Why Doesn't the Internet Like My Cousin?

I consider myself a nominally reasonable, fundamentally civilized urban professional. So why do I find so fascinating the raw hatred with with several folks on the Internet view my cousin Lee Goldberg. Lee's brother Tod finds it fascinating too. Tod has aggregated several particularly venomous diatribes about Lee and posted them proudly on his blog. Not to be outdone, Lee has posted a link to Tod's post on Lee's blog.

Considering the anger directed toward Lee by many in the science fiction fandom community, I expected his latest Monk book, "Mr. Monk in Outer Space," -- in which the OCD-afflicted sleuth must solve the murder of the creator of a cult SF show, committed just outside of a convention -- to be a vicious character attack upon the SF community. Yet I found the book to be even-handed and, yes, even compassionate and understanding toward fandom. I expected to see blood on the floor. I found only Bactine and band-aids. (Yes, lousy metaphor. There's a reason my relatives are the novelists.) Still, fun book. And still time to buy lots of them for friends for the holidays. Only eight shopping days and all that . . . .