Moose gets traumatized, Katie Herzog becomes a climate criminal, Jesse Singal becomes gay, Susan Meachen dies, and Carla Rossi has a lot of explaining to do
Whenever an uncommon kink comes up on B&R I always think about the time my mother-in-law posted pony play to her facebook (think of puppy play but rather than puppies its people as horses). She sent this video in our family thread too and immediately one of my sister's-in-law called her and explained that this was a sexual kink and to take it down. She just thought people were having fun pretending to be ponies :D (which is very in line with her)
As much as I enjoy witnessing the downfall of La Dottoressa Rossi, I feel really bad for her PhD students - their careers are basically over before they started. (Kidd even mentioned in one of his posts that he was contacted by one of her PhD candidates who asked him for permission to use one of his images, so there is at least one honest person in the whole RECEPTIOsphere.)
Who I don't feel bad for are all the tenured professors who are defending Rossi even though it's so obvious that she's a plagiarist and fraud.
The case reminds me of a very pithy observation by one of my colleagues when I was still a PhD student: "Much of modern academia is a mix of kindergarten and Game of Thrones.")
Okay so I can't believe I'm writing this, but there is actually a huge difference between the TRADPUB romance writers world and the indiepub romance writers world.
I would say that most tradpub romance writers (outside of those who became popular/famous before ~10 years ago) are very similar to the type of person who writes for Slate or Jezebel. Similar politically, similar in their Twitter usage, similar in that they're (for the most part) mediocre writers who take their jobs/identities VERY seriously.
The indiepub romance writing world is . . . insane. For one thing, it's totally capitalist and basically without limits, which means that some of the stuff that gets popular is VERY not PC and weird. (and just some throat clearing, I do read some indie romance, so I'm not saying this is BAD per se.) Like, there is a LOT of MFM, "monster" romance (some of these are REALLY weird), "dark" romance, and the tangentially-related "bully romance" which was mentioned in the episode. A bully romance is basically a romance where the male main character is a bully who's usually very wealthy and "powerful" and treats everyone around him like garbage. It makes him very angry that the female main character, who is sweet and kind and innocent, has such a hold on him (usually for no discernible reason). So he treats her even MORE like garbage, but she likes him anyway . . . ? There's usually no character growth. And all of these books are usually extremely explicit. Most, almost all, writers of this type of thing use pseudonyms and don't register a copyright so that they can write anonymously. Some of them do do the woke politics thing, but a lot of them don't. Writing these books can actually be pretty profitable, if you become popular in a niche and publish often.
From what I can see of her amazon page, what Susan was writing was mostly extremely tame, comparatively. Most of them were pretty short (around 100 pages), but priced accordingly. She does have a solid amount of positive reviews. I'm guessing she was probably making most of her money through Kindle Unlimited, which is a subscription service where readers pay per month and then get access to the entire KU library. Authors get paid per page read of their books.
At first I thought she was probably lying about having a daughter, but I can see that one of her old bios says "I’m from a tiny town in the Southern part of Tennessee, it’s not huge, but it’s home. I started writing last year, but I’ve always loved to read. I have been married to my husband for twenty-two years, we have two grown children, and one we sort of adopted, who has given us our first set of grandkids. You can generally find me curled up with my laptop and my baby girl a six foot long Ball Python working on my next book." (The bio of "Special Delivery.") So I'm left wondering if she was impersonating her daughter or if her daughter really did take over her fb. I'm kind of disturbed by the idea that her daughter would even know she writes these books, let alone read them or get one FOR A WEDDING PRESENT. It's NOT like Chandler's mom from Friends. Usually these types of books feature the author's interests in this department HEAVILY.
Either way, it's not uncommon for indie writers to be socially awkward, deal with mental health stuff, etc. It's a job where the biggest requirement is that you produce a lot of content in a niche genre. It's true that most writers who do REALLY well are able to understand other things like marketing, design, basic grammar, etc, and have proffesional relationships with designers and editors, but honestly, a lot of writers are doing just fine (via KU) by just being prolific and dependable. Which, as you can imagine, doesn't attract the most mentally stable people.
Anyway, this is embarrassing. Hope everyone is having a good week.
Jesse reminded me of Grandpa Simpson: "I used to be with "it"! Then they changed what "it" was. Now what I'm with isn't "it" and what is "it" is weird and strange!"
Man. Jude Doyle REALLY does not like Jesse. Is Jude a trans guu now or nonbinary? Also. Jude really does seem unhinged or maybe just online unhinged.
ETA: I really do not get what white bisexual women have to do with Andrew Sullivan or Glenn Greenwald. Gay men are into women since...when? And the "white" thing, is the idea that there is some white supremacist thing going on,?
Because the other thing is that Jude Doyle seems to hold a LOT of contempt for white women.
Nothing to do with this episode, but I wanted to post a public thank you to my wife for getting me an "It's complicated" T-shirt for Christmas. :) I know, we're not supporting the BARpod merch store, but she figured I could wear it more places than "pervert for nuance".
“Where the Real Gays Go” ~a new banned children’s book from Jesse Singal
Update: between this and Mike Solana’s substack I feel like I know a bunch of gay secrets that straight people are not supposed to know. For any Patrice O’Neal fans, he used to say that Fight Club and the song “Creep” were white secrets. I feel like blood play is a lesbian secret.
Rejected title: "Death of the Death of the Author"
Whenever an uncommon kink comes up on B&R I always think about the time my mother-in-law posted pony play to her facebook (think of puppy play but rather than puppies its people as horses). She sent this video in our family thread too and immediately one of my sister's-in-law called her and explained that this was a sexual kink and to take it down. She just thought people were having fun pretending to be ponies :D (which is very in line with her)
As much as I enjoy witnessing the downfall of La Dottoressa Rossi, I feel really bad for her PhD students - their careers are basically over before they started. (Kidd even mentioned in one of his posts that he was contacted by one of her PhD candidates who asked him for permission to use one of his images, so there is at least one honest person in the whole RECEPTIOsphere.)
