... Kafkaesque story morphs badly.
I don't know who derekcatermole is, but as someone who has edited Ed Champion, let me say that Ed's prose is never turgid, reviews are expected to have a point of view (which does not make them tendentious), and where the hell is the pomposity?
Derek Catermole is, I am ashamed to say, a Canadian residing in Vancouver born Hallowe'en 1969. I didn't bother to read through the first search entries, I'm already bored; but, I checked the grammatically incorrect and poorly spelled comments on his blog and there seems to be only one commentarian sounding very much like the poster himself, perhaps his twin bother [non sic]? Who knows?
ReplyDeleteHe's been going after Nigel Beale and Ed Champion, a sneak-squeak Chihuahua snapping at the heels of giants; and, he's so desperate for attention that, IMO, we ought to give him some. Here he is, in all his sorry gory:
Derek Catermole
Google Search (34,900 items):
http://tinyurl.com/5euevs
derekcatermole
Google Search (10 items):
http://tinyurl.com/683s94
Derek Catermole's Blog:
http://tinyurl.com/5b932s
Derek Catermole's ZIMBIO Profile:
http://tinyurl.com/55j8z3
There are zero entries for books authored by Derek Catermole @ chapters.indigo.ca and amazon.ca.
There is one 411 listing in the entire country of Canada for one Catermole, first initial "L," here:
http://tinyurl.com/6q9jvv
This is publicly available information and not an invasion of privacy nor legal transgression. I can only assume the Catermole living in BC (near Vancouver, where Derek Catermole lives), may be related to him.
He has a partner who also sounds the same sour-griping note over and over (especially on the Guardian book blogs), Steven Augustine. They sound so similar to me and they once suggested I might assume a sock-puppet ID. As if I could be anybody but moi (or ashamed to be me me me).
We always attack ourselves first; thus, I shall not stoop to conquer; rather, I prefer to rise to communicate:
Derek Catermole needs a Whole Lotta Love (since he cites Led Zep as one his all-time fave bands) . . .
(((((((((DEREK))))))))
Derek Catermole is a seriously malign mix of self-loathing & self-adoration who one should avoid any place in one's life, virtual life as that most likely may be. He used to post as Toast & used have a similarly inspired ally in a Lloyd Mintern. The only reasonable way to treat is simply to delete his posts if encountered. Any interaction is a mistake.
ReplyDeleteWell, in defense of Steven Augustine, I should point out that the tone of his comments is quite different in style, his IP addresses are different from "Derek Catermole"'s, and his critical remarks are more predicated on reason than Derek Catermole's. I have no problem with anyone taking me to task (and indeed I learn from this), but when they devote most of their energies to writing unimaginative and unconstructive variations of "You suck," then I have no wish to devote any of my time to reading their drivel. Catermole is one of only four people who have been banned from edrants. Largely because, as my logs show, the man spends an inordinate amount of time there and he desperately needs a life. I have banned him because he spouts forth nothing but drivel, and because I actually hope that he gets something resembling a life.
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/07/lets_not_reduce_the_booker_to.html
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/5hygjw
You may well be right, Ed, when it comes to SA; but, his attacks on Nigel Beale have been relentless and straw-grasping; not only that, as you can see by the URL above, he cannot even spell "Jehovah" correctly and both DC and SA are yowling and howling at Nigel for the flimsiest of reasons every time he posts about *anything*. Then, they went after me, as if I would consider them serious arbiters of *anything* but bullshit on toast.
The saddest thing about this so-called exchange was that I lost all respect and admiration for Billy Mills forever. I used to think very highly of him and then I noticed Billy Boy's just another narcissistic blabberrageo, one who shows up in everyone else's blog (even though he has his own to spout his nopinions). He purposely misread what I wrote in order to take a swipe at me; and, IMO, that is the low below low I hope I never go. If he dis/engages in such assaults on other poets, he misunderstands the art so completely I will never again read a word he writes in any medium, let alone his poetry (which I am sure is far below par).
Bottom line: I shall cease "to see" the writing on the wail by these Three Asskateers.
p.s. Boy, do I feel vindicated, though, with the review by James Seaton in The Wall Street Journal to which Frank linqs above:
http://tinyurl.com/5qs6z7
— Judith Fitzgerald,
Professional Commentarian
Rohan Maitzen, a Prof at Dalhousie in Halifax, and host of the excellent Novel Readings blog, suggested to me that catermole may be a failed, untenured academic, possibly a lecturer at UBC in Vancouver.
ReplyDeleteHis Internet provider is Shaw cable. He has during the past several months assumed various identities, including mine and Mark Thwaite's, and posted comments on lit blogs, falsely attributing them to us. It seems to me that this is criminal behavior, and I have reported it to Shaw.
Regardless of under which dilapidated old bridge this pathetic turgid, tendentious sad excuse of a human being lives, the best advice, as indicated above is, despite Judith's best intentions, to ignore it entirely. Starve it of that which it craves.
". . . and where the hell is the pomposity?"
ReplyDeleteErm, looks to me The Pomposity ain't gonna show in these har parts of Cyberia, Frank. Thought he'd have the balls to defend himself, given his unerring radar when it comes to sussing out Nigel and Ed, et. al.
Nigel, your speculation's interesting, based on what Rohan Maitzen suggests; but, I did a little leg-work and came up empty; have friends and colleagues at UBC, SFU, and various colleges in B.C.; so, checked on his employment with one of them. Came up with nada; thus, it may well be he once held the position of lecturer; but, for whatever reasons, he no longer does so, a fact which may speak to his superiority; but, you know what? I'm glad to know he's not teaching impressionable young egos; given his cyber-tactics, I'm afraid he might inflict real damage on some youngsters not willing to fall on their knees in the presence of The Pope of Pomposity.
http://www.worldliteratureforum.com/
ReplyDeleteforum/news-discussion/
2775-man-booker-prize-2008-
longlist-announced-
2.html#post6085
or, like, to copy cogito ergo doleo
http://tinyurl.com/58onux
D.C.
Rohan Maitzen, a Prof at Dalhousie in Halifax, and host of the excellent Novel Readings blog, suggested to me...
ReplyDeleteI should say that the only basis for this speculation was my own strong conviction (based on exchanges with 'Derek' in his persona as 'Toast') that in real life he is a trained academic literary critic. My impression was that DC was a pseudonym, but I haven't really bothered to research the possibilities. I wish he didn't take such gleeful pleasure in being unbelievably rude and personally insulting (and I say that having been at the receiving end of some of his jibes myself): if he turned his considerable rhetorical powers (and apparent abundance of spare time) to good instead of evil, he could actually do something positive for the quality of literary analysis online!
Hi folks. This is actually quite useful, although my sugestion about how to proceed now would be to follow the maxim: do not feed the trolls! Smart he may be, but he is also a malign timewaster. I have decided to just ignore completely any approach from him from now an and your lives would be more serene if you inored him as well...
ReplyDeleteThanks, guys. The mysterious Derek just posted three hostile comments on my blog. The odd thing was that I couldn't figure out his perspective -- usually people will attack from some recognizable point of view, but he just seemed to hate everything I posted for unknown reasons..
ReplyDelete