Dear Mr. Terikayi, The Sequel

The Los Angeles Times ran an article today about Dean Koontz's "Mr. Teriyaki" remarks at Men of Mystery event last Saturday.  I didn't talk to the reporter so, of course, I am the only one of the writers offended by the remarks that they quoted (using the post from my blog). They did, however, talk to Dean, MofM organizer Joan Hansen, and my friend Joe Konrath.

 

While I stand behind what I posted here,  I don't think Dean Koontz is a racist.  I think he  showed poor judgement writing those letters in the first place and then sharing them with an audience. He made a mistake.  That doesn't make him a racist and its unfair to accuse him of being one because of it.

The article also has a troubling inaccuracy -- the reporter states that "the mystery group is speaking out against what it perceived as Koontz's blatant racism" and later "writers who attended the speech are divided over whether the comments constituted racism."  How can both be true? They can't. While quite a few writers have also publicly expressed dismay over Dean's remarks -- Eric Stone, Charles Fleming, Rob Roberge, and my brother Tod for example -- there is no organized "mystery group" condemning him and it was wrong of The Times to imply that there was.

 

Dean accused me in our phone conversation  and in the article of having some other agenda. I don't and I can't imagine what he thinks it might be.  I'm not sorry I posted about his remarks, and I stand behind every word,  but I wasn't happy to see it hit the papers. He didn't deserve that.

UPDATE: I've heard from the LA Times. They acknowledge the errors and will run a correction. Meanwhile, some other blogs are weighing in on the LA Times story: here, here, here, here, here here, here and here.

Comments

[Rob Gregory Browne]

Lee, I don't even think Mr. Koontz made a mistake, nor do I think his speech was racist -- not based on the version I read in HIDEAWAY.

As I said before, I think you and others are being oversensitive about this whole thing. It should never have been an issue.

That it even got into the Times is ridiculous.

[Chadwick H. Saxelid]

Must be a slow news cycle. Nonetheless, the dust-up will probably get lumped in with the Native American groups that protest the use of the term Redskins and others of the ilk.

Dean accused me in our phone conversation and in the article of having some other agenda.

Ah-ha! You're part of the vast conspiracy, I knew it!

[--john--]

An anthology of cautionary tales in this here flap.

--john--

[marky48]

Yeah, I think the letter made his point without going into actual ethnic derision. The Teriyaki part was the worst of it. Quoting a blog without contacting the writer is strange. He should have e-mailed Lee in support of his blog passage like the rest.

[mhs]

Why does Rob Gregory Browne keep saying that he doesn't think the speech was offensive when he wasn't there?

I was there. I walked out of the room.

[Sue Trowbridge]

Lee is quoted in today's Contra Costa Times, in a column about the revamped TVGuide:
New TV Guide has fan salivating

[Rob Gregory Browne]

MHS,

As I said before, I READ the same basic speech in the afterward of HIDEWAY -- and I have made that distinction a number of times.

Until someone can tell me that the speech was substantially different from the printed version, I see no reason to change my POV.

[JA Konrath]

I was horribly misquoted in that LA Times article.

I'd originally said, "RUSTY NAIL, the highly anticipated third book in the Jack Daniels series, will be released next June by Hyperion. Find out more at JAKonrath.com."

Damn reporters.

[Danny Barer]

On top of the other problems with the story, the third paragraph shows some conjunction confusion (or is it prepositional perplexity?).

[Mark Terry]

It's been sort of interesting to watch this from the sidelines. I can't comment on Koontz's speech because I didn't hear it, and my only exposure to it is from Lee's blog, which doesn't actually seem to quote from it. But based on DorothyL and everything else, apparently there were thousands and thousands of people at this event who heard every word Mr. Koontz said and have decided to weigh in on the subject.

I wonder if this is how that rumor about that guy feeding a big crowd with a loaf of bread and a couple fish got started.

Best,
Mark Terry

[tod goldberg]

Well, to be fair Mark, there were 65 authors and nearly 600 attendees, which is a pretty large amount of people who experienced it first hand.

[marky48]

"I wonder if this is how that rumor about that guy feeding a big crowd with a loaf of bread and a couple fish got started."

Yes. I would think so since nowhere is there any evidence of this being possible in a physical sense.

[Elaine Flinn]

I've said this elsewhere, and I'll say it here as well-slurs, no matter where or how presented-are cruel, hurtful and demeaning. To excuse such blatant insensitivity-by so many 'enlightend' personages (that's what we writers are percieved to be, right?) - is even more mind boggling. My congratulations to those who had the balls to speak out.

[Barbara W. Klaser]

Way to make the news, Lee. I'm glad you clarified once again that you don't think Mr. Koontz is a racist. I think it's important not to confuse insensitivity or lapses in judgement as out-and-out racism. The intent and the outcome is radically different. I live in a town whose reputation has to a large degree been hijacked by a true racist, a man who incites violence and has likely been responsible for deaths as a result of spreading hatred. But it's still important to be aware of things we, any of us, say that may wound others in less obvious ways.

