Theresa Duncan Suicide and the Mysteries of Blogging
Here’s a follow-up to the story about the suicide of writer/game-designer/ blogger Theresa Duncan, penned by Duncan acquaintance Kate Coe for the LA Weekly. The article refers to my July 25 post about Duncan. Coe notes the coverage of Duncan’s suicide by bloggers, who weighed in on everything from her brush with Scientology to her mental state, without ever having actually met her. A portion of my post was based on statements made by friends and co-workers of Duncan in the LA Times that Duncan suffered from paranoia, as well as two quotes about paranoia that appeared in a prominent place on Duncan’s blog.
Coe’s article is very interesting and not entirely complimentary. Coe says that Duncan was a talented person who frequently lied about her background and credentials, and that a couple of years before her death she took “a minor stab at journalism” that resulted in allegations of plagiarism, allegations which Duncan made light of. Coe goes on to reveal more details about Duncan’s paranoia:
According to Nichols and other friends who spoke to the Weekly only off record, Duncan began blaming her lack of success on the Church of Scientology, saying that the church was influencing “the studios.†Duncan accused her skeptical friends of stealing hair from her hairbrush to send to the Scientology Center, Nichols says, and confided to Nichols, “I really don’t have any friends. two of Duncan’s acquaintances, who refused to be named, say they were so unsettled by Duncan’s campaigns by e-mail, where she accused them of trying to hurt her or Blake’s careers, that they contacted lawyers. Nichols says of Duncan and Blake, “They didn’t just burn their bridges, they exploded them.â€
Although I had never heard of Duncan before the New York Times reported on her suicide, I was drawn to the story because of the high profile of the suicide victims (Duncan’s boyfriend, up-and-coming artist Jeremy Blake, apparently killed himself a week after he found Duncan’s body) and because of the strange and fantastical nature of Duncan’s blog, The Wit of the Staircase. It’s interesting to see how blogs and print interact in a situation like this. The story also goes to the issue of how much of our personalities, neuroses, and intentions we share with the public when we blog. It wasn’t until after Duncan died that many people saw her blog for the first time. The writer was gone, but anyone could read her blog and search for clues that, under better circumstances, might have alerted someone to the fact that she was tottering dangerously close to the edge.
Posted in Ephemera, News & Politics, On Writing
August 2nd, 2007 at 8:43 am
Last para: not a year, a week–just a typo I’m sure but if folks are quoting you…
best,
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:22 am
thanks, susan!
August 2nd, 2007 at 9:47 am
Hi, great and thoughtful post. Just want to point out that Kate Coe’s piece ran in the “LA Weekly,” not the “Los Angeles Times.”
August 2nd, 2007 at 10:59 am
ooh, thanks!
August 3rd, 2007 at 4:47 am
Michelle, you seem drawn to this story. I remember hearing how “The Year of Fog” got its start…
August 3rd, 2007 at 5:07 am
Karen! Are you suggesting the topic for my next novel?
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:37 am
You are one of the many instructors who insisted that we should pay attention to what nags at us…
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:52 am
Did I say that?! Oh, yep, I guess I did say that.
August 7th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
[...] About 4 weeks ago, a writer named Theresa Duncan reportedly killed herself in New York. She had a blog of some acclaim that until her death she updated daily. Her death was not widely reported even by by NY and LA papers and blogs — she’d recently moved from Venice to the East Village — until after the disappearance of her longtime companion and collaborator, the artist Jeremy Blake. He walked into the ocean a week or so after finding her body in their apartment and was at that time presumed dead. Reports assert that a body was eventually recovered and identified as his through dental records. An ongoing investigation is presumedly underway, but as of this time no further information has been released nor have the texts of either of their last notes been released. [...]
August 7th, 2007 at 10:51 pm
The most interesting thing about Theresa Duncan’s blog is how unoriginal it was. (For example, most of her posts written under the label “clothes” are simply a copy of something from style.com + a link–no further comment). The posts she did pen herself are sophomoric and convoluted. (Clarity is one of the hallmarks of good writing.) Other posts (for example those on the history of electricity) are fine examples of blatant plagiarism. (See my blog for proof of her posts on electricity cribbed from other sources.) And yet she’s being touted as “brilliant.” She may indeed been smart or clever in her other endeavors but her blog shows little evidence of brilliance. (Let’s leave that word for the Ingmar Bergmans of the world.)
August 8th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
this is just another story for the LA writers,they’re all excited because they maybe brushed shoulders with Theresa or exchanged an email or 2.Katie Coe,Chris Lee,just like some here,make vague statements about timelines. Katie Coe wants to believe the Lunar Society of Los Angeles is a fanstasy.If she were cool enough,she’d know what it is-it has different names in other cities,Spilt Milk in D.C.
Calling her site unoriginal,says you just don’t get it.
the Staircase for me was like a daily magazine,Theresa shared with her readership 7000+ a day things that caught her eye,what she liked,inserting literature-she could teach you in the best way-she was a free thinker.Ambitious.The part in Ms. Coes’ write up toward the end where she sums up Theresa’s attributes as if her affirmation or recognition is important to the question,she then adds more of her usual lame analogy,cautionery tale
lingo-tha tin the end it didn’t win,she used the word win-I can’t remember the rest.
Theresa was great,that’s all I know-all you people talking about her who didn’t know her,so called friends-degrading her personal accounts-there are many accounts of Scientologist harassing people.
One real asshole Schlie believes Theresa killed herself having realised she’d destroyed Jeremy’s art career. Jeremy’s work is part of major permanent collections,he was preparing a show in Chelsea,one at the Corcoran-he’s an established artist,he can do pretty much what he wants-maybe not film in hollywood,that wouldn’t be the end of the world for either of them.
If Theresa and Jeremy were only Theresa’s big spin,her fantasy-why is everyone writing about them a month later-you know how many real wannabes there ar in Hollywood who are alive and can’t get an ounce of the attention,Theresa and Jeremy these writer’s kind of pool in with this crowd.
None of these writers are even in the same class with
Theresa- this is more interesting than a novel,a novel would be redundant-if you are into that be a journalist.
August 11th, 2007 at 12:12 am
[...] He has also lamented on other blogs, here, here, and here. [...]