Heather Mallick admits she writes for obnoxious, mumbly weirdoes
September 25, 2007
You may think I’m overstating things with that title, but check out what she wrote about the “Don’t tase me” guy in her column (emphases mine):
After the incident became public, there was a wave of blaming the victim. Meyer was loud and obnoxious, and deserved what he got… As anyone who gives and attends public lectures knows, there are always audience members at Question Time who hog the microphone, who don’t ask a question but deliver a statement of their own beliefs at great length, who mumble and miss the point. This is a given at public events. When it happens, I remain polite and answer as best I can.
I don’t have the man electrically shocked, mainly because this is the type of person most likely to buy my book at the end of the reading. But also, it’s just not done, in the same way that one does not use the same toothpick to repeatedly dip one’s shrimp in communal sauce; it’s not hygienic. It may be thrifty, it may even be harmless, but it is beyond the pale.
So there you have it, the type of people who buy her books are those who deliver rambling commentaries about secret societies during the question and answer portion of a lecture. The “unmedicated conspiracy theory nutjob” is a pretty strange audience to go for, but I guess writers really do have to find their niche and stick with it.
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