I know, I know. . . :/

A bigot, a racist, a sexist, a religious fucktard, AND a bad reviewer???

I wasn't planning to post about this, but with all the PMs and emails I received since Friday, it looks as though I must. Don't expect a formal rebuttal from me, however. It would be pointless and do nothing but start a flame-war.

Yes, as so many of you have pointed out, too often sarcasm, cynicism, irony, and a dark sense of humor are lost on idiots. This guys drags me through shit, paints a vile picture of the sort of person he thinks I am, while he obviously ain't smart enough to realize that a lot of his accusations are based on tongue-in-cheek observations I've made over the years. I linked this on my Facebook page when author Mark Lawrence pointed it out to me on Friday morning. Interestingly enough, everyone who knows me personally and who has read it couldn't believe their eyes.

Yes, I am aware that he has taken portions of my travel blogs, the chunks of text that work for him and used them out of context, overlooking the rest. Yes, I know that this is grounds for a lawsuit. I'm a Law grad, remember?

Funny, but most of my friends and family members have all read my travel blogs over the years, and never has anyone perceived anything that could be construed as racist or sexist. Not only that, but taken as a whole, my Southeast-Asian posts are decidedly positive (take away the fact that I was rushed to the hospital in Phuket), and I've loved my time in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapour. I've been pimping this destination to anyone who'll listen to me ever since, actually.

Yes, most of you have pointed out that he sort of implies that I condone prostitution and the sex industry, while I actively condemn it everywhere I go. Heck, every single post I've written regarding Thailand contains a few paragraphs with me bitching about them.

Yes, as everyone made quite clear, it's obvious this guy has never set foot in Thailand. Had he even a little traveling experience, he would sing another tune, sure. There's a proverb that says: Culture is like strawberry jam. The less you have, the more you spread it. And acrackedmoon sure knows how to spread it. . . Had he spent even a single day in Bangkok, he would know just how ignorant his post make him sound. It's no surprise that I've never met anyone who doesn't agree with me about the proliferation of prostitutes, bar girls, massage parlors, etc. Any man who travels through Thailand can't help but get annoyed by this. Unless they are indeed there for the sex tourism. He mentions that the country has a ton of universities (there were a little over 30 public universities when I was there in 2010), but fails to mention the fact that the average daily wages were less then US6$ at that time. Yes, these girls truly have great prospects, don't they? Yes, it's a bit odd that my personal observations are being judged by someone who, in all likelihood, has never been abroad and likely rarely leaves his parents' basement. . . I've only been to 46 countries, so what do I know?

Yes, I know, he decided to use a few words from the Kuala Lumpur post to damn me, when the entire paragraph contradicts what he is trying to convey. The whole paragraph reads like this:

Although a Muslim regime, Malaysia has always had a "live and let live" attitude. With a multi-ethnic population that gets along well, there is basically no clash of cultures here. No one quite knows how the Malay people make it work, but in KL it's something to see. Kind of gives you hope in mankind. . . Almost. . . Sadly, it's not the same everywhere.:-(

Acrackedmoon's post is so heinous and full of ignorance as to make it ridiculous. I mean, hate me as a reviewer and hate Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, fine. This guy sure does, no question! What I don't understand is where those personal attacks, of a shocking virulence, come from??? I didn't know my blog and myself could generate so much vitriol. . .

Yes, I know he would have liked for me to get knifed. But Robert Stanek said it first, so no brownie points for acrackedmoon for this.

Yes, I know that Larry has helped disseminate this personal attack against me. Funny that he didn't take the time to read the related posts and see that the better part of acrackedmoon's post is stuff taken out of context. Considering that Larry can read like 4 novels in a day, he could probably have read all my Southeast-Asian posts in about 5.2 seconds. Many of you thought that Larry and I were friends. So did I. . .

Another proof of this guy's ignorance: He takes exception that I was upset anime store staffs didn't know about Makoto Shinkai and Hayao Miyazaki. That would be like entering Forbidden Planet and not raise an eyebrow if they had never heard of Neil Gaiman and George R. R. Martin. Are you kidding me?

Yes, I like beautiful girls. Scratch that: I love them! ;-) Wasn't against the law the last time I checked. . .

