That said, since I'm here already, I might as well ask one question that has been bothering me: c2w, I don't doubt your assertion that you've been targeted specifically, but why you? Were you randomly selected? Or did you trip some specific wire? I've never understood all the very confusing brouhaha about TD and ARG and all that, but clearly there are elements there that gave these subjects the (to me, inexplicable) power to suck a lot of people in. As a result, some people involved have been motivated to mount some sort of organized vendetta against Jeff, and eiae, but why you? Is it because you caught on to some shenanigans and said so, and thereby made yourself a target? The reason I'd like to know the answer, is that it will tell me something about what this board is REALLY all about -- what I thought, or an insular, irrelevant (to me) game that some people are playing with each other.
I have a feeling I'm going to regret this, and end up even more confused, but had to ask anyway.
I'm glad you did. No one ever has, directly. My username was associated with that confusing brouhaha by others, not by me. I don't understand it. And I never have. Apart from the ham-handed, "When-the-moon-is-conjunct-with-Saturn" (or whatever) "YOU WILL DIE JEFF WELLS AND/OR MEMBERS OF THE RI FORUM! BWA-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!" stuff, which it's pretty hard to miss, I don't understand a word of it. The literary and philosophical stuff, I mean.
And, you know. I mean this in a non-narcissistic way, but: I don't have any doubts about how first-rate my skills as a literary critic or as an astute and sensitive reader of verbally arcane written works are. They're lower than genius level. And by many miles. But they're still fucking first-rate. I'm in my element as a reader. And I'm not boasting when I say that. I'm just saying it. Because it's the case.
So I'm really pretty sure all that multi-referential and dense prose actually makes no sense. It's like word salad, almost.
And I'm absolutely fucking sure that it's a grotesquely overdetermined and almost willfully blind misreading of her blog. Which I do understand. Because
that does make sense. Also, imo, it's the work of a writer of exceptional ability. However, what it unmistakably is not is: A major artwork of any kind. Or a non-artistic endeavor into which an artist was putting her heart and soul. Or, for that matter, even very much more than a casual thought. IOW, it's a personal blog (and not a fucking encrypted gospel of esoteric mystery) that was written by a woman whose artistic vision wasn't realized there. Or anywhere. Sadly. Because you can see from it that she had one, and that furthermore it was aesthetically a lovely and original thing.
In any event. I don't know what that's about. I find it ghoulish. And kind of pornographic. I mean, it's not like the decades of fascination that a strong, attractive woman can easily provoke all over the western world as long as she's dead (effective as of the moment of her death) is anything new. It's part of the basic DNA of Judeo-Christian culture. Having written which, I actually guess I can see why I'd be an object of cathectic interest to someone who cathected that way. As long as I was just words on a screen.
I don't like thinking about it, I'm therefore realizing as I type. It makes me feel...Let's just leave it at "very bad."
But the short answer is that it's meaningless to me. I don't get it. And I don't want any part of it. So I'm now going to return to the policy of not having one. So just in case anyone has any follow-ups, I won't be taking questions. Or desecrating corpses. I mean, same difference. If you ask me.
