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Elizabeth Sandifer

Elizabeth Sandifer created Eruditorum Press. She’s not really sure why she did that, and she apologizes for the inconvenience. She currently writes Last War in Albion, a history of the magical war between Alan Moore and Grant Morrison. She used to write TARDIS Eruditorum, a history of Britain told through the lens of a ropey sci-fi series. She also wrote Neoreaction a Basilisk, writes comics these days, and has ADHD so will probably just randomly write some other shit sooner or later. Support Elizabeth on Patreon.

44 Comments

  1. Jack Graham
    September 9, 2016 @ 9:39 am

    Are these people for real?

    Reply

    • David Gerard
      September 9, 2016 @ 10:03 am

      There’s a reason this article is festooned in links.

      Reply

    • CliffDor
      November 13, 2018 @ 8:34 pm

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      Reply

  2. Yossarianduck
    September 9, 2016 @ 11:01 am

    My goodness, that My Immortal riff at the end has me grinning, I’d take that over Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality any day.

    Reply

    • David Gerard
      September 9, 2016 @ 1:31 pm

      May I earnestly recommend Harry Potter Becomes a Communist. It’s just about perfect.

      Reply

      • Yossarianduck
        September 9, 2016 @ 2:36 pm

        Simply beautiful, it’s like a Babushka doll of straw men (or straw women, as it were).

        Reply

      • Jack Graham
        September 9, 2016 @ 2:53 pm

        If I had unlimited time and patience I’d write my own serious version of that premise.

        Reply

        • mr_mond
          September 11, 2016 @ 7:34 am

          There is nothing I would like to read more.

          Reply

  3. Peteski
    September 9, 2016 @ 11:14 am

    That really was something.

    Reply

  4. Sleepyscholar
    September 9, 2016 @ 2:18 pm

    What impressed me about the cover is not fingerpicking an electric (even I can do that) or playing with a broken ankle (give me enough whisky…) but that she can play the guitar standing up without a strap.

    Proof, if any were needed, of the supernatural power of Randian Objectivism when combined with pseudo-Norse Fascism.

    Reply

    • David Gerard
      September 9, 2016 @ 2:48 pm

      DAMMIT I DIDN’T SPOT THAT

      Reply

      • Sleepyscholar
        September 10, 2016 @ 2:51 pm

        In the words of Bob Mortimer: ‘And it is to your credit!’

        Reply

        • David Gerard
          September 11, 2016 @ 4:32 pm

          AND IT’S NOT EVEN PLUGGED IN

          AND DOESN’T EVEN HAVE STRAP BUTTONS OR A PLUG SOCKET

          TRULY IT IS AN ETHEREAL AND PERFECT AIR GUITAR

          Reply

  5. David Gerard
    September 9, 2016 @ 2:49 pm

    Things I left out:

    • couldn’t find a good place to call it “Lurkey’s Chud”, as the cover seems to have it

    • The cover: Total Distortion: You Are Dead

    • The cover: reminiscent of a Nazi Taylor Swift variant (except Swift is a lot taller)

    • unkind speculation on RGUS’ historical relationship with human breasts, which were cut to the suggestion to take life drawing classes. (He added one recently which literally looks like implants gone bad. YOU KNOW, BOOBS ARE MOSTLY NOT SQUARE.)

    • if you search Record Producer from Dimension X, you’ll find all the pro-audio forums Wulf got banned from for spamming his book

    • the half a chapter on “Gillian Hitler”, where he revels in his own sparkling wit; Jasmine from Fatal Lipstick (the cover girl) is of course a huge fan

    • fellow posters on the Electrical Audio forums (Steve Albini’s site) telling him to shut it with the politics. “Maybe stick to the Tech forum, Fenris. You come across like a bigoted 15-year-old retard on this one.”

    • the bit in a Scotty chapter where he interrupts his own bludgeoning author sound recording polemic with a bludgeoning author political polemic (which might actually count as foreshadowing parts 2 and 3)

    • oh my goodness the Islamophobia, though that doesn’t kick in until the later parts

    • Objectivists tend not to be into Rothbard because he and Rand hated each other, but then fanfic is all about wrong ships.

    Reply

  6. Larry W
    September 9, 2016 @ 3:20 pm

    Has there ever been an explanation of Libertarian values and ideas that wasn’t a flaming radioactive manure pile?

