Based on the quotes from his novel, I'm not surprised



I'm not saying that most fiction writers imitate their characters' actions on the page (I'd be dead or in jail if that were true of me, and I haven't done a damn thing...so far as any of you know). But compare this:

"Ashley was now wearing only brief white panties. She had signaled her desire by removing her shirt and skirt, and by leaning back on the couch. She closed her eyes, concentrating on nothing but Shannon's tongue and lips. He gently teased her by licking the areas around her most sensitive erogenous zone. Then he slipped her panties down her legs and, within seconds, his tongue was inside her, moving rapidly."

To this:

"So anyway I'd be rubbing your big boobs and getting your nipples really hard, kinda' kissing your neck from behind, and then I would take the other hand with the falafel (sic) thing and I'd put it on your pussy but you'd have to do it really light, just kind of a tease business."

Revolting? Sure. Putrid? Sure. Same voice? Yeah, pretty much. In both passages the speaker's diction undercuts and destroys any possible erotic mood in the text. Key quotes like "The falafel thing", "just kind of a tease business", "teased her by licking the areas around her most sensitive erogenous zone", "signalled her desire" all reflect a vocabulary too adolescent and clunky to sustain genuine eroticism. Also in both passages the woman is placed in passive positions while the male protagonist "teases" them in ostensibly sexy ways. (What's so sexy about falafels and rapidly moving tongues? Nothing, unless you're a snake with a perverse penchant for middle eastern cuisine.) The woman just lies back, or stands there and thinks of, oh, I don't know, England. I'm not saying that Bill O'Reilly actually said the bit about rubbing this woman's breasts, or any of the other things alleged here; but if he didn't say it, his ex-producer sure did her homework.

Actually, for me, the creepiest part of the lawsuit is a non-sexual passage about Al Franken:

During the course of this conversation, Defendant BILL O'REILLY further sternly warned, to the effect:

If you cross FOX NEWS CHANNEL, it's not just me,
it's [FOX President] Roger Ailes who will go after you.
I'm the street guy out front making loud noises about
the issues, but Ailes operates behind the scenes,
strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM!
The person gets what's coming to them but never sees it
coming. Look at Al Franken, one day he's going to get a
knock on his door and life as he's known it will change forever.
That day will happen, trust me.

During the course of this conversation, Defendant BILL O'REILLY bizarrely rambled further about Al Franken: "Ailes knows very powerful people and this goes all the way to the top." Plaintiff queried: "To the top of what?" Defendant responded: "Top of the country. Just look at who's on the cover of his book [Bush and Cheney], they're watching him and will be for years. [Al Franken's] finished, and he's going to be sorry he ever took FOX NEWS CHANNEL on." Plaintiff found O'REILLY's paranoid rambling both strange and alarming.

Me too.

Posted: Thu - October 14, 2004 at 03:35 AM        

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