[Lee Goldberg]

I would have preferred it if this hadn't reached the press. I don't feel good about it. No one, to my knowledge, has accused him of "blatant racism," as The Time stated, nor should they. Dean Koontz is not a racist. The man made a regrettable error in judgement, that's all. He doesn't deserve to be smeared for it. I would hope that he eventually understands the insensitivity of his remarks, apologizes for them, and retires his "Mr. Teriyaki" speech for good.

[Barbara W. Klaser]

Sorry, I should've put a "wink" after that first sentence. I realize you never intended this to go so far. I'm shocked that it did. As others have said, it must've been a slow news day.

[Joo Lee]

Since there is a decided lack of Asian viewpoints on this topic on this blog I decided that I would chime in here. I was not there, so I will simply go by the accounts contained in the LA Times and the Guardian, which nobody seems to be disputing.

Let's take "what" Koontz said out of the equation for a second since the offensiveness of his words are in dispute and examine "why" he said them. Can anyone tell me what being Japanese has to do with a dispute with a movie executive about credits? If I'm upset by the way my BMW handles, is my first letter to the CEO calling him Mr. Kraut?

That said, his words WERE offensive, and unless anybody has ever told anyone in this forum to "go home and watch Godzilla movies" I couldn't care less about whether they feel they were. People view all race topics in black and white, and can't fathom that other minorities are subject to ridicule and hurtful stereotypes.

Koontz chose to target an entire race of people with comments that were INTENDED to be demeaning because that was the most obvious target in a dispute that had NOTHING to do with race at all. That is the very definition of racism.

[Chadwick H. Saxelid]

unless anybody has ever told anyone in this forum to "go home and watch Godzilla movies" I couldn't care less about whether they feel they were.

I'm a huge Kaiju Eiga ("Giant Monster") fan, so I "go home and watch Godzilla movies" all the time. Gamera, Daimaijin, and all the others, got 'em all on tape or DVD. Of course, that does not add anything to the subject at hand. I've already made my opinion about that known.

[Joo Lee]

You see Chadwick? Now THAT was funny! Maybe you could teach Koontz and the rest of us a thing or two about humor.

[Brainster]

This illustrates the continuing evolution of grievances, so that stuff that was quite acceptable only a generation ago is now deemed racist and insensitive.

Sheesh, people need to get a little thicker skinned. The folks who get agitated over this seem akin to Victorian ladies getting the vapors over the discussion of sex. Before you know it, nobody will ever be able to tell stories about drunken Irishmen, amorous Frenchmen, or garlicy Italians.

[Chadwick H. Saxelid]

Sheesh, people need to get a little thicker skinned. The folks who get agitated over this seem akin to Victorian ladies getting the vapors over the discussion of sex. Before you know it, nobody will ever be able to tell stories about drunken Irishmen, amorous Frenchmen, or garlicy Italians.

Well, you over look the issue of context. The acceptability of the humor depends on the nature of its direction. Politically incorrect humor can be a wonderful tool of commentary about today's events and such, but when it used for trollish behavior, then I put my insignificant foot down and say, "No!"

Sure, everybody ignores me, but I feel important when doing so. :-)

It seems clear to me that Koontz was insulting/shaming the man into getting something he wanted, the name Dean Koontz taken off of a movie. He wasn't being satirical about it all, there is a big difference there that needs to be made. Because these comments were directed at a person. Stephen King sued to get his name removed from The Lawnmower Man. If the issue of credit on Hideaway was that important to Koontz, then he should have taken the proper route.

It also reminds me of a politically incorrect gag that ran through the early editions of John Stanley's Creature Features Movie Guide. In the reviews of the Japanese movies he placed variants of the "inscrutable" phrase in front of every actor. "Starring the inhospitable Akira Kubo and the incorrigible Sonny Chiba." Evidently there were complaints, as the jokes were quickly dropped in the revised and updated editions.

[Danzig Storer]

Here’s something most Book Slut readers don’t know: the Japanese regulators ask writers to revise history books to water down their children’s view of WWII and U.S. wars. For example, read

http://www.jhu.edu/hurj/focus-hur.html

and

http://japanfocus.org/article.asp?id=049

The tension between Japan and the two Koreas, China, and other countries over World War II remains strong. For example, read

http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,7369,1466514,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1468518,00.html

My feeling is that most Japanese know a lot about Nagasaki and Hiroshima but very little about Nanking and Bataan, as much as most Americans know very little about the howling wilderness of Samar.

Perhaps this might not serve as a good excuse or reason for Koontz’s words but one feels that what he said pales in comparison to what mainland Chinese and Asian comfort women say about the Japanese.