Oh, what utter bullshit.
For one thing, guess who's involved. If that doesn't set off your alarm bells, then the mere fact that someone on the run from a family that "is an alarmingly influential pillar of a small European country, deeply meshed into the financial fabric of the nation and at the core characterized by the highest extremes of power and influence" is keeping a weblong with extensive entries should be a clue. Especially now that the site has been moved from the relative anonymity of Blogspot to its own domain. If her family is so much like the Corleones, isn't she afraid of endangering whoever registered the domain for her? I guess not -- but then she probably isn't even real. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if this isn't another of Mr. Plagiarist's performance-art-like stunts designed to mess with the blogworld's collective head.
As a side note, I can't understand the praise this writer, whoever it is, is getting from people. "She's a great writer" my ass. My cursory visits to her site to get an idea of what this was all about nearly caused me to go into a coma from boredom. If you have an old, dull, well-worn plot like "rich, powerful, and controlling family vs. frightened-yet-determined rebellious daughter" you sure had better have a writing style that raised your story above all the others mouldering in the remainders box with their front covers torn off. This girl (or whatever) doesn't -- she's so dull she makes me want to go to a used bookstore and dig up something by Barbara Cartland.
(Via Neal Sheeran.)
Posted by Andrea Harris at May 16, 2003 12:12 AMEh, this is the same crapola that happens in online fandom all the time. My favorite weird story involves an apparently sociopathic BNF (big name fan--term for fanfic writer with a rep in a particular fandom) who Faked Her Own Death, then Reappeared Under a Different Name, as--get this--a MAN. Broke up some gullible chick's marriage in the process, too. Who says the Internet is a waste of time?
There's a lot of "tragedy faking" on the internet; it's usually done in online fandoms by drama queens who can't take criticism and who suffer from the "You'll be sorry when I'm dead, and by the way, yes, I am an emotional 5 year old" school of thought.
Sometimes it's fun to watch, though!
Posted by: Tracey at May 16, 2003 at 08:38 AMIt does seem that Sean-Paul is writing fiction. I poked around Flight Risk a bit, and noticed a couple of spectacularly large holes in "Isabella's" story: (1) She was able to creep out of her father's house at night without hindrance. BS. A real family like hers would have 24 hours thug security. (2) Her English is too colloquial. Has her father killed? "I don't rightly know." That's a somewhat labored colloquialism even for native Anglo-phone of any education, but utterly unnatural for anyone not born to English.
Long winded, too, almost as much as this comment.
Posted by: Jack at May 16, 2003 at 09:25 AM"I don't rightly know." That's a somewhat labored colloquialism even for native Anglo-phone of any education
Actually it's one I'm rather fond of using myself, though I don't rightly know why.
Posted by: James Russell at May 16, 2003 at 09:29 AMIf this Isabella girl is true to form, she'll be here in your comment section within a few days. She happens to drop by the blogs of those who write doubtful things. She called me a sexist SOB, so I guess I am one of the lucky ones.
Posted by: Neal at May 16, 2003 at 10:36 AM