Mock. Mockmockmock. Mockity-mock-mock

10:23am: Godawful wank follows pro writer home
The Godawful board is always good for a laugh, and just lately I've been following the discussion around pro TV writer Lee Goldberg. The original discussion can be seen here.

Lee Goldberg, to do him justice, bows out of Godawful when he realises that he's made a mistake in posting there at all. However, he follows up his original articles with a further three in his blog, here, and here and here and here where he quotes his brother in an attempt to fight off the evil fanficcers.

In reading these, don't miss the interventions of one David Montgomery - without him, there wouldn't be wank here at all - Lee Goldberg merely repeats his sincerely held view that fan ficition is a pointless waste of talent. He's entitled to this view, but does not appear to understand that others may have a different opinion and are no less entitled to that. David Montgomery (who he?) seems to make it his mission in life to make Lee Goldberg look a complete twat.

On the other hand Goldberg does not seem to want to take the oft-repeated advice that he approach the websites and ISPs of those hosting Diagnosis: Murder fanfiction and ask them to remove it. It seems (to me, anyway) that he'd rather whinge about the unfairness of life.

ETA: As I wouldn't want anyone to miss it, David Montgomery has drawn to my attention his new outpouring of splooge article, here. I think he's massively wrong in thinking that fanfiction has lots of writers but not many readers. I would direct him to the Pit of Voles, but it's...well, suffice it to say that nobody deserves that.

10:38am: Third Watch wank
First wank here.

It's a baby wank but has potential. There's Bush supporter criticisms, BLAME IT ON THE NY'ERS!, arguing over the semantics of a TRUE fan, and of course, the old standby, "you're a stupid head and can't spell right".

Original thread starts here.

12:00pm: Penn To South Park Creators: Think of the Disemboweled, Mutilated Children!
Creators of South Park and the film Team America Trey Parker and Matt Stone recently told Rolling Stone Magazine that they thought there was no shame in not voting in the 2004 elections if you "don't know what you're talking about."

Actor Sean Penn, whose friends Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins saw their puppet versions dropped from a building and set on fire in Team America, respectively, has finally decided he'd had just about enough of their shit, so he flamed Parker and Stone in a public memo.

( Dear Trey and Matt: Fuck you, and you, AND Dennis Miller while you're at it. No love, Sean P. )

Not ones to sit idly by while people rip them a new one, Parker and Stone had something to say on last week's 60 minutes.

( OMGWTFLOLOLZ ACTORS R TEH_STUPID!!1!! )

Shame. I hear Fallujah is lovely this time of year.

3:26pm: Harry Potter revisited
It’s October or maybe still September, but in any case Mercury is retrograde or did it go direct? Well, it’s Saturday I think, or hell - Sunday maybe, though any day of the week will do really, which is to say that once again the Harry Potter fandom is working itself into a sweaty frenzy about *something* of Critical! Fandom! Importance!

( Who came first? The wank or the Harry Potter fandom? )

So wait, I'm confused. Did Cassandra Claire just come out and condemn stealing ideas from other people? What about dialogue? Or whole passages from books? Because surely if she aknowledges this more tenuious abstraction of plagairism then "lifting something word for word is bad" would be a concept she would also understand?