Two new Interviews

[Plasman]

HA HA HAAA! I love it!

Mory is an arrogant teen actor, and Lis - well, let's not mention Ms. Kundtlekker here, will we now?

That newspaper effect is really cool too.

[Cardboard Box]

It makes me wonder just what happened when Lis and Jen were in the same room...

[Mitsukara]

Bwahahahahahaha the sites she's a long time member of One almost wonders if the death of Vola #1 was written in during a quitting threat (real life tidbit, apparently Leonard Nimoy didn't intend to do any more Star Trek movies after II and was hesitant to even return for that one, hence his death in the film)...

Awesome!

Though I suspect Mr. Swinburne is probably a more elegant fellow than most of his comrades, it's starting to look like Kaye was the glue holding the cast together, ironically...

[Coda]

With a name like that, I'm not surprised she's... volatile. Imagine the taunts growing up.

[Monocheres]

I bet the role of Vola was originally scripted to be much more congenial, or even just a neutral filler bit-part. But evidently Liz must have ad-libbed her own dyspeptic personality into the role. That might have got her into trouble with the directrix -- except that apparently the fans just loved all the schadenfreude (they do tend to be that way, fans) so the producers must have prevailed on the directrix to play up the role for ratings. Well that's the sort of thing that happens in Woodyholl.

[Rachel]

The list of sites that she belonged to made me laugh. XD

There is a category on PoE dedicated to Jennifer and her comics. I stumbled upon it before via Google and read through a few of the threads, which were absolutely sickening. Seeing the site mentioned in today's interview reminded me of it. The type of people who visit and regularly contribute their hate and bile to those types of sites are the most contemptible of the Internet and... well... society too IMO.

Sorry to go off topic with my little rant here, but I really hate how juvenile and hateful the Internet has become. Although it wasn't listed, 4chan is another example. I remember when the online anime community was defined by sites like Jennifer's Otakuworld, where people would get together to share in that fandom, contribute their creative works, and engage in worthwhile discussions. Now I feel disgusted to even admit that I watch anime out of fear that I will be associated with the likes of people who visit sites like 4chan. Despite all that the Internet offers and provides to us these days, I still prefer to think back on simpler times when sites like Something Awful, Portal of Evil, and 4chan never existed.

[Anna]

Hm, the sites Rachel mentioned are possibly american and written by young males.
Young american male trolls.
These are troll-forums.

And Jennifer is a perfect target for them for many reasons.

Would you visit a pub/saloon in the middle of the USA where outside a lot of bikes standing around next to some heavy trucks, and roaring male voices are coming from inside? And would you believe you could leave that place without no harm?
(a bit alike "From Dusk Till Dawn")
Well, I would have more courage to visit a klingon restaurant in the nowhere region of the galaxy.
So ignore these sites, they are not that important as they think, to troll around doesn't make them reliable outside in the web.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

Looking back on all the negative crap I have gotten on the inter-tubes over the years, I sometimes think I missed the possibilities.

I was so shocked, originally, at people being that rude for no reason, that I was a bit dumbfounded I think. I just had no basis from which to comprehend such behavior. I wasn't prepared for just how lame humanity can be.

That said, places like POE, Awful, and ED have sent a lot of traffic my way. According to Sandi, my biggest growth spurt for readership happened when these sites were tearing into me.

If I had been more... marketing smart... I would have capitalized on this. Sometimes I think I should have put on a REAL drama show for them, given them all the lols and lulz they could want. By playing with their heads, I could have perhaps really increased my visibility in the world - after all, the truism is that 'there is no such thing as bad publicity'. I wonder if that is true or not.

Maybe if I had put on a real show of the kind of histrionics they hoped to ascribe to me "Oh! Noes! How can you say such terrible things about my godly art! I am greater than Tolstoy, can't you see that! Oh woes!!!", then I would not be so obscure. Reviled, perhaps, but... read. Noticed. By a vast, HUGE number of people. My work would be seen by more than 3000 super-bright people.

(Then again, it would be seen by tens of thousands of not-so-super-bright people. Maybe that is not such a great thing. That's a thought, too.)

Perhaps a clever marketer would have seized on this. I have no illusions of being a clever marketer. I do my silly cartoons because I love them, because I just love watching drawings form from my hands, because I love how the stories write themselves (for better or worse), and I love the idea that other people, even if just a select, special few, might find some joy in them.

Sandi says that if I wanted to be successful, I would be drawing Garfield. Empty inoffensive crap for the masses. She thinks I could do that if I wanted.

I think my stomach would be stabbing my brain to stop me... after all it would already be in my mouth from throwing up, only a few inches left to go. There is no happy in drawing that stuff. For me, anyway. I'm a Pretentious Git.

Pretentious Powers, Activate!

Oohhh.... deepandmeaningful.

I don't know. Maybe if I had bear-baited these types, they would still be ragging on me, and sending people my way. Maybe I was silly not to dance and prance for them and act all offended and upset, for lulz. I believe the term they use is 'butthurt'. Maybe I should have pretended butthurt in exchange for publicity. I sometimes wonder.