    Below is a link to one of the funniest takedowns of Ayn Rand I have seen. Randian heroes talk with Cobra Commander (much of terrorist leader’s response is facepalming)
    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/series/atlas-shrugged/the-cobra-commander-dialogues/

    Reply

    • Simple Desultory Philip
      September 12, 2016 @ 6:25 pm

      Oh man. This is solid gold. Thank you.

      Reply

  7. Daibhid Ceannaideach
    September 9, 2016 @ 5:17 pm

    In addition to all the other reasons this is awful, can we also pause for a moment to consider the absurd doublethink of a book with a gratuitously sexualised cover girl which despises the character so portrayed for her appearance?

    Reply

  8. Camestros Felapton
    September 9, 2016 @ 8:55 pm

    ‘Aztecs’ is a Vox Day tell.

    Reply

    • David Gerard
      September 9, 2016 @ 9:20 pm

      Please elaborate – I’m pretty certain this guy is a real person who is not Vox Day, and he was using “Aztecs” to talk about the 2011 version of the book. Is “Aztecs” some more general esoteric-wingnut conspiracy trope?

      Reply

      • Camestros Felapton
        September 9, 2016 @ 11:13 pm

        Vox often refers to Mexicans as “Aztecs” both pejoratively and also in terms of Vox’s own supposed multi-ethnicity.

        He’s been doing it since at least his World Net Daily columns days.

        I don’t know how common it is in other rightwing circles though.

        Reply

  9. WordCubed
    September 9, 2016 @ 9:12 pm

    I’ve only ever heard white nationalists use the term “Nordic features”. Or just Nordic in general.

    Reply

    • Jarl
      September 10, 2016 @ 9:46 am

      Hey, that’s not fair. There’s also a belief among alien conspiracy folks in a race of nordic aliens.

      Probably a lot of overlap there, I’ll admit.

      Reply

    • prandeamus
      September 10, 2016 @ 9:58 am

      I don’t think that Nordic is particularly right wing as a term in itself. I read it and thought “ah, clichéd tall thin and blond”. It’s not great prose mind you.

      I will admit that Nordic is next to Aryan in some people’s thesauruses, though. Scandanavian is a term with fewer political connotations.

      Reading the prose extracts above I would recommend a much better editor. Too many adjectives, my dear Mozart.

      Reply

  10. Fenris Wulf
    September 10, 2016 @ 10:27 am

    I appreciate any and all reviews, including negative ones. However, this is not a review. It’s a bunch of pseudo-witty sarcasm that has nothing to do with the book itself. Also, when you take it upon yourself to write a book review, you’re supposed to read more than just the preview.

    I’m amazed that you would put that much effort into nit-picking it line by line. When Alexei Panshin did that kind of thing, at least he had the sense to go after a prominent writer.

    Reply

    • Camestros Felapton
      September 10, 2016 @ 10:32 am

      It’s actually-witty rather than pseudo-witty.

      Reply

    • David Gerard
      September 10, 2016 @ 2:35 pm

      SELF: It is a 400 page… I’ve read 200 pages of it and that is a 200 page recruiting leaflet for the BNP.

      LITTLEJOHN: Well, you can’t comment until you have read the other 200.

      SELF: Why? Does it suddenly turn into Tolstoy?

      Reply

  11. Tim B.
    September 10, 2016 @ 12:12 pm

    As an aside, and I don’t want to waste time or energy on the Stefan Molyneux make-up facet of the MRA cesspit, but I’m going to go ahead and assume that the owners & positions of power in the cosmetics production & retail industry as well as the media industries that promote/discuss etc the products are almost exclusively male.

    And who names their padded cell Anubis? (sorry, randomly capitalised words are like bad kerning to me)

    Also the Steve Albini analog reference, how can you get sued for lack of misrepresentation?

    Reply

    • Fenris Wulf
      September 10, 2016 @ 12:30 pm

      And then there are people who are unintentionally funny…

      Reply

      • Tim B.
        September 10, 2016 @ 2:03 pm

        And lack self awareness…

        Reply

  12. Lovecraft in Brooklyn
    September 11, 2016 @ 1:49 am

    Harlan Ellison’s SPIDER’S KISS was a weird little anti-Elvis rock and roll novel… I’d read more exaggerated tales of the music industry if they were decent.

    Reply

    • Relevant Tangent
      September 12, 2016 @ 4:32 pm

      Are you the same LiB as used to be on Metafilter?

