A strangely familiar story

[amedia]

http://www.laweekly.com/news/news/the-life-and-death-of-jesse-james/17427/

This is six pages long, but I couldn't stop reading - it's a train
wreck of the same nature as the adventures of CatO a.k.a. wolfwalker
from RP fandom, msscribe from HP, or Victoria Bitter from LOTR.

It has many familiar elements: an imaginary man enticing a woman out of a
troubled marriage, claims of involvement in 9/11, sudden emergencies
whenever a real meeting is immanent. Really, a psychologist somewhere
needs to put all these together and come up with name for this syndrome.
And a cure.

Comments

[kyleen66.livejournal.com]

Whoa.

Hard to be believe people can get sucked into such lunacy! My god!

I'm glad that this woman had good friends to help her.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Hard to be believe people can get sucked into such lunacy! My god!

Isn't it creepy? *shudder*

Friends - very important defense mechanism against this kind of thing.

[shawan-7.livejournal.com]

Believe me, these con people are very very good at preying on the vulnerable. But they seldom move in with their victims. You wonder where she went next.

Everytime I see someone say that they're a reclusive actor setting up a website, I am VERY suspicious.

You're right, Anne -- someone should definitely do a clinical study on these folk.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

You're right, Anne -- someone should definitely do a clinical study on these folk.

I keep seeing a report here, a report there - it's obvious Mr. Olson never heard of wolfwalker, and that the people dealing with msscribe weren't familiar with VB - I just think if someone gathered ALL of this together there might be a more effective way to fight it.

I also posted this on fanthropology - some interesting comments there.

[cruisedirector]

I must admit that I find the guy who wrote the article at least as offensive as the nutjob, and at least twice as condescending to/about his "good friend."

[amedia.livejournal.com]

When shawan_7 first sent me the link and I started reading, I thought *he* was one who was supposed to remind me of the fannish sock puppeteers - his bragging about how Ellison admired his writing and was his personal friend was exactly the sort of self-aggrandizing name-dropping that the puppeteers would always do.

And I don't see how the perpetrator's weight was relevant, but he kept going on about it. I suspect he was trying to distance himself from her, probably not even consciously realizing how much they had in common.

[cruisedirector]

Yes, exactly -- the author, who goes on about ironies like Notes on a Scandal, doesn't seem to realize his own pathetic parallels and ironies ("MY girlfriend who dumped me and left me cynical was at least a REAL girl, so I am NOT a loser"). Also, I found "A History of Violence" misogynistic in many of the same ways as a lot of Ellison's stories, which I absolutely loathe ("A Boy and His Dog" being absolute Ellison -- men would rather kill women to save their dogs than deal with women on their own terms).

I'm in no way defending nutjob, here. I'm saying that staging a full-fledged intervention when an actual conversation was possible is its own kind of sickness, especially since he finds his friend's desire for love and passion the height of pathetic behavior.

I don't like Ellison but I'd love to hear his perspective not only on the women involved but his good buddy the interventionist.

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

...


...


...

Huh. I have to agree that the author is offensive in and of his own right, and I'm no fan of Mr. Ellison. But that's quite a train wreck--and you wonder where in the world they *didn't* figure it out, earlier, that what's too good to be real usually is, and confront their friend. I know he explains why, but still... involving Harlan Ellison is its own brand of sensationalism.

I'm guessing this is probably considered "borderline personality disorder", if an extreme form.

[amedia.livejournal.com]

Borderline personality disorder is what I've most commonly heard, which is depressing because it's supposed to be very hard to treat.

And yes, the author is almost like a subclinical case himself, isn't he? At the rest of repeating myself, I'll copy here what I said to cruisedirector above: When shawan_7 first sent me the link and I started reading, I thought *he* was one who was supposed to remind me of the fannish sock puppeteers - his bragging about how Ellison admired his writing and was his personal friend was exactly the sort of self-aggrandizing name-dropping that the puppeteers would always do.

And I don't see how the perpetrator's weight was relevant, but he kept going on about it. I suspect he was trying to distance himself from her, probably not even consciously realizing how much they had in common.

[nonniemous.livejournal.com]

And I don't see how the perpetrator's weight was relevant, but he kept going on about it. I suspect he was trying to distance himself from her, probably not even consciously realizing how much they had in common.

That bothered me, too, especially after my experiences with the LA Film people who have come to the writers' conference here. They're "beautiful people"; everyone else is just some form of slug. I'd heard about that attitude, but to experience it, even on the fringes, was just... gah. Talk about being sick in the head...

And that's an excellent observation, that they DO have quite a bit in common. Makes me want to keep track of his name so I can avoid his work in the future.

And soon...

[rh-andi.livejournal.com]

The one thing that bothered me was that the innocent lady DID talk to a man on the phone claiming to be Jesse - so who, or what, was he? And how was he involved?

There ARE some truly sick people (and I use the word in the original intent, as in mentally ill) out there.... We NEED to look after one another, as these folks did of this lady...

Re: And soon...

[amedia.livejournal.com]

who, or what, was he? And how was he involved?

That is scary, isn't it?

We NEED to look after one another

That was what brought down wolfwalker; I honestly think, like Voldemort, she didn't understand the power of love.

[dimity-blue.livejournal.com]

If he hadn't posted a picture, I would have laid odds it was Cat/Wolfwalker. Who would have thought there'd be two (or more) of them out there??