Oh well. Maybe someday I will, if the opportunity arises, and see if it actually works.

[strange_person]

That is close, but it's not quite the right strategy. Make the game too easy and the trolls will become bored, proceed to other targets. The real trick would be to stay completely true to everything you believe in, and attempt to engage them in rational discourse at every turn. Your actual beliefs are sufficiently bizarre to provoke unending ridicule, and being yourself is the only way to attract those who will like you for who you are.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

That is close, but it's not quite the right strategy. Make the game too easy and the trolls will become bored, proceed to other targets. The real trick would be to stay completely true to everything you believe in, and attempt to engage them in rational discourse at every turn. Your actual beliefs are sufficiently bizarre to provoke unending ridicule, and being yourself is the only way to attract those who will like you for who you are.

So, just kind of constantly be straightforward, rational, composed... even nice (within reason) but keep the conversation going?

I could easily do that. I wish I had such understanding back then. I was just too shocked and flustered to deal with it well, and then I simply dismissed them as useless, before I found out how much traffic they were sending my way.

I had never even imagined whole communities defined around trying to induce 'butthurt' for 'lolz'. I was foolish; I should have realized that humans never really grow up, and annoying people to see if they get mad is a universal children's activity.

I was so simple, I imagined that the use of a computer, the internet, would act as a barrier to such behavior, rather than facilitate and hypertrophy it. What a dumbass I was, to think that. So I was just plain shocked to my core. Silly me.

Thus, I failed, I think. That was something to be exploited, not horrified by, or dismissive of. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

Me, bizarre? Hee! It is odd to think of my attitudes and notions as bizarre... yet I have been told this is true by many, really. It just doesn't seem so to me, but then I am probably too close to the source. I certainly must acknowledge that I am... different. Perhaps I may have enough bizarreness to warrant indefinite... attention on its own... perhaps one day I will have another chance to see. Who knows?

If so, then I think I will follow your advice.

[Plasman]

It depresses me that people can spend so much time on being so NASTY. This is where Freedom of Speech gets us.

Seriously, though...
It seems that this is the price you have to pay for taking your own path in life. If you refuse to go along with the herd, you'll become an outcast. Luckily, even outcasts have company.
I must confess to doing my research before signing up to the forum (actually, I stumbled across that ED stuff while I was Googling during a site server fail) and, like Rachel said, it was bad. I sided with this place because at least here we can have a

But there's a lot of bad stuff out there, and there's not much you can do about it. So long as people can get away with stirring without accountability, it's open season.

Me, bizarre? Hee!

Oh, PLEASE. Consider the evidence. Your personality is only a result of the life you have led. It might suck having an interesting life, but it beats a long and boring one!
As far as I can tell, you are a perfectly normal person - who just so happens to be fascinatingly nuts. Keep it up!

It's naive to think that we can just get along with absolutely everybody. The only way we can do that is to be totally inoffensive, ie. BLAND. (or "Garfield") And that would be a boring life indeed.

[strange_person]

Even more so than the Impossible Things, there's the cultural disconnect.

...revere her as the Creatrix or whatever...

Most people (in the US anyway, probably elsewhere too) operate with a paradigm wherein, when science and religion mix, important things explode. The idea of recreational, creative theology is utterly alien to them.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

Most people (in the US anyway, probably elsewhere too) operate with a paradigm wherein, when science and religion mix, important things explode. The idea of recreational, creative theology is utterly alien to them.

We, at least, have that Slack, praise BOB.

[Mitsukara]

By playing with their heads, I could have perhaps really increased my visibility in the world - after all, the truism is that 'there is no such thing as bad publicity'. I wonder if that is true or not.

Just sayin'.

I visit 4chan semifrequently, but it's just for the wealth of hentai.


For comic effect, replace the text in this message with text of your choice.

[Jennifer Diane Reitz]

Just sayin'.

Eeeewwwww.....

Point well taken.

Eew. (shudder)

[Alfador]

The list of sites that she belonged to made me laugh. XD

There is a category on PoE dedicated to Jennifer and her comics. I stumbled upon it before via Google and read through a few of the threads, which were absolutely sickening. Seeing the site mentioned in today's interview reminded me of it. The type of people who visit and regularly contribute their hate and bile to those types of sites are the most contemptible of the Internet and... well... society too IMO.

Sorry to go off topic with my little rant here, but I really hate how juvenile and hateful the Internet has become. Although it wasn't listed, 4chan is another example. I remember when the online anime community was defined by sites like Jennifer's Otakuworld, where people would get together to share in that fandom, contribute their creative works, and engage in worthwhile discussions. Now I feel disgusted to even admit that I watch anime out of fear that I will be associated with the likes of people who visit sites like 4chan. Despite all that the Internet offers and provides to us these days, I still prefer to think back on simpler times when sites like Something Awful, Portal of Evil, and 4chan never existed.

I think my old website had some followers on the Portal of Evil. I took it as a compliment, that I must be doing something right if PoE trolls hate me. XD