#brian whitney

[theremightbecupcakespodcast]

Book Review: You Have a Very Soft Voice, Susan

Book Review: You Have a Very Soft Voice, Susan

You Have A Very Soft Voice, Susan: A Shocking True Story of Internet Stalking by Susan Fensten My rating: 3 of 5 stars This is a wild ride of a true crime memoir, recommended if you are looking for something completely different. It is frustrating, in more than one way. Susan befriended her stalker and felt sorry for him–she is refreshingly forthcoming with her faults, and with the problems in…

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[llpodcast]

My Son, The Killer is a bit of a mess as it only asks more questions than what it answers and makes the case of Magnotta more sensationalised as if it needed any more.  There are parts of the book that deal with the crime and a mother’s justification of herself as she deals with her son’s life choices.

 On one hand, we have a book, assumingly written by Brian Whitney who tries to shed a light with a subject matter whose stories are not consistent.  We also have the victim Jun Lin who is but a footnote in the book. This seems quite ridiculous and considering Brian Whitney is a crime writer, you think he would have done a little bit of research beyond the typical media fact sheet on Lin.  A couple of paragraphs about a person who was murdered seems a bit lazy.

 Looking through his back catalogue, he seems to enjoy sensationalising his subject matter without delving too deep. His past output was letters from Arthur Shawcross.  I grew up with Arthur Shawcross and know his family as I am from the same small town and although I haven’t read the book, saying that you are going to look into the mind of someone who thinks they are deep but are shallow and lacks a lot of intelligence, shows you were this book, in particular, is probably going.

 My Son, The Killer, Whitney says that he has access to Magnotta and then we get the same sound bites that have been radiating out of this case since it exploded on the public due to a slow news day.  Magnotta although trying to sound deep and meaningful, really doesn’t come out with anything beyond the normal conspiracy theories and not wanting to discuss the case at all.  We are left with nothing really further which considering the author claims to have personal contact with his subject, we are left with pretty much nothing beyond the normal website or news that has already been reported.

 Most of the book is taken up by the mother, Anna Yourkin about her son Luka.  We have the classic story of a woman in an abusive relationship with her husband.  It does seem odd that we have an abusive father who physically and mentally abuses his wife and children and they feel that home schooling is the best way forward when raising your children.  For whatever the reasons, we are left with a flimsy reasoning behind this and justification that the other children are well balanced.  When the mother leaves the husband, we have well balanced children entering society except for Luka who was apparently bullied and only got on with children who had physical or mental handicaps.  I am not sure what is trying to be betrayed here and it is an odd justification to be thrown in the mix.

 The mother than states that she finds herself in another abusive relationship to herself and her children and she chooses the man over her son.  Again, I am not quite sure if this is to justify why Luka would become the person he became or to shed some sympathy onto Luka as a boy.  The story then shifts from Luka becoming an apparent model, pornography, rent boy, etc and the mother seems to approve of these life choices due to gifts and holidays Luka is able to dispense among the family. The couple of times that Luka does get in trouble with the law it is always someone elses fault and Luka is the innocent party.

 Once Luka murders Jun Lin, we now have an apparent close knit family who turn their back on Luka because it is too much for them to handle.  They do not want the press or media involved in their lives and show no support for their son who becomes a murderer and uses the internet to publicise his crimes.  This is a total contradiction to what is written about how close and supportive they are with each other.

 The cloud settles and now we have a mother who wants to get back in touch with her boy.  This time she seems to have a supportive boyfriend in tow though his name is not mentioned and starts building a relationship with her now famous son.  Through the various chapters, we have a mother who seems to be quite self-involved and it was extremely difficult to have empathy for her.

 The reasoning for writing a book does not really shed any light on the crime that Luka Magnotta neither committed nor shed light on the family structure.  Everything has been heavily documented and publicised before. This in fact seems to be one of those crime books that is released to capitalise on making money.  I read the book and was compelled to read to the end though my eyes rolled at quite a few passages.  The editor should be sued because the facts playing against each other, dates and years are jumble and there are so many contradictions within the pages it is hard to figure out what the main purpose of this was.  The passage where she tells her son that she has written a book is a rather odd one because apparently she had already written it and it is going to the publisher but we have a chapter where she is telling her son about it.  

 Overall, the book is an over sensationalised inconsistent crime that seems to settle between fiction and non fiction.   Luka Magnotta comes across as a hard killer and facts don’t really line up.  If this was to shed a light on who Luka is, it doesn’t really do this.  I found him to be sad, pathetic and terribly lonely figure who had mental issues due to family who left him out to dry.  If he maybe had the support and love that a person should have had, maybe things would not have lead up to what they became.  His mother is looking for pity and justification due to her bad life choices and this book is about her coming across as a victim although it portrays her as a conspirator to what her son had become.  The book comes across as non apologetic and feels like a get rich scheme.

 Maybe one day, Luka Magnotta will open up and let the world see the real person but you are not going to find this person within these pages.  You have an apparent crime writer who doesn’t do any research beyond Wikipedia and a mother who makes everything about her.  She exploited her son for financial means when he was a pornography actor and rent boy and she continues to exploit him now that he has become a famous killer.  There is a probably a decent book to be had with the right editor and the right people involved but this is not that book.  As for Luka Magnotta, a man of great promise when born came out a by product of bad parenting and someone forced to live in society’s underbelly.  

