Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Hate Mail

I've just received my first official hate mail as an author. I guess this means that people are beginning to take notice of me as an author...but I think I could have done without this kind of notice.

Here is the text of the message...the spelling is his...

"Your book sucks! I can't believe anybody would write this kind of trash. It's obvius that your just an atheist asshole who wants to ignore everything that God teaches us and try to make us think like you.
Why don't you go back to Irak with the rest of your kind.
It should be illegal to write anything that gos against the word of God, and you should be arrested or killed for writing this.
Hope you enjoy your time burning in hell."

Originally, I'd thought about responding, but instead, I decided to pass this on to my webhost and let them take care of it.

I think it would be safe to say that this person has never read my book. My main reason for saying this is because the book is not about atheism. In fact, nobody is labeled as an atheist in the book. The three main protagonists are Jewish, Taoist, and Pantheist. The book was written about fundamentalism...I just chose Christianity because it seemed the most plausible in the United States.

Hopefully this will be the last hate mail I ever get because to be totally honest, this is a bit disconcerting...

6 comments:

Keith said...

That is so cool! It's obvious that the person hasn't actually read your book and is probably just googling atheist or using technorati to find blogs by atheists.

The only person who ever left hate mail for me is my sister-in-law.

KPG

chiefmoe said...

I am so jealous. I want to get hate mail.

Spencer said...

so now you're gonna go by the name of 'that atheist author' eh? i bet you'd want a different kind of notoriety... you know i would LOVE to send him a virulent reply! sadly, it would just be wasted on his pathetic command of the english language!

Shannon said...

This guy just made me move your book up on my 'must read' book list, can't wait! :-)

J Alan Erwine said...

Keith-I think any "review" that starts out "Your book sucks" is pretty much destined to fail, and the fact that there's nothing in the book about atheists...really makes me think you're right.

Cheifmoe-You've never gotten hate mail? I'm sure Tiff Harris would be willing to send you some...

Spencer-Our little group seems to attract notoriety of a kind we wouldn't want. Of course, there are a lot of atheist writers out there...especially in the SF field.

Shannon-Thanks for stopping by...maybe I should send the guy a thank you note...

Anonymous said...

Whether the guy read your book or not, _Opium..._ takes issue with the fundamental ignorance and hate that form the core of his beliefs. It makes sense that your novel would provoke such an ignorant and hateful response in _those_ people, who would lash out at me for writing "Morituri" if they but knew.

I've come to the conclusion that the fundies cannot be reasoned with; they are, for all practical purposes, genocidal maniacs -- and always have been. They may have, in their own way, inspired your novel and my poem, but I'm sure that we wrote these things with a more rational audience in mind.

I can only hope that the Christian mainstream in this country will come to their senses, withdraw their support for the fundies, and strip these maniacs of their power and influence.

Robert E. Porter