      Reply

  13. Kit Power
    September 11, 2016 @ 10:28 am

    I quite dug Powder as a music industry novel, but I think that’s the only one I’ve read. Really enjoyed this post. More please, should you be able to bare it.

    Reply

  14. Mixerman
    September 11, 2016 @ 2:45 pm

    Fenris Wulf used to haunt my forums on ProSoundWeb. He started out as Pricey before he became Fenris Wulf. I can’t remember when we finally cut him loose, but his real name is Brian Price, and he’s no “insider” when it comes to the Music Business, or the recording industry. He’s never even made a record of note, and clearly he struggle with originality.

    He also wrote that “satire” (don’t you have to actually know something about what you’re satirizing?) in the early aughts. He may have added or revisited it years later, but there really can’t be much in there of any relevance to how the music business works today.

    If Music Business satires interest you, I would recommend my newest book and audiobook #Mixerman and the Billionheir Apparent which can be found in hardcover at your favorite book retailer, online or otherwise. Check out the trailer.

    Enjoy, #Mixerman

    Reply

    • David Gerard
      September 11, 2016 @ 4:11 pm

      His legal name is apparently Fenris Wulf, so I’m happy to call him that. And I was delighted to see you are still writing 😀

      Reply

  15. Mixerman
    September 11, 2016 @ 3:06 pm

    Oops! https://youtu.be/w12uaTuHh6Q

    Thanks for the shoutout David Gerard!

    Reply

  16. dwoz
    September 11, 2016 @ 3:53 pm

    So…I’m one of the admins at the audio industry forum website where “Fenris Wulf” a.k.a. Brian Price lurked and honed his libertarian pen, through the mid-‘aughts.

    I may have to personally take some blame for this book of his, as I was in the early part of that time a willing foil for his staunchly libertarian blather. It was, after all, the early days of forums, and of internet troll fights. We all thought it was good wholesome fun…and compared to today’s flavor of internet trolling, it was degrees-of-magnitude more civil. Various of us forum participants took turns “beating up” on Pricey/Fenris/Brian’s libertarian screeds, his ideas being such easy, low-hanging-fruit targets. Who knew that shooting fish in a barrel could be this fun?

    However, as time went on, it slowly became clear amongst the moderators and admins of the site that something was a little bit “sour” with our internet forum friend Brian, who alternated handles between “Pricey” and “Fenris Wulf.” sometimes conducting sock-puppet conversations with himself.

    The similarities that Phil Sandifer discovers between “Loki’s Child” and “The Daily Adventures of Mixerman” are absolutely no accident: Pricey/Fenris/Brian started this book during that period, at Eric Sarafin’s audio industry forum website built around the “Mixerman” persona, half as a paean to Mixerman, a sort of aggrandizng “fan fiction” effort, and half as a refutation or rebuttal of him and the persona of Mixerman. At that time, the monikker “Mixerman” was still an anonymous pseudonym, its real owner (Serafin) a closely-guarded secret. This annoyed Pricey/Fenris/Brian NO END, and he constantly tried to divine the true identity of mixerman. Pricey/Brian/Fenris was himself only associated to the music industry in the most tangential way…a hobbyist, who had done stints as a radio station tech.

    It was quite common at that time for actual industry pros to keep their real-life identity quiet (Bruce Sweiden being the notable exception), as it was de rigur on the forums for belligerent bedroom-recordist hobbyists to REFUTE what the pros said about recording. Real pros quickly tired of this nonsense, sighed, and left, leaving the unwashed to squabble amongst themselves about this microphone or that preamp. So there was always a sort of mystique about anonymous handles…was this a REAL industry person, or was it just another punter like me?

    This question was BURNING in Brian/Pricey/Fenris’ posts. He was obsessed with it. He was also obsessed with Objectivism, which he managed to inject into discussions about compressors, studio control room layouts, tour hospitality riders, acoustic foam, and whether guitar amplifiers should be on chairs or on the floor when recording.

    But alas…all good fun must come to an end, and so it was with Brian/Pricey/Fenris. His writings on the forum became increasingly unhinged, off-topic, sometimes threatening…prompting many site moderators to voice deep concerns about Brian’s state of mind, whether he was capable of hurting himself or others. I do not hold myself out to be a psychiatrist of any repute, but there were many characteristics that one finds in the DSM-V. Since the audio industry content of his posts had diminished to approximately zero, he was eventually heavily moderated, and ultimately banned.

