The irony is that today’s load of comments from Elfwood mostly consisted of arguments about religion, and whether or not someone was fat. And I don’t care about those. I have seen those all before. I confess, I rarely read past the first three lines because…well…it’s all been said, probably years ago.

However, there was a subset of comments totally unrelated that I did notice, ‘cos they were just so…so… something.

+—————————————- –
| At Sun Oct 24 18:27:45 2004
| little monster
| ()
| IP#:62.254.0.12 (nott-cache-1.server.ntli.net)
| Referring to: ursula/penguinarabia.jpg
| “No affence, but I think the penguin spoils it for me.”

Now, I would generally never leave a comment saying “I don’t like your subject matter,” without something about the art, because if that’s all I have to say, why am I saying anything at all? But having learned long ago that people are really short on tact on the internet, and having been that short of tact myself not all that long ago myself, this would not normally have stood out for me.

The next comment was a nice one about Sir Bunny, so if it was a troll, it was a troll trying to throw me off the scent.

Then…it just got…odd.

+—————————————- –
| At Sun Oct 24 18:38:58 2004
| little monster
| ()
| IP#:62.254.0.12 (nott-cache-1.server.ntli.net)
| Referring to: ursula/crux.jpg
| “I hate animal cruelty. Please don’t draw anymore animals in
| pain.”

Well, at least they said please. People often have a negative reaction to that one, though, so I didn’t think too much of it. It’s meant to be icky and visceral. If I had a nickel for every “Argh! Stop!” comment on that painting, I could buy a box of Red Vines. Mmmm…red vines…

+—————————————- –
| At Sun Oct 24 18:41:11 2004
| little monster
| ()
| IP#:62.254.0.12 (nott-cache-1.server.ntli.net)
| Referring to: ursula/dreamagain.jpg
| “I hate wasps. Once I got stung on my tushie.”

Thank you for sharing. (I include this one just for fun.)

+—————————————- –
| At Sun Oct 24 18:44:05 2004
| little monster
| ()
| IP#:62.254.0.12 (nott-cache-1.server.ntli.net)
| Referring to: ursula/garbagedragon.jpg
| “‘Garbage dragon’ is one of the worst animal cruelty pics,
| I’ve seen. It just shows that you think animals eat loads
| and get fat.”

I am beginning to detect a theme.

+—————————————- –
| At Sun Oct 24 18:46:09 2004
| little monster
| ()
| IP#:62.254.0.12 (nott-cache-1.server.ntli.net)
| Referring to: ursula/howgryphonsaremade.jpg
| “I really don’t like animal cruelty made funny. Ha,ha,ha,
| I’m really laughing aren’t I? No I’m not.”

Um…yeah. Igor sewing together a zombie gryphon out of spare parts. I think somebody’s reading way too much into this.

Generally speaking, my Elfwood comments have run such a gamut of internetia in the last few years that I hardly ever consider them post-worthy any more, but this gets points for being the first time in recent memory I’ve been accused repeatedly of animal cruelty in art. Woo! And here I thought my worst crime against animals was eating steak, and trying to shoo the squirrels away from the feeder. If I depict Weird Fruit being eaten by…um…other Weird Fruit, have I committed a gross act of vegetable cruelty? Unhand that eggplant!

It’s a funny old world out there, but at least it keeps me amused.

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