sholio: sun on winter trees (Default)
Sholio ([personal profile] sholio) wrote2008-04-22 11:42 pm
Entry tags:

OH JOHN RINGO NO

Now that [livejournal.com profile] sga_genficathon is done (but don't forget you can still write bonus stories for any of the prompts! See here!) I'm going back and getting caught up on my flist, answering comments, etc. So if you suddenly get a comment on an entry that you wrote two weeks ago, or a reply to a comment that you don't remember leaving ... that's why!

Also, this is the funniest thing I've read in ages (warning: "not politically correct" is the understatement of the century here; also, quite long) and I'm adding OH JOHN RINGO NO to my personal fannish lexicon because it's just so perfect for so many situations. (Also, I believe John Ringo has just joined Stephen R Donaldson and a few others on my personal list of authors whose books I will never read even if I'm trapped on a desert island and withering away for lack of reading material.)

Edit: Although, if this comment is actually John Ringo and not a sock puppet claiming to be him, I may rethink the whole desert island thing, because it sounds like he's a) entirely aware of what a screwed-up fantasy world he's created and b) perfectly willing to roll gracefully with being made a laughingstock on the Internet. I like that in an author.
naye: three dots above renji and ichigo from bleach (...)

[personal profile] naye 2008-04-23 08:20 am (UTC)(link)
Bwah! I hadn't seen the possible John Ringo's reply...! Dude. OH JOHN RINGO NO still applies to the text, but the author? Huh. Maybe he's not as terrifyingly disturbed as I'd first imagined? STILL. The books? The only other response I can come up with, beside OH JOHN RING NO is "UNCLEAN!!". (Please don't tell me Stephen Donaldson has a sense of humor. Hating his books would be much less fun if he did. Him, and Terry Goodkind...)

With this, and the Open Source Boob Project that's been all over LJ, I've had plenty of cause to introduce my head to my desk these past couple of days. (If you haven't heard anything about it: one post about it, with links, just off the top off my head.)
ext_3572: (Default)

[identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 08:52 am (UTC)(link)
Mwahah to Ringo! I'd not seen that. I made it without cracking up until "LOOK, I TOLD YOU. HE ADOPTS THEM. LIKE CATS." XD Off to read the rest now!

The Boob Project is just - well, getting more attention than it deserves, really, but. *HEADDESK* was indeed invented for such things.
ext_1981: (Wiseguy-Vinnie moodlit)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 09:34 am (UTC)(link)
It's priceless! I don't think it would be half so funny if it wasn't for the OP's wry "This totally sucks but I'm reading it anyway damn it" tone.

As noted in my comment to Naye, I seem to be lacking suitable outrage for the Boob thing. I totally agree with you that it's ... uh, overplayed, just a bit? Let's just say there are things that outrage me a whole lot more.
ext_3572: (Default)

[identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com 2008-04-24 08:24 am (UTC)(link)
What gets me about the Boob thing - such that I almost gotta giggle about it - is not the dude's idea, because I am sure pretty much every straight/bi guy on the planet has at one time had the thought, "Wouldn't the world be a better place if all women would just let me touch their breasts?"

What cracks me up is that (having had this thought briefly realized in what sounds like admittedly bizarre and possibly uncomfortable circumstances) he decides to share it in one of the few female-dominated spaces, apparently expecting most of the women on lj to eagerly volunteer their bosoms. I don't know if it's bowling balls of brass or complete social ineptitude, but...wow.

All the dogpiling comments and reaction posts, though, that seems to like rewarding absurd immaturity with far more attention than it deserves. Most guys like touching boobs. We knew that already, right?

(...ack, and now I'm reactioning to it after all! it's like a disease...)
ext_1981: (Default)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-24 09:29 am (UTC)(link)
(...ack, and now I'm reactioning to it after all! it's like a disease...)

ha. Yeah. I know.

