The HyperTexts
From Eratosphere to "Erato, Speared" to "Erato Weird"
by Michael R. Burch, editor of The HyperTexts
I asked other poets to comment on my poem Love Has a Southern Flavor, my essay Eratosphere
... or ... Erato, Speared?, my satirical poem Erato, Speared, and my banishment from Eratosphere for having the audacity to exercise freedom of speech on my own
website. The responses to date can be read at
Eratosneered: The Response to "Erato, Speared".
However, during recent exchanges which occurred between June 11, 2024 and June 23, 2024, a far more important subject than
catty poets screeching at each other came up: that being poets who publicly attack
transgender people and berate other poets for not following suit. I have been publicly attacked by Caleb Murdock for
not joining him in the hysteria, venting and mudslinging.
"Trans people are a sorry group
with a strange malady, but they are making an aggressive push for power in
western societies, and their ideas are unscientific." — Caleb Murdock, in a June
16, 2024 email
Caleb Murdock had a mouth,
e-i-e-i-o,
and from this mouth
sprang north and south
disdain for transgenders. So
with his rant-rant here
and his rant-rant there,
here a rant, there rant,
everywhere a rant-rant, ...
I told the troglodyte: Go!
—Michael R. Burch
In his public attack on me, Murdock has been less than fully forthcoming. When
he contacted me to complain, with good cause, about his abuse at the hands of
the Erratics, Murdock kept badgering me about my refusal to agree with him in
his transphobia. Being a mature adult, and knowing we would never agree, I asked
him several times, in a civil manner, to drop the subject and not bring it up
again. He persisted in badgering me, and I finally told him to fuck off, then
wrote a bit of doggerel that he objected to. You can find it after my TIMELINE
where I set the record straight.
It seems to strike fear in Murdock's heart, if he has one, that I support the right of
other people to determine their sexual
identity and to change their sex if they deem it necessary. I say this not
because I consider myself anyone special, but because Murdock has gone so far
out of his way to try to convert me to his Dark Ages agenda. Why me, unless he
does it to everyone? But perhaps he does and I'm just one of his many targets.
I base my own opinion on my experience as the translator of the Hebrew poems of
Adi Wolfson in his
eye-opening book
I Am Your Father. I learned a lot during those translations about the
tremendous difficulties involved when Adi's daughter elected to become his son.
This is not something anyone does lightly, or on a whim. And before
that experience, my opinion was based on my belief that I am not God, to tell other people who they are, since I didn't choose to be a heterosexual male. I was born this way, with no say in the matter.
And as far as I know, none of us control how we identify sexually nor the faces and
bodies we're attracted to. I've always been more attracted to the Liv Tylers and
Audrey Hepburns than the Jayne Mansfields and Loni Andersons. Why? No idea. I
also like chocolate more than vanilla.
Nor need I have any say in what you do with your body
as long as it's not raping or molesting mine, or
someone else's. "Live and let live" is a far better policy than
false morality imposed by hypocrites on other people.
If no one is being harmed and it's none of our business, where is the
"morality"?
My position is straightforward: I support the right of all human
beings to determine their sexual identity and to go through the harrowing
process of changing their genitalia, if they deem it necessary.
Before, during and after, they should have the same rights as everyone else.
Murdock has gone public with a deceptive attack on me in which he
failed to communicate certain pertinent facts: that I asked him several times in
a civil manner to stop badgering me about my refusal to join him in his
transphobia (not using the word at the time even though it applied) and that the
bullying and harassment was entirely on his part. When I finally
objected with stronger words, that minor action on my part was fully warranted. I
have set the record straight to protect my reputation and to address the larger issue.
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED, A TIMELINE
June 10, 2024 — I was contacted by an old acquaintance of mine,
Caleb Murdock, who informed me via email about his recent
poets-spitting-venom experiences at Eratosphere. I agreed to keep Murdock's identity confidential so
that he could go public as and when he preferred. During our subsequent emails
Murdock kept badgering me about my stance on transgender people and I kept very
civilly asking him to drop the subject, but he never did.
