Wednesday, July 17, 2013

And she can't even PLAGIARIZE worth a damn.

Since the same reports about the Lianne "Spiderbaby" MacDougall plagiarism mini-scandal have been repeated ad infinitum, I will not regurgitate them. But, as someone who, like "Spiderbaby," occasionally writes about horror films, I feel the need to comment on it.

Based on her excessively self-aggrandizing Facebook posts, I pegged "Spiderbaby" as a narcissistic social climber a year or more ago. Her writing was nothing special, tending toward pseudo-academic sophistry. She has now been mentioned in The Guardian and The LA Times, billed as "Quentin Tarantino's girlfriend." That's much more than she had before she stole from REAL writers. Those who have had their work plagiarized have my utmost sympathy.

Her attempts at excuses for her offenses have been, in a word, pathetic. She is an insult to all of the starving horror enthusiasts who write out of true passion and with true ability. Her actions are inexcusable... and inexcusably clumsy. Did she actually think that she wouldn't get caught in the Internet age? Can she actually be a college graduate and lack even that most basic grasp of Internet protocol? 

I hope that St. Martin's Press is flooded with emails calling upon them to drop her new book, GRINDHOUSE GIRLS, if they haven't already. At the very least, I encourage everyone reading this to boycott the book. "Spiderbaby" has ironically spoken of her desire to honor the "hard-working" women of exploitation cinema, but the meaning of hard work has obviously eluded her. She should be utterly ashamed, and almost certainly isn't-- at least genuinely so.