I’d say that I’d thought the Puppy brouhaha had died down some, but I’d be lying. In the last couple weeks it had retreated from a roiling boil down to a disgruntled simmer, with a notable spike of activity prompted by Jim Hines posting a roundup of actual Puppy quotes in an attempt to document his sources.
And then this got posted: A Message from Tom Doherty to Our Readers and Authors. I managed to miss this blowing up over this past weekend, and didn’t know anything about it until I saw James Nicoll posting about it. He in turn linked off to Kameron Hurley (The Revolution of Self-Righteous Dickery will Not Be Moderated) and Chuck Wendig (I Stand by Irene Gallo), both of whom are, in short, decidedly unamused.
This morning, I’m seeing Dear Author (Wednesday News: Tor v. Irene Gallo, Warner Bros. v Friends fans, social benefits of birth control, and a language tree) and the Mary Sue (Tor Condemns Creative Director Irene Gallo for Posting About the Rabid/Sick Puppies on Her Personal Facebook) both posting about this. They’re not amused either.
Me, I’m looking at this and feeling like I ought to say something. And I’m honestly stumped as to what. Because I’m feeling a lot of what Hurley posts about–i.e., the endless cycle of having to defend oneself over and over and over and over again, to seemingly no avail. I’m feeling a considerable amount of rage fatigue, particularly during a week that’s already gone out of its way to ramp up my blood pressure, thanks to Paypal.
And yet. Because Hurley’s also right in that things need to keep getting said, I’m going to say this in response to her and Wendig’s links, as well as Dear Author’s and the Mary Sue’s: cosigned.
And for the love of all sanity, if you go and look at the Tor link, stay out of the comments.
ETA: Dara has words of her own on this topic.
So does Jessica Price on tumblr.