June 11, 2024 — I posted a brief update to my
Eratosphere: The Response to "Erato, Speared"
page, keeping Murdock's name confidential, as he had requested. It was on June
11 that Murdock's aggression began, and he explained his motivation in an email:
"I'm still angry at you for being a 'woke' liberal who supports all of the bad
ideas in transgender ideology." I replied in a civil manner: "I will ignore the
opening sentence since we’re not going to agree and arguing will get neither one
of us anywhere. I am willing to publish what you wrote below, if that interests
you."
June 16, 2024 — Murdock, who likes to play the victim, revealed who the real
aggressor was when he said in an email: "Hopefully some day you will wake up
from your self-induced trance." Still being civil, I did not reply.
In another June 16 email Murdock revealed the depth of his transphobia: "You
know, Michael, you don't realize this but your 100% pro-trans position is
harming children, women, Lesbians, scientists and academicians in general. You
are out of touch with the reality of what is happening in the world. Trans
people are a sorry group with a strange malady, but they are making an
aggressive push for power in western societies, and their ideas are
unscientific." I bit my lip, but it was getting hard to put up with nasty tone,
insults and mudslinging. Still being civil, I replied: "There is no point
debating this issue further."
June 17, 2024 — Murdock gave me permission to reveal his name, so I did, in a
second update to the same page.
In a June 17 email Murdock appeared to lose touch with reality, saying
"Actually, you were the one who resumed our conversation, not me." This is a
bald lie, or Murdock has lost his mind, since he had contacted me out of the
blue on June 10, after we had agreed years before to cease communication over
the same issue. My response: "You emailed me and you brought up the subject of
transgenders. Read your own emails, are you insane?"
Murdock continued to lecture me in a flurry of June 17 emails, sometimes in bad
English: "Our bodies tell is who and what we are." But why didn't Murdock's body
tell him to be heterosexual? Is it because the part of his brain that controls
sexual attraction prefers male features and anatomy? Does Murdock's body not
telling his brain how to behave prove, or tend to prove, my point?
Finally, I had had it. Ignoring my civil requests for him to top harassing me,
Murdock emailed: "The standards of society must be based on reality. This is
reality: (1) Human beings are physical creatures. (2) A man is a person with a
male reproductive system. (3) A man who feels like a woman is a man who feels
like a woman, and nothing more." I replied: "You made up #3 without any basis
and there is nothing more to be said. Let’s drop the subject because you make me
sick to my stomach."
After agreeing not to email me again, perhaps showing a compulsive nature,
Murdock sent me three more emails in which he accused me of being abusive and
bullying, when I had repeatedly tried to avoid friction by getting him to drop
the subject.
June 23, 2024 — Murdock went public with his attack on me, in which he failed to
mention that I had asked him several times, with considerable forbearance
considering what he said and how he said it, to drop the subject. Did I finally
tell him what I really think of him? Yes, I did, but I did my best to avoid such
unpleasantness. And I believe everything I said was justified, and more.
MY ERATOSPHERE PAGE UPDATES
During my updates I expressed my reservations about Murdock, saying:
Let me mention that Murdock and I are decidedly
not friends and hadn't spoken to each other in years prior
to this incident. To my knowledge the only things we agree about are the need
for poets to have freedom of speech and the fact that free speech is not allowed by the
Erratics of Eratosphere.
...
While I initially sympathized with Murdock about his abuse at
the hands of the Erratics, I was soon reminded why I had cut off communication
with him years before, as he berated my "lack of understanding" about the
immense danger transgenders pose to society. After I told him to fuck off, this
poem popped into my head...
The Dunciad, Continued
by Michael R. Burch
Caleb Murdock
saw a transgender,
said to himself,
"I need to rear-end her!"
"I'll say she's a fraud!
I'll say she's a fake!
That not to be like me
was her mistake!"
"Although I'm effete,
although I'm gay,
she's not macho like me,
and that's not okay!"
"I'll whine and I'll cry
when my poems are critiqued,
then attack someone
I consider a freak!"
Caleb Murdock
saw a transgender,
said to himself,
"I need to rear-end her!"
The HyperTexts