    Apparently though, that book he wrote as an “answer” to “The Daily Adventures of Mixerman” lived on. My entire internet forum experience with “Fenris Wulf” left a decidedly bad taste in my mouth. Much of it directed against myself, as I eventually realized that I had been unwittingly baiting and encouraging someone that needed (and likely wanted) to be treated quite differently. I hope that his publishing this book is a catharsis and that it lets him move on, into a positive real-life experience.

    Reply

  17. Fenris Wulf
    September 11, 2016 @ 5:23 pm

    Christ, I can’t believe I’m still being harassed by Mixerman’s clique, twelve years later.

    The above is a combination of half-truths and confusions. Yes, I got into political flame wars and willingly made an ass of myself. It occasionally made for good comedy. I did not hijack threads, nor did I ever start a political thread myself.

    I was mildly curious about Mixerman’s identity, as were most people, but I respected his privacy. I borrowed his “studio diary” idea, but I took it in a much more gonzo direction and I was careful to avoid plagiarism. Eventually I turned it into something that was good enough to get a publishing deal.

    The zany humor on the original “RecPit” was an inspiration. A few things in my book will ring a bell, such as the “Gromko” which is my take on the infamous “NibNob.” Unfortunately, some of the personal attacks got out of hand, and consequently i haven’t had anything to do with Mixerman’s forum for the past 10 years.

    I have a pretty cool analog studio, I do a lot of low-budget recordings, and I had a weekly radio show that reached the entire Sacramento area, until I got bored with it. That’s the extent of my street cred. I’m a semi-pro audio engineer with a modest literary talent.

    Mixerman and his cronies periodically go after people they don’t like in a manner that is more befitting to teenage girls than to professional audio engineers. We’re getting too old for Internet slappy-fights and I’m sure we all have better things to do.

    Reply

    • dwoz
      September 11, 2016 @ 5:44 pm

      “Fenris,” it’s good to see that you’re still among the living (quite frankly…), and I mean no personal affront. You’re right, we are too old for that kind of slappy-fight nonsense.

      So, maybe you’re not a Salinger, who’s freshman effort was his crowning literary achievement. Perhaps it will be your sophmore work that tops that bar!

      I hope all is well with you, and good luck!

      Reply

    • Elizabeth Sandifer
      September 11, 2016 @ 7:59 pm

      Oh fuck off. You just published a book with a press run by a white nationalist who’s made a career out of harassing people and are now whining about a bad review you got on an avowedly left-wing site. You really don’t get to crash a conversation among people who fucking despise everything you stand for and then complain that the people talking shit about you are harassing you. This ain’t your fucking safe space, and literally nothing that happens here is even remotely aimed at you, targeting you, or trying to talk to you.

      Reply

  18. Fenris Wulf
    September 11, 2016 @ 6:44 pm

    Well, I’m glad we can be friendly after all these years. I recall that you’re a fairly accomplished person who’s had a lot of interesting jobs, even if I didn’t like your political views.

    I remember the Photoshop job someone did of “The Mixerman Movie” starring Bill Murray, which was a hoot. I still have my first-edition copy of the book. Mixerman was one influence out of many. In any case, I’m sure he would prefer not to be associated with my book due to the political elements. If I do a second book, it’ll be a gonzo radio novel.

    Reply

  19. Fenris Wulf
    September 11, 2016 @ 9:26 pm

    @Phil: Inviting people to revisit old fights from 12 years ago is bad form. It’s all right if people hate my book, but I prefer to write my own bio.

    I knew the Mixerman connection would come up eventually, so I took the opportunity to acknowledge it and move on.

    Reply

    • Elizabeth Sandifer
      September 11, 2016 @ 9:42 pm

      We’d all prefer to write our own bio, but history doesn’t work that way, and you’ve consciously allied yourself with someone who’s an open eliminationist towards literally everyone who works for this site and practically everyone who visits it, so my sympathy for your “boo-hoo people are dredging up the fact that I was an annoying fuckwit even before I found Vox Day” act is literally zero.

      Reply

  20. The Flan in the High Castle
    September 13, 2016 @ 7:14 pm

    I think the only piece of music industry fiction I’ve really enjoyed was Frank Cottrell-Boyce’s 24 Hour Party People. Largely because it admitted up-front that it was more interested in being a good film than a factually accurate one. That Howard Devoto scene… classic.

    Reply

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