(no subject)

[rivka]

Home sick (my doctor thinks it's a sinus infection; I just think I want to rip my throat out and then go to sleep for a week), and reading Ayelet Waldman's Nursery Crimes. I'd read another one of her "Mommy-Track Mysteries" and thought it was fun, light entertainment, so the last time I was at the library I picked up this one, the first in the series.

I did not expect alt.poly to be completely slandered on pages 124-128.

The protagonist discovers that her murder victim's husband is having an affair. She finds out the name of the girlfriend and, as part of a general online search strategy, runs it through Dejanews. Girlfriend turns out to be a big newsgroup junkie, and among alt.postmodern and some other random choices, is a major poster on alt.polyamory.

She's one of those - "our intertwined souls," "tantric love dance," and cheating. She and the victim's husband have supposedly carried out their entire courtship on alt.poly, which Waldman seems to think would be a good venue for "raunchy Internet sex." But here's the worst:

"Within a couple of months, the newsgroup freaks started hounding them. Remember, the whole point of this movement or whatever it is is that they're supposed to be polyamorous, not just adulterous. Tigress and Coyote - yes, that is indeed his nom de guerre - finally succumbed to the pressure and decided to include Abigail in their little love nest or cesspool, whatever you want to call it. And, get this, they decided, with the help of their comrades in arms - and legs, for that matter - that the best way to get Abigail to go along with this multiple-partner thing is to have her walk into her bedroom one fine day and find ol' Tigress and Coyote waiting there, buck naked." [...]

"Surprise, surprise, Abigail was less than thrilled with the little Wild Kingdom tableau awaiting her. In fact, she freaked out - which, by the way, totally confused everyone in the newsgroup, all of whom apparently were under the impression that she would rip off her clothes and jump in the sack with the fabulous twosome."

Slandered, I tell you. Can a newsgroup sue for libel?

Comments

[johnpalmer.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was brought up. A few folks were amused; others were appalled.

I just have to wonder if the person bothered to read alt.poly at all before writing that bit, and if so, which posts.

(Though it's interesting. I could imagine an alt.poly regular starting a thread "What alt.polyamory is all about", and spewing cliches and such, and having the other folks join in, and having it be taken seriously by someone who read *just* that thread.)