Mea Culpa, Lowtax

I have to hold my hands up.

I have been indicted by Something Awful.

In case you somehow don't know, Something Awful is the interweb's equivalent of rubberknecking at car wrecks. It's a carnival of slack-jawed marveling at all the webcest. Their Awful Link of the Day feature is the epitome of this attitude, having before now linked racial supremacists, conspiracy theorists and every fetish that unsaddles your sense of live-and-let-live. Today, they have spotlighted a website that, at one time, I read near-daily. I mean, I posted in the forum.

OMGs! is a webcomic that aimed at a small-ish demographic: young, liberal, sexually confused anglophonic neopagans. The full-circle experience of seeing it lampooned- and agreeing with a lot of what is said- is a stange sensation. Apart from anything else, how will I feel in ten years looking back at comics that base their humour in the zeitgeist I have right now?

I am still prepared to defend my patronage of this site. Carrington Vanston's guest writing credits were great (though you probably know that I dote on Carrington anyway .) Growing up in a small rural town doesn't provide a whole lot of outlet for people who are of an experimental bent when it comes to sex, politics and religion. I think that anyone who's adolescent orbit took them through the target audience for OMGs would be suprised enough to find themselves vaugely catered for to become enthusiastic for webcomics that are, as the saying goes, unfettered by talent.

I guess this feeling is part of growing older and realising that your past enthusiams were unsophisticated, or at least that your new self just doesn't find any joy in the old haunts. For example, my BS-meter has grown far too sensitive to talk about divination anymore. Tempus fuggit, I guess, but I'm not ashamed.
I wonder how Carrington feels about it these days?

Holy, I just remembered. I have a writing credit for this site.


a heady gumbo of hyperlinks and metaphor