Author Jeff Pearce Smears J. Manfred Weichsel As Racist on Substack
Canadian journalist not a fan of dialogue or feedback, apparently
Jeff Pearce fancies himself a very important person. He’ll tell you so on his Medium bio where the first thing he mentions is having his first article published at only nineteen, where he calls the newspaper that gave him his first break in journalism “loud and lurid.” You can read the rest for yourself, but I’ll warn you now, if you thought it started out insufferably, it doesn’t get any better.
Jeff’s also the author of The Gifts of Africa: How a Continent and Its People Changed the World, in which he makes a worthy effort to condense the continent’s lesser-known contributions to humanity throughout time down to a relatively mere 500 pages. While the 3.9 star rating on Amazon seems to boil down to Jeff having put forth an informative if verbose work (I had major MEGO just trying to read the introduction in the sample—Pearce never uses three words when thirty will do), it’s evident he’s a big fan of African culture and history, which is likely why him coming across J. Manfred Weichsel’s Jungle Scandals sent him into a tizzy.
Jeff’s also written his share of fiction, which judging from some of the promotional blurbs include a fair share of horny urban fantasy (Jeff’s nonfiction reveals that he sadly seems to suffer from profound delusions of grandeur). Naturally Jeff, a Very Important Journalist type who probably takes every opportunity he can to mention that one time he got somewhere within a few miles of where ISIS was with enough James Bond-like embellishment to make Ian Fleming blush, took great exception to Weichsel’s promotional art for the recently funded Kickstarter project:
Granted, Weichsel’s body of work has never been for the faint of heart; a literary extremist who believes in pushing the proverbial envelope right off the writing desk and into a shredder, the author and editor has helmed such fiction anthologies as Planet of the Wage Slaves, Sword and Scandal, and several volumes of Tales to Make You Vomit to name just a few. Weichsel and his contributors are willing to explore places and themes in their work that many aren’t willing to. It’s shocking. It’s taboo. They seem to revel in their mission to provoke emotions at either emotional pole, both arousing their readers’ basest desires while provoking shock from their critics. The literary equivalent of a grindhouse movie, Weichsel’s books have always been about journeying behind the beaded curtain of the literary world’s back room and indulging in naughty, pulpy fun.
To quote an excerpt from the Jungle Scandals Kickstarter page:
“…while those writers [Burroughs, Conrad, Kipling, etc. sic] all had more or less Victorian sensibilities, we'll be filling the pages of our book with more gratuitous nudity, sex, and gore than you can possibly imagine! Some today find the old writers problematic. We think they're not nearly problematic enough! These stories will retain the sense of fun and wonder from the jungle adventures of old. But they will be absolutely insane with all the sex! If you read our last book, then you know we don't hold anything back.”
Somehow the Very Media Literate Jeff Pearce read this as well, and then mentions in his article that he’s simultaneously capable of enjoying Burroughs’ Tarzan stories while being mindful of the times they came from, while comparing the tone of JS’ promotional art with this:
Pearce then took to his similarly low-engagement-for-having-90k-followers X account in an attempt to bring more heat on Weichsel. It went about as well as expected for him, and the post is now deleted:
His indignant rage apparently not spent, he then contacted Weichsel via DM to additionally smear artist Steven Stahlberg, who did the art for several of Weichsel’s works, as a racist as well:
Weichsel had this to say to me via DM:
“The cover is not offensive. It’s a funny piece of cheesecake art and 99.9% of people recognize it as such. What is offensive, however, is some guy barging in where he doesn’t belong and telling hundreds of people that they can’t have fun. I’m also offended that he can’t spell my name right.”
Journalist Crusader for Truth and Open Dialogue Jeff Pearce doesn’t allow comments on his Substack and ignored replies to his X post on the matter before deleting it. It’s entirely possible his original article may be gone by the time I post this one (don’t worry, Jeff! We saved the archived version here). He ended his piece with this last bit of scolding:
“Shame on you, Substack, for letting this guy use your platform this way.”
I’ll end this article on the whole absurd matter with this: go fuck yourself, Jeff.
Thanks for the awesome write-up and thank you for the support. It is very much appreciated.
Seems like Jeff's taking it well.