If you got interested in comics at a certain time, the Vertigo writers have a special place in your heart. Alan Moore; Garth Ennis (whose work, Preacher, is above); Neil Gaiman. Warren Ellis.
Ellis was my favourite. At its best, his work is erudite and weird; character-driven and funny; profane and honest. His Transmetropolitan series was my favourite graphic novel for a long, long time. I frequented his forum. I visited his website. I downloaded his music podcast. I recommended him to my friends. I subscribed to his newsletter. Between those things, I’ve had him in my life more days than not over the past twenty years, I guess.
I opened that newsletter a couple of days ago to find one of those apologies. The ones about causing hurt, and never having intended to coerce or harm women. My heart sank. Oh, fuck, Warren, what did you do?
This Gizmodo article gives the essential details. Basically, he used mentorship and an appearance of friendship to coerce young women into sex.
So, let me this out of the way, more to purge it from my brain than anything else. Thank god, he didn’t rape anyone. He’s not one of the worst ones. He’s not a Weinstein or an Epstein or whatever. No criminal charges have been brought or are expected, so far as I know. In a previous generation, many people would have shrugged and blamed the women for expecting anything else from a powerful man.
I don’t want any of that ‘previous generation’ bullshit suggesting he didn’t know it was wrong; the man is fifty-two years old, he’s not from the fucking Edwardian era. Even people in bowler hats and corsets would have known it was wrong. They would have kept their friends and family away from him, and some of them would have told him so to his face.
And it was wrong. Victims have braved the demented fanboys and spoken about their experiences. He groomed them with lavish praise and the promotion of their professional work to thousands. He embraced them with his charm and warmth and wit. And then, there were things that hurt them and that haunt them now.
And I am shaken. I’ve been crying. I’m angry. Because we all felt his warmth and wit and charm, and we trusted him. If our brief email contacts had turned into something more, I would have been thrilled. It would have worked on me, it absolutely would. I didn’t even want to work in comics, and I would have been drawn in by his fame and personality and my absolute love of his work.
Favourite writers can be something like household gods, or at least they are for me. We do know they’re human. I’ve never felt quite the same about Vonnegut after reading a biography that detailed his first marriage and family life. I couldn’t reconcile the man and his work for a while. Eventually, I came to feel that Vonnegut had put the best part of himself into his writing; that he’d been the man on the page that he couldn’t be in his real life. He’s not the only one. And that man on the page has been important to me for a long time, and I don’t think I’ve lost him entirely.
I haven’t written anything to Ellis. Why would he care? Maybe he would care? Is he angry and bitter behind his carefully worded and thoughtful (though imperfect) apology? He used to say that the contract between writer and reader is that he wrote the books and we bought them if we wanted to, that was it; but he went out of his way to foster personal relationships with his fans through the internet. And wow, we find out now: did he EVER foster personal relationships with his fans through the internet (blech).
Kurt Vonnegut said that a book is a conversation between two people, and readers want to know what kind of person they’re talking to. He told his creative writing students that, when writing a book, you needed to be a good first date for whatever stranger was sitting down with you. I understand why some authors crave separation from their fans, (especially in the modern publishing industry, where you’re under pressure to share everything from writing advice to selfies and cat pictures), but I think Vonnegut was absolutely right about this. We want to know what kind of person wrote our favourite books, because *context matters.*
I can see the ‘cancel culture has gone too far’ people on the horizon, and they may very kindly shut the hell up. For every person who has been ‘cancelled’, twenty more have been forgiven after a limp show of contrition, and a thousand more have never even been called to account. No-one’s owed a job in their dream field, no-one’s owed an invite to the Met Gala or a Netflix special or a contract with Marvel. You can be talented and still be an unemployable turd.
The thing is, even Ellis’ victims feelings are so complicated, and this is one of the reasons I keep crying. Some of them, at least, are still fond of him. They don’t want to ‘ruin’ him. They have good things to say about him. I suspect they miss him. I think I’m paraphrasing here: they just want him to be the man he pretended to be.