My promoting the Girls of Geek calendar was +++++gross??? Since 2007, I've never concealed the fact that my mom is a breast cancer survivor. And since then, I've made a lot of efforts to raise awareness and support the cause. And since my cousin died of cancer in the summer of 2010 at the young age of 41, I've been trying to do even more. So supporting such a worthy cause is gross? WTF? Having sexy geek girls wanting to do something special to help raise funds for breast cancer research is bad? Maybe acrackedmoon could elaborate on this. He looks a bit misogynist, or at the very least extremely insecure where women are concerned. . .

In any event, yes I'm aware of all this. So please let it go. From a blog titled Requires Only That You Hate, whose motto is "Your daily dose of hatred and geekrage," would you expect anything less than such an underhanded attack? I'm at a loss as to exactly how I got under this guy's skin in such a way that made him write something so heinous, so overflowing with vitriol. But I'm not going to lose any sleep on it.

It's evident this guy is begging for attention, but I'm not going to link to his post to send traffic his way. Here's the post in its entirety:

Let me introduce you to Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.

But scratch that. If you are an SF/F fan–which you probably are, reading this blog–you likely have heard of him before. Go over there and you’ll see endless splash banners advertising books or tie-in fiction. He’s basically a genre PR bot: all his content is little more than promotional material on top of promotional material, almost as though he is paid by publishing houses to fellate the latest-and-greatest grimdark neckbeard icon, which he might well be. Who knows.

And if you’ve read him for any length of time, you will probably have noticed that he’s a raging douche. I don’t just mean “douche” in a mild, non-specific way, oh no. We are talking about a grade-A sexist, racist fuckwad. The kind that should be put in a meat-grinder: there’d be about twenty people at the ready, vying to press the GRIND GRIND GRIND button. We’d press it until our fingers are raw and Pat nothing more than a memory of fat white meat.

He visited Thailand this one time: Bangkok: Sultry heat, temples, pollution, never-ending noise, and prostitutes. Off to a good start, and we aren’t even out of the subject line.

The upside: I have hundreds of girls after me. The downside: They’re all prostitutes! I mean, even though I knew what to expect, this goes beyond anything I could ever imagine. . .:\

I am amused that this is probably the only time in his life “hundreds of girls” would be after him in any fashion.

I got very close to punching one of them last night, but held off at the last second. You never know if the guy knows a bit of Thai boxing. And it would have done little to help me make my point if I had found myself flat on my back after a vicious kick I never saw coming, right?

I wish he had tried to punch someone and ended up knifed and bleeding from his guts in a dark corner somewhere. And nobody’d have given a shit, because this man’s douchiness is so evident it radiates off him in waves.

It’s like the jeans and T-shirt test for a girl. You know how any girl can look fantastic in a little black cocktail dress. I’ve always said that the true test is always to see her in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. If she looks good in those, she’ll look good in anything!=)

Annnnd we’re up to a sexist analogy!

To add insult to injury, I was forced to don long pants in order to visit Wat Phra Kaew, the Temple of the Emerald Buddah. The temple compound is absolutely gorgeous, but to force people to wear shoes and long pants in that kind of heat should be illegal!

Oh, no, not being expected to respect the local traditions! He is Whitey, he is Mighty, and he should be exempt from all rules and regulations!

It’s kind of odd that some aspects of Bangkok could put any Western city to shame, and all the while show you sides straight out of a Third World country when you turn around and face the other way

Fuck you, you smug little shit.

It’s kind of sad to see fat and old Western men walking hand in hand with pretty young Thai girls. They’re absolutely everywhere and not likely to go away. There are a couple of universities here, so hopefully there is a brighter future for many Thai young women.

Oh my god what the fuck. Thailand has tons of universities; Bangkok certainly has more than two and what the fuck is this patronizing bullshit.

Too bad. . . Thai girls have different facial traits than other Asian women. I can see the appeal, certainly. They are beautiful, as well as taller and more shapely than the more petite Asian girls from Japan, Korea, etc. So there will never be any shortage of horny old farts looking for cheap fucks with them. But Christ, when you can’t cross a street corner without having a group of them waving and calling out at you, well that’s a major problem. And the worst thing is that the Thai government doesn’t seem to have much of a problem with the situation. I guess that sex tourism brings in too much money.

YELLOW FEVER YELLOW FEVER RACIST LITTLE COCKSTAIN

God, honkies.

