ash describes a mental game she invented to her friend. The “Kos” she refers to is the popular liberal website Daily Kos. “Diaries” are essays participants may post on Kos.
I was telling ashlover how, about 30 years ago, I went to an Alfred Hitchcock movie the first few minutes of which involved a car chase scene down a mountain highway.
Seeing that the main characters were being chased and it was barely the beginning, I decided a)this can’t end in disaster for them, being the stars and all, and b) since they obviously aren’t going to drive off the cliff or smash into the mountain I know in advance the car will make all the correct turns, that c)having removed all the suspense from the scene, I’m going to experiment with watching it from the perspective of dispassionate calmness. Just sit there and take it in devoid of tension and anxiety because I know the ending.
It worked. Of course you could argue it also ruined the purpose of the scene but I’ve never been a horror movie fan either, I don’t crave the thrills. Then today, coming across a veritable swamp of Coulter articles, interviews, postings, Diaries, stories, and reviews, I glanced at the one I sent you and decided you know what? I’m going to read it like I watched that movie. Just read about her in her own words with no psychological investment but simple comprehension. Incendiary-proof. And it worked, too. Coulter may be more horrible than any horror movie but for just this one article nothing she said riled me, surprised me, shocked me, angered me, disgusted me, confounded me, or disappointed me. Now, I’m not sure what the point was. My blood pressure isn’t high anymore. It was just…interesting…not to have any particular response to her rhetoric, not even the pity I can, I say can, evoke if I’m so inclined. ‘Cause whatever happened to her, it wasn’t pretty.
There are some debates on Kos and elsewhere over several issues. For one, is she crazy, or, too functional to be clinically insane, does she have a mental disorder? (I say Narcissism and exhibitionism with a generous helping of projectionism.) Is she really selling all those books? (Technically, yes, though she cheats with the assistance of Scaife and others, how’s that for conservative welfare.) Is her masculinity fair game? (Only if her presumed ambiguous genitalia produced the self-hatred she has obviously directed outward.)
But enough, more than enough, of her.