Posted: 09 June 2019 at 10:46pm | IP Logged | 8
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John Byrne wrote:
...much of the hostility directed my way comes from fans who took my departure from UNCANNY X-MEN as a personal slight... |
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It goes further than even that, I think. That may have been a beginning, but of course a good number of these haters first came across your later works, when they started out as fans.
That's the thing, too... Most every one of these people started out as a fan of your work. That is, it's not like the kind of person who hates an artist because he does not derive enjoyment from that artists' work. Rather, they started out as fans and then usually something you said, wrote, or done they perceive as some sort of slight against them. I call what these sort of detractors have the "spurned lover effect." They love someone so much at first, but then something happens that they feel rejected, spurned, and they then take that passion and rechannel it into a hatred to take you down. I've witnessed this sort of thing on the board through the years, in fact.
This kind of person can be your self-proclaimed biggest fan. Many might even think of this kind of person as sycophantic, the way s/he acts at times. But suddenly, one day the person posts some sort of opinion about something, and you respond in disagreement with their view. They seemingly can't handle you thinking differently, and get testy about it. You hold your position and shoot back if they get snarky. In that instance, that person's "love" for you becomes hatred. Only, the kind of person this is, s/he can't simply agree to disagree and move on, no they now focus that passion into attempting to bring you down... to make you sorry, for what you did (in their own mind) to them.
Yep, I've seen this quite a bit in the past. Many of these kind of people join together in something like a Superman Revenge Squad creating secret forums bent on tearing into and tearing down all things Byrne. It's the sort of psychotic fan that Stephen King wrote about in "Misery." Most normal people, if they suddenly decided they no longer cared for an artist or creator based on some difference of opinion would likely just shrug and walk away. The demented "spurned lover" has to bring down the former object of his or her affection. The author or writer must be made to pay!
Scary and pathetic all at once.
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