Rant. Please ignore.

[elfs]

There are disadvantages to egosurfing, not the least of which is that you'll find someone who's saying something ignorant, obnoxious, or just plain wrong. Today's example comes courtesy Usenet, where someone complained that the once-intesting Journal Entries had turned into a "cosmic whorehouse," and then immediately backpedaled with some comments about how there was nothing wrong with whorehouses but that "someone" had to be responsible with the "great setting and characters" I had created.

Well, fuck you, whoever you are. If you "want something great," write it yourself. Has anyone pointed out to you that from the very first to the very last, all the stories are smut? That's the fucking point. It's what I do to let off steam, to have fun. Every "great idea" in the Journal Entries is cribbed from somewhere, run through an intellectual meatgrinder and shat out the other end wrapped in a tempting bow of pink and white pornography.

Do I care about it? Of course I care about it. It's my hobby. It's what I like to do. It's no different from macrame, knitting, or stamp collecting. The fact that it looks like something I could turn into cash, the way the guys lining the neighborhood Barnes & Noble do, is totally irrelevant to why I write. I write because I like to.

This is one of the reasons why I don't care much to write "books"; after reading the SFWA guidelines, dude, that looks like work. That's not what I want to do. The Journal Entries aren't "practice for the real world"; if they were, I'd let you fucking know, okay?

I only partly joke that the Journal Entries are my "comfort zone," where I go when real life is hard. Well, fuck, it's better than sitting in front of the goddamned television absorbing this week's unextraordinary rendition of Survivor.

If you're not happy with what I'm doing, just please stop reading. There are other writers out there who might satisfy you. I'm not going to even fucking try.

---

Profanity is the last refuge of the inarticulate motherfucker.

Comments

I liked 'em as is...

[murbin.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed all the Traveller references too.

[drewkitty.livejournal.com]

Well, I've known all along that you write the Entries for fun, not profit. However, the Entries have the unusual quality of getting people to think, mixed with a heavy dose of smut. I've found reading them to the intellectual equivalent of testing boundaries. I don't always agree, but I never find that I've wasted my time by reading one.

i>Thank you again for sharing them with the Net.

Indeed...

[mothball-07.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned before, your writing actually sustained and influenced the direction of my life many years before I bumped into you in RL.

Your stories helped a complete stranger.

If a writer chooses to care at all how their words impact the world, I'd think that would be the ultimate validation of the worth of those words.

Thank you for sharing them.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Profanity is the last refuge of the inarticulate motherfucker.

Hee hee hee... if it matters, you've made someone laugh today, even if it was just by cutting and pasting... you don't have an attrib for that, do you? 'cause I'm so wanting to post it myself...

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I wish I did. There seem to be a number of variants on it if you Google for it, and some of them seem to point to a college basketball coach from the late 1960's. Only about 30 pages come up if I type in the keywords, which shows that it's not widespread.

[slutdiary.livejournal.com]

Graffiti on the side of a VW microbus in the 60's Peter Sellers lovefest, I Love You, Alice B Toklas is where I first noted a variant - Violence Is The Sign Language of The Inarticulate.

[antonia-tiger.livejournal.com]

There are stories in the Journal Entries which are more than just porn -- there's an idea in there which hooks into the porn, and which is given an immediacy.

Like it or not, humans have this intricate entanglement between sex and intellect. And it's part of how we define ourselves. If I'm remembering story names right, Cheyenne isn't so original -- Asimov explores the same idea -- but your way of asking the question bypasses the brain.

[(Anonymous)]

First of all, *giggle* for the "Profanity.." line. If I could bring myself to actually say that last word out loud, I'd start using that line. (-:

Secondly, if you ever turn serious about getting the Journals and the rest of your fabulous work published but don't want to go through the hassle of agents and publishing houses, think about self-publishing. I 'published' two books last year through CafePress.com and have been very happy with the results.

I know I'd order a hardcopy of your works.

[lconover.livejournal.com]

I know I'd order a hardcopy of your works.

Hear, hear. Especially The Journal entries, although I'd also love to see Bloody Beth in print.

A friend of mine actually printed and constructed a three-ring binder back in college when we both came across the journal entries back then. (I wonder if she's still printing and adding the new stories... I'll have to ask her!)

Books are a little more forgiving if you want to curl up on the couch for a good read. :) So far, the closest I've come is curling up with my web-enabled Palm (Tapwave Zodiac) but it just isn't the same.

There's far too little good smut out there, if you ask me. Sure, there's tons of pornography. But how much of it has any originality? Or character development? Let alone a story line! I suspect that my reading the Journal Entries before ever seeing any X-rated films raised my standards impossibly high. :)

[mundens.livejournal.com]

At the time I started reading The Journals, I was thinking they were better science fiction than most of the SF I was seeing at the time. Admittedly I also thought there was better SF being done in comics and anime than in text. To me the porn just made the SF more "human", and made the characters far more believable than the asexual heroes of most of the SF I'd seen. I'd always been annoyed that the detail of sex somehow seemed to get left out of SF, it didn't even appear to the same extent that it appeared in more mainstream action-adventure books.

And in comparison to the other smut I was reading, yours rarely had sex and no story. In several cases the sex was even absolutely necessary for the story, such as one of my favourites : "The Courage of His/My? Convictions" (sorry if I get the title wrong)

But even there the sex wasn't really the point of the story (at least ot to me). I personally believe that particular story should be a school text, as it captures what holding and support ideals can mean in a very visceral way, as well as showing aspects of what good leadership should be.

In some ways I can maybe understand where the person you're complaining about is coming from. I can't share your stories with everybody I'd like to, because I know some some of them would be put off by the smut. It's their loss, of course, but some of the other great ideas in your stories and the whole long story arc of The Journal Entries is unfortunately lost to them because they won't be able to see past the sex.

Especially when your ideas turn up in later work by more recent authors, such as the many echoes of Pendor I see in Iain Bank's "Culture" novels, and I say to people "But Elf has already done that", and they, of course, don't know what I'm taking about.

Anyway, I'm sure you won't let people complaining about things get in your way. I wouldn't want the stories any other way either.

BTW, you're one of the few around here who might be able to read my icon. I usually reserve it for those I'm, um, interacting more closely with, but I thought you'd enjoy it. :)

[spiralsong.livejournal.com]

You don't really know me. I sent you an e-mail once, (and you replied, thanks! I feel special!) I friended you because your lj posts are a breath of fresh air of the intelligent, articulate, well-thought-out variety. I read the Journal Entries because they are equally intelligent, articulate, and well-thought-out, in addition to being mind candy of the highest order for several reasons, from the pornographic to the philosophical.

I love the Journal Entries. I think they're fantastic. Anybody who wants to bitch about them being a 'cosmic whorehouse' is missing the point. Their loss, IMHO.

Don't let it stop you from writing anything, okay? I would miss your character(s). :)

[shemayazi.livejournal.com]

Sounds like time for more RL inspiration and mischief:)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! Happily!

How can Ignore?

[(Anonymous)]

Your beautiful and talented.

I’m jealous, I love reading you and the stories, just wishing I can find my own story line. Maybe one day I can be just like you and out do you?

Maybe after college, I'll write again.

Use to be the Flying Pegasus.

Peace

Point of order Mr Chairman

[mouser.livejournal.com]

There is one story that isn't porn.

Goodbye Donna.

Re: Point of order Mr Chairman

[elfs.livejournal.com]

And A Kiss From Aaden, technically.