Lou Antonelli Loses the Plot ... and Finds it Again

As mentioned before, I started this blog after the Hugo Awards controversy, first, re-awakened my interest in SFF and, second, stoked my outrage with what I perceived to be the poor quality of the debate surrounding its aftermath. It had been my intent to write short pieces summarizing some of the key protagonists and their views. Events over the past few days have led me to begin with Lou Antonelli.

This post will be long (and as events keep evolving, in several parts) and reflect my understanding of the issues and people involved. Corrections and clarifications to what follows would be greatly appreciated.

Lou Antonelli is a journalist and science fiction writer from Texas who, since he started in 2003, has published roughly one hundred stories. In 2015 he was nominated for two Hugo Awards: (i) best short story for “On A Spiritual Plain” (Sci Phi Journal #2, 11-2014); and, (ii) Best Related Work for Letters from Gardner (The Merry Blacksmith Press). Both pieces of work appeared on the Sad Puppies Slate and on the Rabid Puppies Slate, and there have been allegations that Antonelli was disingenuous in his public statements about his knowledge of being included on both slates.

By some accounts, Antonelli has a bit of a temper, and can overreact. As evidence for the latter, apparently in response to being called an asshole on the web (I haven't been able to track down the original exchange), he contacted a blogger's place of employment and tried to get them fired:

My one brush with Antonelli took place after I had opined on Twitter that the reason many people don't like the authors who form the core of the "Sad Puppy" group are assholes, including him in the bunch. He reacted by confirming that he is, in fact, an asshole. Despite my tweeting on my personal twitter account, Antonelli took it upon himself to track down my work e-mail and phone number, first e-mailing a poorly thought out threat to come down to my workplace and do something or other, and then telephoning my office to confirm I was employed there. This didn't go anywhere, since no one I work for or with regarded his outrage as anything other than the ravings of a clearly unbalanced fool, but it does show that, like most of the Sad Puppy proponents, Antonelli is poorly regarded not for his politics, but rather for the fact that he is a jerk.

Then, on August 1st, Antonelli appeared on the Superversive SF podcast and said the following about David Gerrold [the transcription comes from Jim C Hines's facebook page and quotes from 1:00:28 in the audio file]

I really didn’t know much about [Gerrold] before the Hugo nominations came out. Following his discourse and his level of discourse as a result, I personally wrote a letter addressed to the police chief in Spokane and said I thought the man was insane and a public danger and needs to be watched when the convention’s going on, and I mean it. I attached my business card. I said this guy’s inciting to violence. Somebody—a weak-minded might attack somebody because of his relentless strength of abuse. I think, honestly, I think he belongs in a secure psychiatric facility.

To my ear, it was not clear in the podcast whether Antonelli was entirely serious and other participants---John C. Wright and L. Jagi Lamplighter---quite reasonably tried to defuse the comments. However, Antonelli later confirmed it to Lou Berger (in comments)

I asked Lou Antonelli if he really wrote the Spokane PD and he replied:

"I said I thought Gerrold's on-line comments were so intemperate they were an incitement to violence, which is what I believe. I wanted them to know in case there were any disruptions at the convention."

He's a newspaper editor, he says, and has been attacked and roughed up in his office over a political dispute. When I asked him if he wrote that David was a "dangerous criminal," he replied:

"No, I just suggested they (the PD) be aware of the controversy and possibility of people getting, uhh, maybe too enthused."

So it appears that he merely wanted to inform that there is an ongoing divide in process and, even though he believes David to be a pro, he's concerned that somebody on David's "side" will escalate and do something stupid.

At the time, there was no indication of what comments by Gerrold had set Antonelli off, and Gerrold said he could recall nothing that might have been misinterpreted this way (see the comments). Later, Gerrold suggested that it may refer to intemperate comments made by other posters following an older blog post of his about the Hugo Awards.

In a relatively short amount of time, Antonelli offered an apology to Gerrold on Jim C Hines's facebook page:

Thanks for your polite request for an explanation. I’ve thought about what to say, which is painful to admit.

It’s become public that on July 1st I wrote a letter to the chief of the Spokane Police Department expressing some concerns over potential security issues at the upcoming Sasquan.

I’m sorry for what I did. Without looking at the big picture I reacted in a manner that I thought I was being treated. It was stupid and wrong. My subsequent participation on a podcast was also a mistake because the environment further fueled my fear and I lashed out again.

I’m sorry I bothered the Spokane PD. They probably are ready to throw the butterfly net over ME when I enter the city. And I’m sorry and apologize to David Gerrold. He probably understands why I did what I did better than I do.

I need to ponder the hurt I have caused. To give me time to think, after Sasquan I am taking a half-year hiatus from attending any conventions and/or submitting any fiction.
I think I’ve become my own crazy uncle ...

Antonelli also followed up the apology (further in the comments) by promising to write to the Spokane police to clear up the mess.

In my opinion, this is a pretty good apology. It accepts responsibility and, together with the commitment to contact Spokane PD, outlines a plan for atonement. It is certainly than the apology offered by Irene Gallo in response to her now famous "neo-nazi" rant:

There are two extreme right-wing to neo-nazi groups, called the Sad Puppies and the Rabid Puppies respectively, that are calling for the end of social justice in science fiction and fantasy. They are unrepentantly racist, sexist and homophobic. A noisy few but they’ve been able to gather some Gamergate folks around them and elect a slate of bad-to-reprehensible works on this year’s Hugo ballot.

who apologized to anyone hurt by her remarks without apologizing for the remarks themselves:

About my Sad/Rabid Puppies comments: They were solely mine. This is my personal page; I do not speak on behalf of Tor Books or Tor.com. I realize I painted too broad a brush and hurt some individuals, some of whom are published by Tor Books and some of whom are Hugo Award winners. I apologize to anyone hurt by my comments.

And it is far far better than the apology offered by Brad Torgersen following his homophobic tweet about John Scalzi:

which amounted to an apology for insinuating that Scalzi is gay, and not for suggesting that there is something wrong with being gay:

Antonelli has begun to face professional consequences as indicated in his following facebook post:

Oh, from the Actions Have Consequences Dept., Lakeside Circus has revoked its signed contract for my story "Message Found Written on an End Roll of Newsprint":

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Mr. Antonelli,

I have just become aware of comments you made regarding contacting the police about David Gerrold, over his comments about the Hugo Awards.

While your stance on, and involvement in, the Hugo voting slates is, we feel, a personal choice, and outside of our interests, taking this action moves away from protected speech, and into a concrete effort to threaten someone's safety and livelihood.

Because of this, we will not be publishing your story in our next issue, and would suggest that we are unlikely to be a good fit for your work in the future.

Thank you.

Carrie Cuinn
Editor-in-Chief

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You do stupid and bad stuff, you get slapped.

Again, I thought Antonelli responded to this in about the best way possible.

Let's make no mistake: what Antonelli did was wrong. Very wrong. Nothing that has happened can excuse what he did, although placing it in the context of his newspaper work and the many intemperate comments made by both sides of the Hugo Controversy does make it somewhat more understandable. The profession should not forget, and forgiveness will take some time. But forgiveness is what the profession and fandom need, and I was pleased to see David Gerrold accept Antonelli's apology, and to see John Scalzi and many others take the moral high road following the apology. I said as much on twitter. And in doing so, apparently earned a spanking from K. Tempest Bradford. More on that tomorrow.