way [OT] was: humming

de Craig 01/31/2008 08:34

John Corliss wrote:
> Craig wrote:
>> John Corliss wrote:
>>> Franklin wrote:
>>>> Peter Seiler wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I worry what happens with hummingbird after his last
>>>>> posting-tsunami of 23.01.08 :-)
>>>>>
>>>>> He is in danger loosing his leading monthly statitic position ;-)
>>>>
>>>> I thought Hummingbird said he was visiting Thailand early this year,
>>>> 2008. So I guess that's where he is right now.
>>>>
>>>> He'll be back soon and no doubt will be posting at his usual rate.
>>>
>>> The boy may have AIDS too. If so, two things:
>>>
>>> 1. Maybe it caught up with him and he's in the hospital.
>>> 2. It certainly explains his dementia and attitude.
>>>
>>
>> Ignorance doesn't suit you, John.
>>
>> -Craig
>
> Fuck that jerk.
>

Well;

If this were about hb, I wouldn't have bothered posting. So, we're not
too far apart on that point. I think my choice of words distracted from
what I meant. Let me try again.

Making light of AIDS or people getting AIDS is equivalent to: joking
about a diabetic's blindness; a jarhead's PTSD; a kid starving to death
or a woman getting raped. There'll always be someone who argues that,
in some way, that person deserved it and that, in some context
somewhere, it's just plain funny. Maybe. I'm not always the best judge
of humor.

But this kind of "smack talk" trivializes a literal "tragedy."

The words don't tar the object of the post. The words tarnish the
tragedy of suffering, directly or indirectly, through the particularly
gruesome trajectory of AIDS. You could've used Alzheimer's or,
something more immediate to us, a rider getting t-boned. Same result.

You've been around the block long enough that you probably already have
a friend or loved one who has suffered a literal tragedy. You probably
have even had the honor of tending to them or burying them. Me too.
That's why I'm speaking up.

Tragedy in general, and AIDS specifically, make for a piss-poor bludgeon.

best,
-Craig

P.S. The best tragic humor always seem to come from the victims
themselves. Absolutely side-splitting stuff. Then again, in my
estimation, gallows humor is best savored from a goodly distance.

Case in point: Years ago, a bunch of us are standing around, helmets in
hand, watching our buddy about to be loaded into the ambulance. He's
all messed up (and would be for a very painful year to come). Hell,
he's already in a world of hurt. They won't let him slip into
unconsciousness and won't give him anything stronger than Advil.

One of us says that we'll meet him at the hospital.

Laying on the gurney with a compound fracture, one eye swollen shut and
a dramatic amount of blood seeping through an impressive amount of
bandaging, our buddy croaks: "Race ya."

Fuck yea.