Who I don't feel bad for are all the tenured professors who are defending Rossi even though it's so obvious that she's a plagiarist and fraud.
The case reminds me of a very pithy observation by one of my colleagues when I was still a PhD student: "Much of modern academia is a mix of kindergarten and Game of Thrones.")
Okay so I can't believe I'm writing this, but there is actually a huge difference between the TRADPUB romance writers world and the indiepub romance writers world.
I would say that most tradpub romance writers (outside of those who became popular/famous before ~10 years ago) are very similar to the type of person who writes for Slate or Jezebel. Similar politically, similar in their Twitter usage, similar in that they're (for the most part) mediocre writers who take their jobs/identities VERY seriously.
The indiepub romance writing world is . . . insane. For one thing, it's totally capitalist and basically without limits, which means that some of the stuff that gets popular is VERY not PC and weird. (and just some throat clearing, I do read some indie romance, so I'm not saying this is BAD per se.) Like, there is a LOT of MFM, "monster" romance (some of these are REALLY weird), "dark" romance, and the tangentially-related "bully romance" which was mentioned in the episode. A bully romance is basically a romance where the male main character is a bully who's usually very wealthy and "powerful" and treats everyone around him like garbage. It makes him very angry that the female main character, who is sweet and kind and innocent, has such a hold on him (usually for no discernible reason). So he treats her even MORE like garbage, but she likes him anyway . . . ? There's usually no character growth. And all of these books are usually extremely explicit. Most, almost all, writers of this type of thing use pseudonyms and don't register a copyright so that they can write anonymously. Some of them do do the woke politics thing, but a lot of them don't. Writing these books can actually be pretty profitable, if you become popular in a niche and publish often.
From what I can see of her amazon page, what Susan was writing was mostly extremely tame, comparatively. Most of them were pretty short (around 100 pages), but priced accordingly. She does have a solid amount of positive reviews. I'm guessing she was probably making most of her money through Kindle Unlimited, which is a subscription service where readers pay per month and then get access to the entire KU library. Authors get paid per page read of their books.
At first I thought she was probably lying about having a daughter, but I can see that one of her old bios says "I’m from a tiny town in the Southern part of Tennessee, it’s not huge, but it’s home. I started writing last year, but I’ve always loved to read. I have been married to my husband for twenty-two years, we have two grown children, and one we sort of adopted, who has given us our first set of grandkids. You can generally find me curled up with my laptop and my baby girl a six foot long Ball Python working on my next book." (The bio of "Special Delivery.") So I'm left wondering if she was impersonating her daughter or if her daughter really did take over her fb. I'm kind of disturbed by the idea that her daughter would even know she writes these books, let alone read them or get one FOR A WEDDING PRESENT. It's NOT like Chandler's mom from Friends. Usually these types of books feature the author's interests in this department HEAVILY.
Either way, it's not uncommon for indie writers to be socially awkward, deal with mental health stuff, etc. It's a job where the biggest requirement is that you produce a lot of content in a niche genre. It's true that most writers who do REALLY well are able to understand other things like marketing, design, basic grammar, etc, and have proffesional relationships with designers and editors, but honestly, a lot of writers are doing just fine (via KU) by just being prolific and dependable. Which, as you can imagine, doesn't attract the most mentally stable people.
Anyway, this is embarrassing. Hope everyone is having a good week.
Jesse reminded me of Grandpa Simpson: "I used to be with "it"! Then they changed what "it" was. Now what I'm with isn't "it" and what is "it" is weird and strange!"
It's a causeway, Jesse! You have to go over the causeway to get to the nude beach (where, not fun fact, I once got a whole-body sunburn).
Also, a "quay" is pronounced like "key."
They got the Aella controversy totally wrong. She was getting dragged on Twitter for saying she only showered like 60 times last year.
Shame on the ABDL community for fetishizing and appropriating a marginalized identity (baby.) Their culture is not a costume!
Freshly subscribed. Long time listener. Here for Katie's coverage of the lesbian and Jewish angle, and Jesse's horse related content.
Man. Jude Doyle REALLY does not like Jesse. Is Jude a trans guu now or nonbinary? Also. Jude really does seem unhinged or maybe just online unhinged.
ETA: I really do not get what white bisexual women have to do with Andrew Sullivan or Glenn Greenwald. Gay men are into women since...when? And the "white" thing, is the idea that there is some white supremacist thing going on,?
Because the other thing is that Jude Doyle seems to hold a LOT of contempt for white women.
Nothing to do with this episode, but I wanted to post a public thank you to my wife for getting me an "It's complicated" T-shirt for Christmas. :) I know, we're not supporting the BARpod merch store, but she figured I could wear it more places than "pervert for nuance".
“Where the Real Gays Go” ~a new banned children’s book from Jesse Singal
Update: between this and Mike Solana’s substack I feel like I know a bunch of gay secrets that straight people are not supposed to know. For any Patrice O’Neal fans, he used to say that Fight Club and the song “Creep” were white secrets. I feel like blood play is a lesbian secret.
Jesse: Don’t say the tweeter’s name
Katie: ok. This is a person who is unhinged; who is a trans dude; who is married to a man; who’s name is not Dude Joyle.
"Leather daddy diaper baby" is the most disturbing tongue-twister
As soon as Katie said ABDL, I knew a classic Jesse “nooooo” was coming. Well done on the 10,000 primos!
What I learned on B&R today: there’s actually only like 6 people on the Internet.