Next: Kuala Lumpur: Mixed Feelings

Poor Thai people. . . That’s the image they have of the West: Dirty old men there for the sex tourism and fucking hippies.

And you, fuckface.

We always seem to think that Asian people are very nice, polite, and reserved, so it’s nice to see them bitch about one another. Haven’t seen this in Thailand, but Malays have no qualms about it. We always see it in the West, with people bitching about Americans, Brits, French, etc. So I couldn’t help laughing when the staff at the hostel would shake their heads and mutter things like “Damned Chinese” or something like that.

Lookie! A white person celebrating Asian-vs-Asian prejudice. Awesome.

Although a Muslim regime

Oh my god what the fuck.

And anime fans, you won’t believe this. I stopped at no less than four anime stores, and NO ONE had ever heard of Makoto Shinkai (still looking for 5 cm per Second and The Place Promised in Our Early Days)!!! Are you kidding me??? I’m in Asia and no one knows shit??? Even worst, only one person knew Hayao Miyazaki!!! Who’s hiring these guys???

ASIANS SHOULD ALL KNOW ABOUT ANIMEEEE. Weeaboos, my friends.

Next, some run-of-the-mill sexism: The Privilege of the Sword. Now I think Ellen Kushner’s writing–what I’ve read of it, being Swordpoint–is shit, boring, and about as clever as cat litter, but…

I am acutely aware that some will grill me for saying this, but Ellen Kushner’s The Privilege of the Sword is, in my humble opinion (which doesn’t count for much, as some will surely point out!), fantasy chick lit.

Chick lit it really isn’t. I mean does he just think anything with a woman on the cover, written by a woman, is…

I’m all for strong and genuine female protagonists, yet this is one of the “girliest” novels I’ve ever read.

OH NOES NOT THE GIRL COOTIES.

I refer to this book as fantasy chick lit because it contains several elements that are associated with “chick lit.” There’s a very “girly” approach to the narrative. It focuses on undying/forbidden love, corny romance, flowers, jewelry, gowns, fabrics, and an inordinate amount of emo moments. For crying out loud, the characters shed more tears in this book than bridesmaids at a wedding! There is only so much crying one can take, after all. In addition, the emo male characters are not authentic.

No comment needed. Cooooooties.

Remember the Elizabeth Moon blow-up? As in, Moon was an Islamophobe and got her con invite rescinded? Well Pat has something to say about that too! Charmingly titled “Islam and Soft-Left Intellectuals: 1 Free Speech: 0.”

WTF??? It’s nice to see that in this soft-Left Obama era, democratic values such as free speech remain the cornerstone of our society. . .

This, of course, comes in response to Elizabeth Moon’s post on Islam. I also picked up the story last month in this post.

Like a fucking caricature, except dead serious. He thinks, of course, that the only people who could possibly take offense at Moon’s xenophobic fuckwaddery can only be “ultra-soft leftists.” Really, just do a search on his blog for “Islam” in general.

Last but not least: “Girls of Geek” calendar. +++++gross.

Dude also thinks Christwire is for real, citing an article by one “Susan B. Xenu” as evidence of everything wrong with America’s xtian fundies. :’)

Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is a very popular genre blog. What does that say about the SF/F genre? Exactly.

We were talking about starting up a kickstarter project for that Pat-specific meatgrinder, by the way. Who wants to chip in?
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Pat's Fantasy Hotlist isn't everyone's cup of tea. And that's as it should be. I don't consider myself a very talented or insightful reviewer. Never have, never will. Pat's Fantasy Hotlist is what it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

Acrackedmoon asks: Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist is a very popular genre blog. What does that say about the SF/F genre? Exactly.

Maybe that a majority of the online SFF community likes a friendly, more casual approach to reviewing? Maybe they like to read the posts of a fan who doesn't take himself too seriously? Your guess is as good as mine. . .

So case closed, as far as I'm concerned. To acrackedmoon, I have no idea where all that pent-up anger is coming from. The passionate hatred you have for me leaves me baffled. Masturbation might help you release some of that geek rage, you know. I could even supply my complimentary copy of the Girls of Geek 2012 calendar for you to focus on. . . It's not true it will make you deaf. . .

Be forewarned I will monitor the comment section.

Peace. . .