew up in severe poverty (No running water, no air, hungry all the time...), lived off of escapism provided by library books, was given encouragement by public librarians and teachers, struggled to go to school to get an MLS so she could become a librarian and help kids like herself... I fucking loved that post. Someone linked me to it and at first I thought, "Hey, this is an awesome post!" (Then I realized it was from you, that I love your books and wondered why I never thought to look for your blog. -_-)

Of course, in this economy, my MLS means I'm working part time in some random job, but I will still get in huge arguments about how print is not going to die as soon as everyone thinks. And libraries? They're not just places for books, damnit.

I'd feel cranky too, if I were you. But, hey, at least you have all these awesome people who are in agreement!

Also, pffft, romanticized ideas of poverty. Was your post about cheerful hobos, who ride the rails with adventure in their heart? Because I must of missed that...

[ladyqkat.livejournal.com]

What you say, even in your fiction, is important and real, even if it only speaks to one person.

This, however, is one reason you have cats:


see more Lolcats and funny pictures, and check out our Socially Awkward Penguin lolz!

Keep writing. What you say matters.