Assholatry

[constance]

When I step out on my friendslist, and I'm sorry to say that I occasionally do, there are a few blogs I visit regularly. Most of those blogs are written by people think I'd probably like very much if we ever met up in the real world (not that we ever will, since I'm much too shy to do more than lurk on any of their journals), but not everyone is part of that subset. There are a few blogs I'm ambivalent to; the writing's excellent and they're fascinating and funny people, but there's something repellent about them too. If I were ever to meet any of these people, I'd want desperately to escape them, and possibly to escape them by rendering them unconscious with a large heavy thing, within minutes of meeting them.

And yet I keep visiting them. I keep reading their blogs. I keep being in turns repelled by and attracted to them. I experience this phenomenon in real life as well, and on the whole I find it a little disconcerting, a little embarrassing. I privately call it my tendency to assholatry, and I could give you some psychological particulars as to why this particular condition, but you don't care, and really, I'm just curious to see if any of you feels that dichotomic, complicated fascination for a blog, for a celebrity, for a real life person.

Comments

[kickthebeat.livejournal.com]

i am almost always most attracted to people i initially hate with a burning vengeance. it's upsetting, it really is! i think i get so emotionally caught up in hating people, it turns to some twisted sort of attraction? i don't know, some of my friends have labeled it my propensity to attract dickheads, but several painfully insightful people have told me -- other things they think it means, that mostly come down to me being a bad person. it's awesome.


YOU ARE NOT ALONE. however, i love you, and you love me? so, yeah, you have a thing for assholes, i'm sorry.

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Oh, Keri, I love you because you're an outlaw, not an asshole. If you are a bad person, you overcome your handicap very well, my friend. <3<3<3<3

I'm still more attracted to the people I like from the start than to the people I'm ambivalent to -- but I can't deny that I'm attracted to the assholes too. You'd think there'd be some instinct for self-preservation that would send us running and screaming from these people. But there doesn't seem to be. :/

[tilney.livejournal.com]

I know what you mean so much. My case might be a little different, because I maniacally read a blog of a RL acquaintance that gets on my tits on a regular basis. I've spent high school and university cooped up with her and being irritated by her every word, and yet I can't seem to stop reading what she writes. There might be a little bit of schadenfreude in it, or maybe I'm just interested in what new heights of asshattedness she'll reach, but I'm waiting, I'm waiting.

-_-

[tofty.livejournal.com]

I know that kind of trainwreck blog well, but I'm not usually all that eager to return to them. These are a bit different for me, yeah. Partly, I do have a desire to see how my bloggers might (IMO) embarrass themselves, I agree. But there is an attraction there -- they're magnetic, in their own ways.

And then I smile when they embarrass themselves. /:D

[tilney.livejournal.com]

I know that smile. It's the smile that makes me go MWAHAHAHA.

:)

[dahlia-777.livejournal.com]

I do this with bnfs in a number of fandoms I lurk in. I visit - so regularly I even bookmark them - and I'm often thoroughly entertained but I wouldn't dream of friending these people.

I'm trying to talk myself into going to see Elizabeth at the cinema this afternoon (not certain yet because cold is turning into bad cough, and weather is dreary) but if I do I'll be back by 6.30-7.

PS I've been meaning to rec this one to you for a while: http://clex-monkie89.livejournal.com/448984.html

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- sometimes these things are best witnessed several times removed, in the dead of night! :D

Good to talk to you today, my dear.

[dahlia-777.livejournal.com]

Lovely to talk to you too. Afterwards I remembered I had a link to this - a list of all the music on spn, which you mentioned enjoying. (I must admit mullet rock doesn't do it for me, though it's fun in context):
http://lounge.cwtv.com/showthread.php?t=6007

[treehavn.livejournal.com]

Oh jah. There's a great difference between seeing words on the page and those mannerisms translating to people in real life. And vice versa, I'd imagine. So, solidarity sister [obligatory Life of Brian reference].

Oh, <i>peace</i>!

[tofty.livejournal.com]

heee! I was actually quoting from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but I'm happy to join in the LoB quoting!

And yeah, there are some things I can tolerate on a viewing screen that would run me up a wall in real life.

Re: Oh, <i>peace</i>!

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Holy shit, I couldn't have fucked up the coding on this if I'd tried.

[octoberstory.livejournal.com]

I have whole diaries devoted to such men. They seem to be the only type with whom I fall in love?

[tofty.livejournal.com]

Well, gosh. We need to find you a nice non-asshole. I'll keep my eyes open, okay? *smooch*