Feeling Left Out of the Whole "Venom Cock" Thing

I guess I didn't have as much fun at WFC as I thought I did, since I only found out about the "venom cock" brou-ha-ha while waiting for my endlessly delayed flight home. (I was hanging out with a group of other editors, plotting against writers, as of course we always do, and among us was John Joseph Adams, the Slush God himself and Ground Zero of the Venom Cock Imbroglio.)

I hadn't previously heard of the wonder that is the Venom Cock, but John gave us all a quick rundown, and we laughed, and moved onto other things, such as crushing dreams and blighting the world. (Perhaps I exaggerate.)

But the blogosphere had already picked up on the Venom Cock, firstly during the con through Cheryl Morgan's reports on Emerald City, and then via the spirited defense of the Venom Cock there and elsewhere by many authors, readers, and authors who thought the "cool kids" shouldn't be making fun of other writers. (Since I'm apparently not one of the cool kids to begin with, nor a writer, I'm agnostic on the subject.)

A day or two ago, the major points -- that the words "venom cock" do indeed appear in both the except and the novel itself, and that "laughingstock of WFC" meant that possibly several dozen people had read the excerpt, not liked it, and laughed -- seemed to be settled. But the SF world will never let a good feud die, even if the people who started it aren't fighting anymore.

Now Tobias Buckell has gotten dragged into this, by E.E. Knight, neither of which I thought had anything to do with it. It's all threatening to spin out of control and destroy the world as we know it.

So now I'm not sure if I should be happy that I'm not involved, or annoyed that something like this could go on without me. On balance, I think it's just that I wish I had more opportunities to use phrases like "venom cock," which appeal to something silly deep inside me.

Venom Cock. Venom Cock. venom cock. venom cock. venom cock.

There: now I feel better.