The ongoing Sanders saga

[yendi]

I've come to the conclusion that William Sanders and Helix must actually be part of a massive, years-long viral marketing campaign for some still undetermined movie or internet site (maybe some elaborate piece of performance art?); it sounds far-fetched, but when he does stuff like this, it's hard to take him seriously otherwise.

That said, "The Waterheads" is my new band name.

ETA: No, I take it back. Pantiwadulous request is my new band name.

Comments

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

You know, he's trying to make a claim that he was all about inclusiveness there, but if it's true, it's a very troubling kind of inclusive. Did he really think that saying "I didn't like your story but I needed more PoC and couldn't be arsed to look for GOOD stories by PoC. . ." was going to make people think they were wrong about him? Really?

[yendi]

The one thing I'll say in (backhanded) defense of Sanders is that he pretty clearly doesn't care what folks think of him (that, or he cares too much, causing him to lash out and call us "waterheads").

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and that's fair and all, I'm just wondering why he thinks that his statements there would constitute a defense in this situation.

[yendi]

That question assumes a rational mind on his part. :-)

[emilytheslayer.livejournal.com]

Well, that's a good point. He's just self-destructing completely, huh?

[jerel.livejournal.com]

What the hell is a "waterhead"???

This Sanders guy is all kinds of special.

[eilonwy.livejournal.com]

What the hell is a "waterhead"???

...Yeah. That was going to be my question.

[lokilokust.livejournal.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocephalic
it's what some fucking dick who tries to pretend he's the smartest ape on earth says instead of 'retard.'
(ironically, it doesn't make him sound any smarter or less loathsome.)

[eilonwy.livejournal.com]

I particularly like that the "contact us" page for Helix (found here (http://www.helixsf.com/archives/Jul07/contactus.htm) includes this, regarding publishing letters:

Helix reserves the right to edit for length and inappropriate language.

What a shame that Sanders didn't apply the same standards to his own correspondence.

[asim.livejournal.com]

Bonus Round (http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2008/07/15/pay-to-um-not-play/).

I sincerely hope this is all going to be sorted by someone with more power than this Sanders guy at Helix. He's managing to turn an Internet incident into a major deal that's going to get actual, negative coverage in the off-line Science Fiction world, if this keeps up...