wow. somebody pull a boob out ova here?

You ask whether I thought the post was called for. Truthfully, I thought it, and Kathryn's response, funny. I thought it was funnier than some other headlines or jokes that have been posted here. I've been offended by other ones, including some by you, but this one made me giggle. It didn't feel homophobic to me.

Obviously, what I or anyone else feels here doesn't really matter, since as you put it, you don't give a shit what anyone thinks might constitute an inappropriate comment. That's your right. This is, after all, your site. But you asked me a question, and here's my answer. End of Story.

Edited by author 02-09-2004 12:31 PM
[Excuse my language in this post, but I'm getting pissed off...]

Ho-leee shit. I hate having to defend myself on things like this. It seems like common sense. Sarah wasn't posting an ad, she was feeling out interest in a project. Whether or not it was book related, there was no mention of money, no www address to go to, nothing. It was a simple hello. There have been others who have done the same and were greeted with silence.

I have a problem with people who start the insults, Rachel. Sarah was an unsuspecting wanderer who likely found the site through a google search and decided to post. Nice fucking way to treat her. Do you actually think that post was called for?

Dyke or not, "prick" or "cunt," we may never know, but Curious is at the very least being a dickhead. I know plenty of dykes: femme, butch, dagger, stone, etc., etc., whatever the freaking label. I also know all about the 80's-based schism in the dyke community that leads to this kind of derision between lesbian aesthetics, but I just don't buy this schtick. Besides the choice of language, the 2am post, and the suspiciously different-from-everyone-else lowercase, there's also the crap about the ads. Only someone who is checking every day and reading all the boards would notice something like that. Not someone who checks in from time to time.

I tell you what, Curious, if you're real and want to make a trip to Guelph or Toronto we can meet, you can punch my lights out, free shot, and then I'll buy you a beer to patch things up (just don't break my nose, my fans would riot in the streets). Flagpole, three o'clock. :)

Otherwise, people, this is bullshit. I was defending someone who showed up and posted in earnest. I try to nip this kind of thing in the bud before it gets out of hand. I know for a fact that we have many lesbian readers, most of them lurkers here on the boards, and, with all due respect, I don't give a shit what anyone thinks might constitute an inappropriate comment -- I don't think it was appropriate. I wouldn't stand for it in a board on Black Lit and I won't take it here. End of story.
 
Shee-it.

I don't see why it's so hard to believe that Curious is dyke. It's not as if her comment was homophobic. Kevin's insults and Bookninja's hope that Sarah would "punch [Curious'] lights out" are far more off-putting. BN, I thought you had a problem with personal insults on this site, but here Kevin calls C an asshole and a prick, for no real reason that I can see, and there's no problem with that?

"How come you delete lame ads for other things and not that?" I was wondering this too. Sarah's post, while admittedly earnest, is, in effect, an ad. I can see how deleting this could be construed as homophobic if it had some literary references in it (if, say, she wanted to start a Patience and Sarah book club in the woods) but since there isn't anything literary about it, then it's plainly off topic.

Edited by author 02-09-2004 08:53 AM
I'm inclined to say something like "Oh, and here I thought most of the people here were poets, but it looks like we've got a few fiction writers too..."

But I suspect we'll never know for sure...

[P.S. Get some sleep. 2am is a little late for your average hard working, dumptruck driving 9-5 dyke, isn't it?]

Edited by author 02-09-2004 08:56 AM
actually, in the words of Jeff Derksen, it's pricks like you who give pricks a bad name.

glad to see you've reined in that moral warhorse, there, bookninja. your zeal for violent solutions is pretty damn hypocritical given what you had to say about an 'off-color' joke you made in 'literature-native'--where, for the record, i think you were in the right. lighten up, dude. i guess it's okay for the site manager to make hahas, but unacceptable for an anonymous 'arsehole', as your mr. sensitive-man cohort kevin so eloquently put it, like me.

does anyone else find it funny that the only people with burrs in their saddles about my little laugh are supposedly men, whereas the sensible responses have been coming from the girls--props to kk and rl. proof, if anything, of our superiority as a sex (with silly utopians like sarah excepted). yes, that's right: i'm NOT a prick, i'm a cunt--and a cunt-licker at that. my name wouldn't mean a thing to you anyway, since i'm not some self-righteous hoity-toity writer type with nothing better to do than get steamed on someone else's behalf. fact is, i'm a dumptruck driver in fort mcmurray's oil sands. i come from pembroke, ont. and lemme tell ya, it's loads tougher being from pembroke these days than being a carpet-muncher. tougher yet growing up in pembroke liking to read--the desire to eat pussy is understood by far more folks than the desire to read husserl. i check out this site time to time because i like books, not to learn about the sunset hills dyke retirement village. how come you delete lame ads for other things but not that? liberal double standard ain't it?

one of the great things about having two X chromosomes these days is that we can pretty well take care of ourselves and don't need sensitive queans like you and kevin stickin up for us in a catfight thank you very much.

oh, and sarah, it's very damn hard to frame a house without studs.

Interesting point, Rachel. I think you're right. Did anyone notice that a few nights ago I posted one subject with two possible groups to discuss it in? I was thinking of doing that way back with the firs Sappho post, but having not yet tried it I shied away. Do you think that format might work? A link to Lit-Lesbian and a link to Poetry Misc?

G

I dunno, George, I've had problems with other comments made on these boards, but Curious' comment didn't feel malicious to me.

But back to the Sappho/Lesbian thing. Sappho has contributed a lot more than "Lesbian" literature, and it seems like ghettoizing to put this here, a way for people who aren't interested in "Lesbian" literature to bypass these articles entirely.

Carson states that

"Controversies about her personal ethics and way of life have taken up a lot of people's time throughout the history of Sapphic scholarship. It seems that she knew and loved women as deeply as she did music. Can we leave the matter there?"

and Sappho writes:

someone will remember us
             
                     I say
            
                     even in another time


I guess I'd just like it more to be for love poems or the use of the lyric.

Edited by author 02-08-2004 07:34 PM
Mads, it's here because this is where people will most likely look for it. It was one of those subjects I gave some serious thought to and consulted several people about. Here it is.

I agree with Kevin. It may not have been a comment, but I suspect "curious" is someone (a regular or lurker) who's been sitting on what they thought was a clever pun these last few days and just couldn't wait any longer.

Would some similarly juvenile comment have been made in "Literature - Black"? The mainstreaming of Black and Jewish culture hasn't allowed for a revival of racist and anti-semitic humour, why should the mainstreaming of Queer culture allow for homophobia?

I think the main point Kevin made could be altered to make a bit more sense. While not on subject, and therefore not "honest," someone posted in "earnest" and deserves at least the respect of silence, if we as a group can't muster better.

It's shameful how people get over the web. I guarantee you "Curious" wouldn't have the nerve to say that to this woman's face. And if he did (yes, I think it likely a he to be so titilated by the subject and his own cleverness), I would hope she'd punch his lights out.

My apologies to Sarah.

What's with the name-calling, Kevin? And what's this "an honest comment" on exactly? I'm not too sure what it has to do with Sappho or "Literature - Lesbian." BTW, Bookninja, why is Sappho in this section? Why not in Poetry Miscellany? It seems rather reductive.

Has anyone read Carson's translation? I've read some and it's wonderful.

hey curious,
why are you such an arsehole? What a great way to encourage people to post to this board, just hide behind a fake name and fire off juvenile, bigotted comments when someone posts an honest comment.