Others close to Ellis have come out in support of the women, saying the signs were there, but they didn’t really understand. They were ignorant, or willfully ignorant. We all wanted to believe the facade.
I dread what might happen next. The bitter interviews; the too-brief sabbatical; the unearned comeback, making crass jokes to the only people who will listen to him anymore. I don’t know what he should do for the victims; they can speak for themselves, and I can only speak as a fan. But speaking as a fan, Warren, please don’t become the Louis CK of the writer’s set.
Do what you said you’re going to do in your apology. Listen to your friends, who are hurt and sad and angry. Be wary of people who try to make you feel ok about this. It’s too late for you to be the person we thought you were. You can still be the person who did the fucking work. We might still want to know that person.
// Hi friends. As much as it pains me to continue being in this situation, my mother and I are still in need of help.
To make a long story short, after I lost my job and had emergency surgery, we were left with only my mom’s limited income with SSI to pay bills. As our rent alone was the grand majority of what she receives monthly, we fell behind, and quickly. Because we left willingly and before the eviction date, the judge vacated the order of eviction, but we still owe quite a deal of money. This isn’t the first on our record, so nobody wants to rent to us. We have tried dozens of apartments and rental properties. It’s all the same–either it’s our credit, the eviction/money owed, or lack of income.
We are currently in an Airbnb for the next couple of weeks, but we either need to hurry and book for another month, or need to find someone willing to give us a chance in the same amount of time. Otherwise we have no choice but to try for a week in a hotel and see if we can find homes for the pets or try and locate shelters that might let us have them.
While I’m working now, it isn’t much and it’s not guaranteed hours. I know it’s a lot to ask for, but to get us back to where we were, we need at least $2500. It would either be 3x the average monthly rent for a place here (first, last, and safety deposit), or enough to help pay for our current Airbnb for another month and the rest to help pay off our debts so we might have a better start the following month.
Venmo
Paypal
Absolutely anything helps, even just reblogging to spread the word. We’ll need containers for our belongings, money for pet food, rideshare fees…it all helps.
Thank you guys <3 You continue to astonish me with your kindness and I’m incredibly grateful for you.
We’ve been friends for neigh on 4 years, and as I am (arguably) mature, independant, established and have room in my home, I have offered to host Juni and help her get back on her feet! Homelessness is no joke, and this hits for me as I was also homeless once. I have a room for her and her cat, and she has a plan for employment and independence. After watching her struggle, homeless in Indiana for four months (which is disgustingly bereft of any sort of services), she’s out of options, and I have the ability to help.
SO. We (she and I) need to get Juni from Indiana to Vermont!!
I am donating what I can towards the cost of her ticket; we estimate the flight for herself and her kitty to be $375-$400 ish, plus the cost of her baggage. She also needs a vet checkup for her kitty just to be certain she’s healthy and safe for flying! Overall, the estimated cost of getting her to VT is $500– FAR LESS than what she would need to stay in IN!!!
Please use her links above if you choose to donate.
Once Juni is here and settled, I will be able to help her with employment and transportation so that she can save and regain independence again by spring.
I am also using 100% of the proceeds from my Etsy shop towards getting Juni to Vermont! you can find soaps, scents and steampunk-y odds and ends there:
www.eclecticmechnician.etsy.com
Thank you in advance to everyone who is able to help out &/or boost this post.
In the olden days, if footage was not used in a film, it was either destroyed or erased so they could reuse the reel, because it was cheaper than storing unused film.
One of those fandom things that I love is when there’s new characters around and, with the unwavering confidence of an old farmer appraising cattle, fanfic authors take one good look at them, tilt their imaginary hat, and go “Aye. Praise kink, that one. Mighty case of praise kink if I ever saw one.” And everyone else just “aye.”
“I don’t think the Highschool AU is going to come in too strong this year. Fandoms a touch jaded for that. But the hurt/comfort is growin’ thick as weeds and twice as fast. It’ll be a good harvest, fer sure.”
annaxmalina
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izzy806
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theartofmadeline
