To fight against the virulent stupidity of a certain infamous internet group #GamerGate, I decided that the best tactic of revealing the nonsensicality of some of the group’s claims ( and the fervid behavior that has threatened the lives of known feminist critics and game producers in the gaming world) is by relying on the ancient art of satire Jonathan Swift style.

 

Boo Radley-lamestream media’s stereotypical depiction of ” supposed reclusive readers”

Much like actor Adam Baldwin, I am just so perturbed that there is such an endemic misunderstanding and misapprehension of readers that we’re being portrayed by mainstream..ahem… I mean lamestream  media as recluses, much like a certain Boo Radley.  In new stories involving readers, they like to portray us as ghostly-pale (with sickly, yellow patches of skin), skull-like heads, protuberate eyes (from having to read in the dark at times), and a tendency to talk obsessively about books we love. Yet, they didn’t know that Boo Radley, a recluse, was really more self-aware of the world around him, than he is given credit for. And even though we readers are assigned such nasty pejoratives like being “aloof,” “crazy” “elitist” “out-of-touch,” “detached,” we are never given more concrete examples in the media of how reading actually has a lot of value, and plays an important role in opening our minds up to perceiving the deeper depths of reality, a part of reality that poor Boo Radley had.

The event that really spurred on the creation of #ReaderFence, a loose cobbling of social media vexations about readers and certain books being criticized unfairly in the media, was actually an entirely isolated event, which really angered me over this terrible stigma that the world has against readers..alike…was a post by a writer I saw on social media, who was writing a spit-fire rant about their supposed “really noxious, dangerous” ex, and this blog post just emboldened me to take all my smattering of completely irrelevant misgivings and frustrations about the media misperception of books (particularly Fifty Shades of Grey) and finally take a stand against it. Since the gamers already had a freaking ornate gate, we’re stuck with a fence!!

I rally all readers to join this great offense being taken to books, and now I want to show you the worst of the worst; these terrible, tongue in cheek critics that are trying to totally ban Fifty Shades of Grey..

Can you not believe that the otherwise smart, cool, (even chic) Mara Wilson, would dare say this about Twilight? Like, “oh, my, god!” she wants to take away our Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey. Her criticisms, along with that scandalous author break-up, and the media’s portrayal of readers as recluses

And then a certain provocateur Nella wrote these mean-spirited read-along posts, like totally making fun of my favorite romantic YA book! I mean.. the following excerpt from her first read-along…is so unsparing with its snark, that I cried crocodile tears, reading it…This is why we need #Readerfence, people!

Wait.. I have to add a GIF of crocodile tears, to emphasize my sadness over the following words about my precious Tiger’s Curse…

 

“This author–bless her heart–seems to like words without understanding how they might contradict each other. Imagine a person shot out of a cannon. Now, imagine fingers groping. Notice, gentle reader, how the two imagines conflict with each other. But this is the book. This is it in all it’s glory. Words in an eternal struggle of opposing forces, painting one picture and then Jackson Pollock-ing all over it. If I didn’t know better this would be True Art. THAT IS THIS BOOK.

…I’m not even done with the prologue.” (Nella:fiendish critic of “Tiger’s Curse”)

(Taken from the bastion of offence against readers: Chez Apocalypse)

And, this pair, this triumvirate of writers from Chez Apocalypse, who are loosely connected back to that bad writer that cheated on their ex (and like totally discrediting the objectivity of book reviews as a whole), then decided to publish a mean book, making fun of Twilight.

Just, how anyone can write a satirical screed, against Twilight-an uh-mazing book- is just so irksome, to me, and demands that you have no moment of indecision, for deciding to rally for what is right, by standing for #readerfence.

**Now get tweeting, make sure to preface all your defense tweets, anything that has an inkling of criticism against #readerfence, with “Let me Enlighten,” then send all our movement’s approved links, say they’re always guaranteed to be the TRUTH, and you’ll be set to hold down the bookshelves, and defend the honor of readers, with our most unsatisfyingly incoherent cause…

If racism, sexism, regressive, extreme conservative values become part of this, be sure to divert critic’s attention away from bad press, by saying we’re actually totally against bullying…..

 If none of this makes sense, that is because #readerfence is about as incomprehensible, nonsensical, and incoherent as the purpose behind #GamerGate.

Always keep your mind open, and your critical thinking skills intact, or you could be pulled into a social media mob of half-truths and confusing messages!