Ohmigod, you guys! It's David Gonterman!
"The Piasa Bird" (also known as "The Piasa Incident" and "Piasa") is the first chapter in Gonterman's inimitable fanfiction magnum opus: The Davey Crockett Trilogy. Mixing self-insertion power fantasies, massive multi-fandom crossovers, and right-wing agitprop, Gonterman's notorious fanfiction trifecta is a spectacular mess that garnered the author unprecedented levels of infamy and the unenviable status of persona non grata within several fan communities. In this story, Gonterman uses the Power Rangers continuity as the backdrop for a furious, froth-mouthed screed against multiculturalism where the author's alter-ego marches into the narrative like a paleoconservative superhero who solves racial unrest with a series of shotgun blasts and incoherent blithers of white supremacist rhetoric. The Power Rangers, on the other hand, function as nothing more than sounding boards for Gonterman's numbskull political opinions and Zach (the Black Ranger and our first-person narrator) even begins to exhibit near-pathological levels of self-loathing as he lauds Gonterman's alter-ego with near-messianic adulation and presents his white nationalist teachings as religious gospel.
And Gonterman still found ways to be even more tasteless and offensive in his later stories (go ahead and read "American Kitsune" if you don't believe me).
We plan on eventually recording both "Blood and Metal" (seven chapters) and "American Kitsune" (incomplete at eleven chapters). Let us know which of these you'd like to listen to first.
Note: Also included in this episode is a message from Andrew Cook of Pretentious Internet Theater and our response.
Next Time: You'll find out at the end of this episode!
I really enjoyed your reading. I remember coming across this on SVAM (Shinji's Vault of Anime MSTings) back in the day. This story is terrible and should never be forgotten.
ReplyDeleteThanks! Glad you enjoyed our first installment of Gontermania.
ReplyDeleteI kinda wish I could find all of those old Gonterman MSTings from the SVAM... but unfortunately they were deleted from the site a long, long time ago. Still have the "Blood and Metal" and some of the American Kitsune" MSTings, but no "Piasa."
And of course, I also wish Gonterman had written those ridiculous-sounding Power Rangers fanfics he describes at the end of this story.
Ah, good old Gonterman....
ReplyDeleteJust for the record though, racism can be against white people too, depending on the occasion.