If you only read one (more) post on the topic, though, this (http://synecdochic.livejournal.com/213567.html) is by far the best I've read -- I think it gives an excellent, fair and reasonable analysis of the whole situation and where it crossed the line from "cool idea!" into "invasive and creepy". I've really been having trouble figuring out how I feel about the whole thing and *why* it's not upsetting me as it is so many other people, because I can't see a damn thing wrong with a group tittie-grab as long as everyone's okay with it, and yet there's a monumental sense of "WTF were you thinking?" about his post, and I don't think that a groping free-for-all at a convention is a good thing, especially considering that they tend to be prone to socially unacceptable behavior anyway. (Dude. I'm a nerd. I've been around nerds all my life. Giving a bunch of sexually repressed, socially inept nerds -- i.e. the average sort -- license-to-grope in public is kind of like giving matches to little kids ...) But the level of outrage feels very much out of proportion to the original proposal, and that's where my inner conflict comes in.
ext_3572: (Default)

[identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com 2008-04-24 10:19 am (UTC)(link)
That's a really good analysis. I wish the terms she presented would come into common parlance - "sex-positive" vs "getting-laid-positive." I consider myself "sex-positive" in that, sure, between consenting adults, it's a wonderful thing, however you want to do it - but that doesn't mean that I want to do it.

I think the reason for my confusion over the level of outrage is also mentioned in [livejournal.com profile] synecdochic's post - sexual violence against my person is not something I often consider; I don't have that fear of assault that many women do. While con groping would make me very uncomfortable, I wouldn't feel threatened by it. ...Then again, non-consensual groping is something I'm familiar with; I live in Japan, after all. >_> If I were traumatized by men copping a feel as they brushed past me, I couldn't ever go into crowds. It sucks, but at least I know it's not usually prelude to actual violence.
naye: A cartoon of a woman with red hair and glasses in front of a progressive pride flag. (one piece - wtf?!)

[personal profile] naye 2008-04-23 11:09 am (UTC)(link)
I think it does deserve some other response than "yay, what a beautiful idea!", but *headdesk* is really as far as I got.

The John Ringo review made me laugh and laugh and totally want to adopt OH JOHN RINGO NO as an expression. *g*
ext_1981: (Default)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 09:31 am (UTC)(link)
(Please don't tell me Stephen Donaldson has a sense of humor. Hating his books would be much less fun if he did. Him, and Terry Goodkind...

Stephen Donaldson ... sense of humor ... unlikely. XD (And you know, I've never read Terry Goodkind! I've certainly seen his books in stores, but I've always dismissed them as "generic fantasy, not my thing". Which is for the best, I presume!)

I've seen the Boobgate posts, but ... I just don't seem to have the righteous indignation that everyone else is working up for it. It doesn't anger or upset me; my reaction is more like mild amusement and an ::eyeroll:: or two. I mean ... it's a little creepy and the guy comes off as an idiot in his posts, but it's also completely consensual and I think he's a basically well-meaning idiot. Granted, I'm not too unhappy that his project seems to have been nipped in the boob bud, though...
naye: A cartoon of a woman with red hair and glasses in front of a progressive pride flag. (teyla (sga))

[personal profile] naye 2008-04-23 11:22 am (UTC)(link)
Stephen R Donaldson - oh, god. The memories, they burn! And I only got about a third into the first book before giving up on them. Of course, I was twelve at the time, but. Um. They've left deep scars on my psyche. *g*

And Terry Goodkind - just. Just stay away. For your own sanity's sake. If the misogyny wasn't bad enough, you've got the author shoving his ideological viewpoints down your throat, and on top of that you have raping and torturing and demonic chickens. And also plain old bad prose. I read the first couple of chapters, and then gave up when I got too bored. Which means I missed out on the blinding rage that would have followed later. Which is probably a good thing.

Granted, I'm not too unhappy that his project seems to have been nipped in the boob bud, though...

*snicker*

Yeah. I only got as far as to the headdesking myself, but as ideas go? Do not want!
ext_1981: (Jeannie alien WTF)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 07:28 pm (UTC)(link)
*reads the demonic chicken thing*

*stares*

*stares some more*

Kahlan frantically tried to think as the chicken bawk-bawk-bawked.

(snip)

"Mother," the chicken croaked.


*dies*

(Also, all chicken-related hilarity aside, just the fact that he's apparently named one of his cultures the "Mud People" is enough to make me want to stay faaaaaaar away from his books.)

