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Out of Bounds
May. 3rd, 2006 10:04 pmOkay, so during the whole Lori Jareo thing, I found out about John Scalzi, an author I'd never heard anyone mention before, and read a bit more of his blog than just the most recent uproar. It became quickly apparent that he and I are sharply divided on the religio-political side of things, but his mentions of HL Mencken didn't mean much to me. It was pretty much a "Who? I think I've heard that name before, but what did he write?" kind of thing. Anyway, IIRC he said something about this entry catering to his love of Mencken's writing, so I made a point of following his link and reading the story.
I didn't like it.
Don't get me wrong, it's a well-written story, with all the proper spelling and grammar you'd expect from a professionally published work (and more and more rarely see). The trouble I have is with the story itself.
Not being familiar with Mencken, I wasn't sure what to expect, and I have to say I share the main character's skepticism of the popular Psychics & Mystics out there charging people exorbitant fees for hocus-pocus with enough logical holes to use as a sieve. The story builds well, with an intriguing plot - the Psychic "channeler" apparently having trouble with her "spirit guide" and leading Our Hero to wonder if spirit possession might not actually be happening here. Unfortunately, this is where I think things go wrong; the story seems to lead to the conclusion that in this case, there is actual possession going on, but both Our Heros and the Spirit Involved are set on convincing the "true believers" that they're being scammed. They are, but using spirit possession to convince the population that spirit possession is not possible is *not* the promotion of Truth that the characters profess to be pursuing. In the context of the story, the Truth of the matter is that spirit possession is possible and is, in fact, occurring. It's just not the spirit she claims to be channeling, and I can't feel any more respect for the three "debunkers" than for the mystic scammer, because they're just as deceptive as she was. Promoting unbelief through lies is no better than promoting belief through lies; they're both despicable. If the girl had been in on the plot, the outcome would have been consistent with the message of the overall story. As it is, it's self-contradictory.
I didn't like it.
Don't get me wrong, it's a well-written story, with all the proper spelling and grammar you'd expect from a professionally published work (and more and more rarely see). The trouble I have is with the story itself.
Not being familiar with Mencken, I wasn't sure what to expect, and I have to say I share the main character's skepticism of the popular Psychics & Mystics out there charging people exorbitant fees for hocus-pocus with enough logical holes to use as a sieve. The story builds well, with an intriguing plot - the Psychic "channeler" apparently having trouble with her "spirit guide" and leading Our Hero to wonder if spirit possession might not actually be happening here. Unfortunately, this is where I think things go wrong; the story seems to lead to the conclusion that in this case, there is actual possession going on, but both Our Heros and the Spirit Involved are set on convincing the "true believers" that they're being scammed. They are, but using spirit possession to convince the population that spirit possession is not possible is *not* the promotion of Truth that the characters profess to be pursuing. In the context of the story, the Truth of the matter is that spirit possession is possible and is, in fact, occurring. It's just not the spirit she claims to be channeling, and I can't feel any more respect for the three "debunkers" than for the mystic scammer, because they're just as deceptive as she was. Promoting unbelief through lies is no better than promoting belief through lies; they're both despicable. If the girl had been in on the plot, the outcome would have been consistent with the message of the overall story. As it is, it's self-contradictory.