[disinformer]

The Flat Earth Society Tells You Where It's At

John Davis is the President of The Flat Earth Society. Need I say more? I would give anything to have that business card.  This interview is from the book Subversives: Interviews with Radicals. Let’s get right down it. I know it may be hard to sum up briefly, but why do you believe the Earth is f...

https://disinfo.com/2018/01/flat-earth-society-tells/

[disinformer]

Meet your Cosmic Masters With the Aetherius Society

Reverend Oscar Leon is one of the leaders of The Aetherius Society, an international spiritual organization dedicated to spreading, and acting upon, the teachings of advanced extraterrestrial intelligences. This interview is from Subversive: Interviews With Radicals. Can you tell me a bit of how...

http://disinfo.com/2018/01/meet-cosmic-masters-aetherius-society/

[thebrianwhitney-blog]

stills from Making The Nature Scene (2016) 

(ed. note: these are untouched/straight off the camera)

[thebrianwhitney-blog]

hi i’m gonna start using this again

on sunday my dude//cinematographer extraordinaire ryan hart and i went into the woods to get a few additional shots for a short film i made over memorial day weekend called “making the nature scene”. it’s about a guy who calls out of work to go hiking with his friends, but can’t convince any of them to go. it stars myself along with morgan dixon, david gordezky, chris le, jessica heemskerk and elysia richards.

the film came together very quickly. conceived on monday, shot thursday-sunday. all the performances were improvised and shot in under an hour. big ups to having talented performers as friends. i set out for this short to be a learning experience, but i think it might be able to do some low-tier festival work. it’s a start.

next month i’m making another short called “courtship ritual” starring neil and daiva bhandari. ryan will be behind the camera, stephen holliger on sound, the aforementioned morgan dixon assistant directing/holding down the odds and ends. should be a hoot. more on this later.

[egomagonline]

New Post has been published on ēgō Magazine

New Post has been published on http://www.egomagonline.com/2013/10/30/37-stories-about-37-women-interview-with-brian-whitney/

37 Stories About 37 Women: Interview with Brian Whitney

Not your typical romance novel, Brian Whitney’s book ‘37 Stories About 37 Women” is a series of dark and edgy stories with a sarcastic and cynically odd humor to each. It reminded me a bit of that odd feeling you got after watching Precious.  The reality hitting that intros that may not say “based on a true story” do not necessarily mean that somewhere someone is experiencing this exact type of tragedy . Although not an erotic novel, the stories do have quite a bit of distorted sexual content; what you might call a peep hole to very dysfunctional women’s relationships.  Like any true rubber necker, you simply can’t stop yourself from wanting to see the extent of the damage, and thus you want to continue reading Whitney’s tragic stories of these dysfunctional relationships.

The following is the interview which I had the pleasure to conduct with Brian Whitney.

Tell me a bit about yourself.  Anything.  From childhood trauma to failed romances.

I wish I could give you some childhood trauma. Oh how much simpler things would seem then.  My parents are normal and I had a normal childhood.  All of my relationships have been failed in one way or the other.  I am a guy that was thought of as a prodigy when young, who then got really messed up for quite a while, then became a social worker and then a writer of twisted tales.

How did you arrive at publishing this book? What other work have you published?

I wrote this book in about a week and a half of dark and manic energy. I then sent it out to hundreds of places, most of which obviously thought I was out of my mind.  7 independents became interested and Coffeetown press out of Seattle was the first to offer a deal.  My second book of fiction is out in July and I just sold a memoir that I co-wrote about a man who was locked up in a third world prison.

Full time writer? What did you do before?

I have been surviving as a full time writer as of late but am broke as a joke.  I was a landscaper for years and then a social worker. I worked mostly with prisoners and the homeless.

What inspired this book?

Insanity and self hatred. . I was in a really dark place, I lost someone that I cared about purely because of my own actions and I decided to write something really dark, without caring about what it looked like to people.

How did you choose this style? Have you considered changing your style?

I just sit down and write.  I am influenced by Bukowski, Jim Carroll, George Saunders. I just let it flow.  My next book is a lot different than 37 Stories, in large part because it is much longer and a tad less depressing, but the style remains the same.

 What is the meaning of love to you? (since the book’s love interpretation is quite dark)

I think that love exists, I have loved people before and I love someone now, but I also think that one can love someone and do something horrible to them. So many people get hurt and think the person that hurt them doesn’t love them; one can love someone and still act horribly towards them.  Love isn’t why relationships last.

Are the stories true? How did you arrive at them?

They are all true and none of them are.  Everyone in the book is someone I knew in one way or the other, but none of it is how things really went down.

  Strong themes. Dark. What kind of feedback have you been getting?  Are your followers a specific type of audience?

I love dark. I love making people uncomfortable.  I love to push buttons.  Feedback is all over the place.  Some people don’t talk to me anymore. Other people that I thought would hate me got quite interested in me in an odd way.  I don’t think I have a specific audience yet, but if I did I would imagine they would all be fabulous people.  ha.

What’s your next book about?

My next book is out in July, it is called “Am I Pleasing You” it is about wannabe cult leaders, a somnophliac,   some sex addicts,  and a teenagers diary of his summer having sex with his friends mom, who he calls Mrs Johnson.

Where to from here?  Future plans.

I just finished a book with Porsche Lynn, who is a famous porn star and a really cool lady.  I just want to keep writing, keep being odd and keep being myself.

  You can order Whitney’s 37 Stories about 37 Women on amazon.com now.

Whitney’s second book Am I Pleasing You? will be released November 15, 2013