This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hobbydrama by /u/pillowcase-of-eels on 2024-06-16 13:52:32+00:00.
INPATIENT FOLLOW-UP SURVEY: LIFE AFTER THE ASYLUM
It’s very easy to use your problems as an excuse. What’s much harder is to move forwards, as Emilie knows. I find it hilarious that she is the one telling people that they’re ‘inmates.’ You are not an 'inmate’; nor are you a 'number.’ The best way to deal with the Asylum? Leave it. 🐀
This is your story
Should you choose to remember
Well, I hope that it’s true
I’ve finally a reason to let it die
Let it die
You’ve given me a reason to let it die
Let it die…
Let’s see what became of our whimsical cast!
VIPs first, yeah? Courtney Love never stopped Courtney Loving, but she seems to have come a long way since the dark pits of 2005. She recently did an excellent BBC podcast, called “Courtney Love’s Women”, about the female musicians that have made a mark on her life. If you need your fix of interesting and problematic lady rock stars, you know where to look next! Nooo, Courtney doesn’t talk about her one-time violinist (that would have been wild). That being said, in episode 3, she reminisces about a collab she tried to set up between witch goddess Stevie Nicks and “bitter genius” Billy Corgan, simply sighing that “nothing came of it” – and concludes the anecdote with a quip that feels darkly relevant here.🎤
The erstwhile Bloody Crumpets have gone back to their own things, some with decent success. Veronica is a burlesque dancer and lifestyle-coach-type-person in New Orleans. In the months after she fell out with EA, she underwent life-saving skin cancer surgery (this is your cosmic sign to go get that mole checked! 🐀), and published her own hardback, illustrated, semi-autobiographical book. It got pretty good reviews, and a sweet blurb from Neil Gaiman. Vecona, the Asylum Seamstress, is still a fashion designer; she’s grown out of bizarro-goth costumery, and moved on to film noir chic. Lady Jo Hee, the (First) One That Got Away, is rumored to be a cello teacher somewhere. Another Crumpet… sells essential oils, I think? Another is a theater actor who, randomly, had an uncredited role in Men in Black 3. The youngest recruit, who dropped out of the Crumpets to go to clown college, now sings “gay cuntry songs”. (What a resumé. I, for one, am very proud of her.) Some of them are still friends, and hang out once in a while, sans EA.
EA still lives in Manhattan with her partner and her dog.🪞 Per her wishes, that’s about all we know. Maybe she’s bidding her time for a spectacular comeback. Maybe she’s doing angry pull-ups while staring at a list of names taped to the wall, like they do in prison movies. Maybe she’s training to become a professional pastry chef📝, which she used to say was her other dream job if the music thing didn’t work out. Maybe, like so many of us, she’s just taking life one day at a time and trying not to fuck it up.
However she’s spending her days now, let us hope that this break from the public eye has given her some breathing room, and time to focus on her health and well-being. Although I suspect that she might have a hard time believing this, a lot of current and former fans truly do wish her the best. Even those still holding out for new art (there’s a handful!) would rather she be retired and happy, than working and miserable. We gawk, we balk, we snark, we complain, we wish she would get out of her own way, etc – but I think time and maturity have brought an amount of perspective and empathy, and softened the intensely personal rage and disappointment that used to plague (ha!) the fanbase.
Speaking of which, what became of the fans?
To my knowledge, FantineDormouse pretty much entered the scene, accidentally stepped on the Asylum nuclear button, and exited stage right, never to be heard from again. Not under that identity, anyway. I’d be very curious to hear her side of the story and her perspective on how it all played out, but I also enjoy her status as a Jane Doe, an everyfan of sorts. It could have been anyone!
The Collector, last I heard, got better. He licked his wounds, moved on from his EA obsession, and thankfully found a compatible donor. Oh yeah, right, missing context that I left out because it wasn’t useful to the plot at the time: parallel to harassing EA and her mods, the Collector was also gravely ill and actively searching for an organ transplant. I’m bringing this up now to point out, once again, that we often only see a fraction of what people are going through as they spiral into unhinged, self-sabotaging, abusive behavior. (Also: there are no secondary roles, no NPCs, no stock villains in real life. No matter what two-dimensional archetype the internet / the narrative / their own dumbass behavior flattens them into, everyone you will ever interact with or read about, on and offline, is a full protagonist with a complex backstory and many ongoing arcs. We could all probably use the reminder once in a while.)
Since just about everyone else quit (including EA), two former inmates have become the de facto custodians of the shambolic Asylum: Faerie from Wayward Victorian Confessions, and Mika from She Fights Like a Girl / Asylum Oracle. A toast to the REAL Asylum MVPs! This entire write-up is a tribute to their work and dedication. Thank you guys, for everything.
Faerie and Mika (and a number of their predecessors in the game, who also deserve credit) are true blue fans who manage to remain smart, critical, and level-headed – which has allowed them to run and moderate their spaces, in my opinion, with more tact, nuance, and good humor than EA’s entourage ever did. These unsung heroes keep the lights on for a handful of us old-timers to hold our… virtual support groups, I guess? Veteran’s club? Whenever we feel nostalgic, we can drop by to rant, reminisce, and indulge in our weird little specific interest. I’m happy that after all these years, we can still nerd out and be weird together. Sure, it’s giving “Hotel California”, but hey! Do you ever really get over your first love? Or the first cult you escaped from?
For all the rage and vitriol that spilled over the past decade, there’s still an overwhelming tenderness and attachment in the way many “reformed” fans talk about EA, whether they still consume her art or not.
Most of it, of course, is tied to the usual reasons that any artist becomes a favorite artist. Namely: people associate her with a pivotal moment in their lives (usually their teens or early adulthood), they credit her words and music for helping them through difficult times, and, crucially, she was a gateway to other things that changed their lives for the better.
I thought about sharing My EA Story to illustrate, but… I really don’t need to. Even though the specifics vary, “my” story has been told a hundred times, in a hundred ways, for what feels like a hundred years, by the Great Asylum Polyphonic Ensemble.
Content Warning for the collective ways we were primed to become Plague Rats: mental illness, sexual assault, self-harm, suicide, abortion, death, you know the drill by now.
There was a tweet going round a couple days ago that was like “who was the first woman who taught you it was okay to be angry.” (…) A lot of the answers were Alanis Morisette, Buffy, Fiona Apple, y’know. And i was always aware of those women, but i was really too young to get into them. No, for me, the answer is Emilie Autumn. (…) I was figuring out i was queer and i was fat and i felt weird and awkward and horrible, all the time. But i had good parents and privilege so i didn’t feel like i was allowed to be as miserable as i was. (…) Her music made space for me to feel the things i was feeling. (…) [It]helped me come to terms with my ugly emotions, and maybe in hindsight it wasn’t super healthy romanticizing my depression like that, but it helped me survive y’all.
🔍I discovered her music in a very dark and horrible time in my life and she has helped me through so much, and for that I will be forever grateful.
I was super suicidal, but her lyrics inspired me to hang on a bit longer. Even through my mental health struggles her music has been my friend, and at times strength.
TAFWVG helped me quite a bit, at least the original with the diary entries etc. It helped to know there was someone who tho…
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/1dh81ry/musicvisual_art_emilie_autumns_asylum_pt_7/
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