I wish I'd read the John Ringo post when I was reading Codex Alera, because OH JIM BUTCHER NO would have been so very appropriate!
naye: A cartoon of a woman with red hair and glasses in front of a progressive pride flag. (XD)

[personal profile] naye 2008-04-23 08:15 pm (UTC)(link)
XDDD

I'm so glad I got this opportunity to introduce you to the demonic chicken. (And I'm not laughing now, really, I'm not!)

Oh, Terry Goodkind. Is a man of many, many issues, and you can find them all snarked on the internets.

And Jim Butcher... okay, Codex Alera wasn't that bad - at least none of the main characters collects hookers like cats! but. Um. Yes. Something along the lines of that would have been most therapeutic. WHYYY? Where did it all go so horribly wrong...? (Okay, back to trying to forget I've read those books. Thinking about Dresden stuff is a good way of doing so, even if I'm not going to write fic for it, no matter what's percolating in the back of my brain!)
ext_3572: (Default)

[identity profile] xparrot.livejournal.com 2008-04-24 08:35 am (UTC)(link)
Oh, Terry Goodkind. Is a man of many, many issues, and you can find them all snarked on the internets.

Please to be pointing to links? XD (I love reading snarky reviews so very much!)
ext_150: (Default)

[identity profile] kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 08:32 am (UTC)(link)
LOL Wow. I have recently seen people using "OH JOHN RINGO NO", but I had no idea what it referenced. That's some prime badfic there, though if that really is the author, that's pretty cool that he's aware of it and has a sense of humor.
ext_1981: (BH-Mitchell ep5 sexy)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 09:35 am (UTC)(link)
It is! It's published badfic of the very lowest sort! XD And while I like the author's mellow, tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the whole thing, the more I think about it, the more I can't figure out if it's better or worse that he's as horrified by his own book as the reading public. XD

[identity profile] alipeeps.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 09:12 am (UTC)(link)
Gah. Good lord. Thank you SO much for that link cos that has totally livened up my morning at work! :D Though it was hard to explain away the combination of hysterical laughter and horrified/disbelieving gasps. :D :D

I doubt I could ever bring myself to read the books themselves but good god the review/dissection of them was awesome! :D

P.S. I'm with ya on the Stephen R Donaldson thing. God, trying to read those books melted my brain! :/
ext_1981: (Teyla green coat)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 09:37 am (UTC)(link)
I don't think I would touch those books with a 10-foot barge pole! But the descriptions are priceless!

It's so nice to know it's not just me on Stephen R Donaldson ... I spent years thinking that it was just that I couldn't get into the books for some reason, until I discovered that whenever I mention them in conversation, the usual reaction is, "Oh God, **HIM**." :D
ext_2207: (Default)

[identity profile] abyssinia4077.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 12:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, man, and I thought some *fanfic* was bad! That's....actually kindof awesome in its horribleness.

ext_1981: (Sanzo headache)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)
I know! It's just so unrelentingly awful, and yet in a hilarious, "Plan 9 From Outer Space" sort of way.

[identity profile] greyias.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 01:06 pm (UTC)(link)
OH JOHN RINGO NO!

I always love it when I get to use a new phrase, especially if I can introduce it to the family before the other Net Geeks can. Now if I could only find the correct context in which to use this is in real and fannish life...
ext_1981: (Atlantis city)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 07:30 pm (UTC)(link)
Based on my general experiences with the fantasy and SF genre, I expect opportunities may come up more often than you'd think ... :D

[identity profile] greyias.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 11:57 pm (UTC)(link)
You weren't kidding! I've already had a chance to use it twice today!

First, after reading a few of those posts about that "Open Boob Source" nonsense, I declared it loudly to my empty dining room, and lo and behold, I realized the original post was by a wanker and moved on with my life. Second, after a particularly bad fic idea came to me, I said that to myself, and have since resisted temptation.

[identity profile] anniehow.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 01:28 pm (UTC)(link)
The horriefed giggles would. Not. Stop. One shade that I liked (though it certainly doesn't mean that I'd read the books) is precisely that the big alpha male hero is such a f*cked up pervert, instead of being an all nice and courteous and aw-shuck-ma'am killing machine.

