I’ve read the 200-plus comments about LexG, and while he’s obviously a mixed package it would be unwise of me to ask him to to push on. There can be no disputing that like most artists, he’s an excessive personality in some ways. I’ve told him privately that I don’t want to read one more post about his feelings of depression or whatever aroused hormonal reactions may be pumping through his system in response to this or that young actress, or the allure of her damn feet and her $75 pedicure.
And LexG does need to man up and publicly write a mea culpa to Glenn Kenny and apologize for saying some truly ugly things. There have to be limits and refinements and kindnesses or our souls will start to grow tumors.
I understand completely that brilliance and aggression and self-loathing and all the rest of it come from the same wellspring, and that anyone with the ability to uncork all that stuff and paint it onto the page in a semi-engaging, well-phrased fashion with the fortification of perspective, education and above-average intelligence is worth his or her weight in gold. LexG is altogether too bright and too circuit-cabled into the essence of it all (himself, his woes, the movies, the culture) to be tossed from this site.
But the coarseness, the self-pity and the occasional eye-pokes and cruel dismissiveness have to be turned down. Way down. Arguments and genuine disdain for certain debaters can be entertaining, mind. I’m not trying to be Ms. Manners. But there finally has to be an emphasis on perception and love and passion and the glories of good writing. There has to be an emphasis on letting in the light rather than damning the darkness of the trolls and vomiting on the floor and kicking this or that HE contributor in the balls.
I’m going to renew and revitalize my determination to restrict or ban posters who seem to be primarily about coarseness or cruelty or a general lack of refinement or consideration towards others. Unless the “others” are haters like Absinthe Quell Pro or the right-wing hammer types, in which case I say beat ’em down with baseball bats like Joe Pesci and his brother in that Casino cornfield.
If LexG wants his own HE forum to talk about his unfulfilling job and hair transplants and being lonely and depressed, he can have his own column — call it “The LexG Show” — on this site whenever he wants it. I’ve told him it’s absolutely his for the asking. But he seems to prefer reacting to my topics than to instigating his own. My column, my rules. Hate on the bad people — the ones who deserve it, I mean — but put a little love in your hearts at the same time. It’s a balancing act. Not easy to do, but worth attempting each and every day.
