Hatrack River Writers Workshop: the wonderful world of Vox Day

This is topic the wonderful world of Vox Day in forum Open Discussions About Writing at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

To visit this topic, use this URL:
http://www.hatrack.com/ubb/writers/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=001803

Posted by ScottMiller (Member # 2410) on :

Hmm.
Funny that this should have come up here, because Mr. Vox Day has already stirred some controversy. I like to read people with views on both sides of the political spectrum, because I usually find myself in the middle, so I take in a wide range of blogs and political sites, as well as sites that aren't specifcially political but endorse one particular point of view. If you hop on over to Patrick Nielsen Hayden's Electrolite blog (at nielsenhayden.com/electrolite), you'll see that Mr. "Vox Day" (if he's the voice of God, I'll eat my hat) has views that are even more disturbing than his idiotic views about women:

quote:
I’d never understood how the medieval kings found it so easy to get the common people to hate the Jews in their midst. But if those medieval Jewish leaders were anything like the idiots running the ADL, the ACLU and the Council of Jews, one can see where the idea of persecuting them would have held some appeal.

This from a post on Vox Day's blog entitled "The merits of anti-Semitism." (Just so nobody thinks I'm trolling or trying to inflame anyone--it means exactly what it appears to mean.)

This guy is a horse's ass. A dangerous horse's ass.

And the SFWA put him on the jury panel for Best Novel for this year's Nebulas.

Apologies for being seriously OT, but I hate this kind of racist spew, and I encourage anyone with even mildly conservative views to disown this twit--I've had a lot of conservative friends, I'm conservative on some issues myself, and I do NOT want people to keep making the link that "conservative=racist." If there's anything I can't stand, it's a bigot, whether he's racist or sexist.

Posted by Keeley (Member # 2088) on :

Wow.

He begins by saying he doesn't understand, and yet by the end he says he does. And the reason... I'm going to have the read the whole thing. This is just too much.

If only the guy could make his point without sounding like such a jerk. I know he chooses to use that voice to get attention -- just look at how many posts have been devoted to him and him alone since my first post -- but it's not right. He's worse than Pat Buchanan.

I hate to say it, but my respect for the SFWA just went down a couple of notches.

Posted by wbriggs (Member # 2267) on :

The entire article: http://voxday.blogspot.com/2005/01/merits-of-anti-semitism.html

Posted by Jeraliey (Member # 2147) on :

Maybe we should petition.

Posted by Keeley (Member # 2088) on :

Read the article. Once again, I agree with his underlying premise regarding the use of the Holocaust in a speech by an archbishop and the reaction from Jewish special interest groups.

But gah! Can't he find a better way to make his point? Either the guy didn't learn persuasive writing in college or he deliberately forgot it.

If it's the former, he's lazy for not taking the time to learn it. A writer should know better.

If it's the latter, he's reckless and dangerous. Anyone who appeals to emotions that regularly with that much... hate and anger is a dangerous person.

If I see his name in the future, I'm ignoring everything he says, no matter what points he tries to make.

Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :

Actually, if he just did away with the 'freaking,' 'posterior,' and 'idiot' comments, the remaining article has merit. But even without those comments, his anti-abortion stance, his giving the same tragic respect to abortion victims as to Holocaust victims, will ignite virulent backlash. And that's a shame.

[This message has been edited by Kolona (edited March 04, 2005).]

Posted by Hildy9595 (Member # 1489) on :

In case anyone is interested, this ass publishes under the name Theodore Beale. And don't think he is part of the right...he is a so-called "Christian" libertarian, and has as little regard for the right as the left.

SFWA isn't to blame here. Membership is strictly determined by application after a certain number of stories are published in professional (5 cent per word) venues or novels
published. They do not take into consideration (nor should they, IMO) whether or not the person is right wing, left wing, centrist, or just plain stupid.

This idiot has gotten too much attention on these boards already (for which I partially blame myself). His rantings have little or nothing to do with improving ourselves as writers, which is the purpose of Hatrack. Toward that end, this is my final comment on the subject.

[This message has been edited by Hildy9595 (edited March 04, 2005).]

Posted by Keeley (Member # 2088) on :

His opinions have little to do with writing, but the discussions they've spawned have helped me take a closer look at the way I write and what I choose to write.

That, and I've learned how important it is to stay awake during persuasive writing class.

Now, back to my novel.

[This message has been edited by Keeley (edited March 04, 2005).]

Posted by ScottMiller (Member # 2410) on :

To be honest I think I overreacted with the comments about "bigotry" (because of the name of his post). But it is very dangerous to throw around comments like that. You don't know who will read them, or how they will be interpreted.

And to be honest, I think his analogy is overblown, and actually hurts the point he may have been trying to make, which I'm not sure I agree with in the first place. That said, I won't bother to throw up any debates, because, yes, it doesn't belong here.

Good example of what rhetoric can do to your writing and how people react to it, though.