Reminds me of that scene in whacchamacallit, the seventh seal (?), where the knight's sidekick rescues a woman from a rapist by killing the man... and then grabs her and shoves her to the ground, then sort of deflates and tells her that he wanted to rape her himself, but he's just too tired at present, so he'll settle for rescuing her. Off her stricken look he scoffs something about idolising knights when all they really did was go and kill arabs and raid and rape what they felt was their fair share.

[identity profile] anniehow.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 02:27 pm (UTC)(link)
As for the open boob project, I urge you to read this: http://misia.livejournal.com/1055120.html

IT's perhaps the best response so far IMHO.
ext_1981: (ROUS)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 07:43 pm (UTC)(link)
Mmmmm .... I did go and read it, but as satire, I think it fails, because it's not following the parameters of the original "project" as stated (green button means you have to ask, otherwise default is "no"). Unless she's making a broader point about the way women's breasts are treated by society in general, in which case it doesn't really pertain to the boob project thing. I think I would've found it really funny if she'd followed the original parameters, but since she had to utterly misrepresent them to make her point ... no, not so much.

[identity profile] anniehow.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 08:12 pm (UTC)(link)
I read it as starting as a satire, and then devolving into broader territory... I found it very refreshing after scanning several comments, most of them women trying to explain to honestly bewildered guys why even asking could make a woman uncomfortable *headdesk*

One girl who had been there reported that even women wearing the red "no" buttons were being asked, and that not every one was clear on the "no asking without a button rule".

Oh well. I agree that it's getting way more attention than it should.
ext_1981: (Default)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 10:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, as I read her post (and I may be misinterpreting due to my own biases, so take this with a grain of salt), the basic analogy she's making is "consensual touching equals physical violence" and I'm not on board with that. At all.

A much better analogy that I've seen elsewhere would be men wearing an "ask me about groping my balls!" button on their crotch. Which gets to the heart of the problem, which is basically a) everyone at the con is going around staring at every guy's crotch, looking for a button, and b) the skeeviness of receiving unwanted attention from people you don't want staring at your crotch or groping it. Having someone touch my breast if I'm wearing a button is not equivalent to going around kicking every guy I meet in the 'nads and I think it's frankly a ridiculous level of hyperbole to suggest that it is.

However, I think you nailed one of the big problems with doing a social experiment in the open atmosphere of a con, namely that not everyone has had the rules explained to them, understands the rules, or would have been comfortable attending if they'd known there would be people around them getting groped. And let's face it, anybody (female) who's been to a con knows that they don't need any help getting skeevier! I think my biggest problem with the "Open Source Boob" suggestion is that doing this in a room full of sex-starved fanboys is like touching a match to a powder keg. The individuals who started it may be well-behaved and respectful, but I really doubt it'd stay that way.

[identity profile] anniehow.livejournal.com 2008-04-24 10:05 am (UTC)(link)
No, no, I agree with you that "consensual touching equals physical violence" is a bunch of hoo hoo, but I didn't read the post in that light, so I guess that's where we differ.

And the "no way, that would be too sexual!" reaction of the guys on the 'nads thread was worth a snort and a head shake in and of itself :)
ext_1981: (SGA-Game-John-look)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 07:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, in a horrible way, it's actually a little more intellectually honest than the standard book of that type, where the main character would be a complete asshole by any reasonable person's standards, but he'd be held up as a paragon within the world of the book.

This was actually a point that the book "Sir Apropos of Nothing" made as well (about the knights) except they kinda undermined it by making the main character himself such an utter bastard that I couldn't stand him. (OH PETER DAVID NO applies pretty handily to that book, too.)
ext_150: (Default)

[identity profile] kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 06:45 pm (UTC)(link)
It really was him, btw. He linked to the review from his website (http://hradzka.livejournal.com/199220.html). Be sure to check out the icon, which is extra awesome.
ext_1981: (Owen)

[identity profile] friendshipper.livejournal.com 2008-04-23 07:46 pm (UTC)(link)
Ha! Oh, funny! Thanks for the link! I love that he's got a sense of humor about it.