Soon we will return to your regularly scheduled self-absorption.

[sinsense]

When I read a wolfshirts post, there's often a point where I sigh and smack my forehead with the back of my hand. Not in the good, swooning kind of way. In the bad, NO NO WHY ME kind of way. Why is this, you ask?

It is because the bad guy is always Bert McCracken

Comments

[silhouettes1]

OK.. I'm going to comment... And I hope I don't earn enemy point for it.. There were just a few things I wanted to say..

They were those scary bedraggled kids you see squatting on the sidewalk, begging for change and sniping at you when you walk by without saying anything. That's a life I wouldn't wish on anyone.

Actually.. Orem Utah.. especially when Bert was 15 was not a bad place to be on the streets. It was practically a white picket fence town. Even "downtown" Orem is quaint. It's absolutely the kind of place you could feel safe walking around in the middle of the night. The park is all pretty and clean and the sidewalks are swept and free from trash. Besides, Bert's rendition of 'homeless' was sleeping in friend's garages and on their floors and couches.. he wasn't like squatting next to a garbage can in some dingy alley way by any stretch...

That shit will make you strange. It'll warp your sense of what "socially acceptable" is worthThe shit that made Bert as fucked up as he is was living in a little town where there may

[zillahseye]

I'll confirm a few of these things, definitely. Bert wasn't homeless in the way you'd picture from movies, sleeping in a dumpster or something. He talks about couch-surfing and sleeping in his friends' garages. As he was a minor but no longer welcome (upon whatever conditions) in the home that was legally his right, you could argue technical homelessness there, I suppose. And I doubt being unwanted and constantly uprooted was all that fun, even when his immediate needs were covered.

There was a span of months there between Gerard sobering up at the end of 04 and the first rumors of there being a rift. (I don't know if sinsense was actually saying that the rift was caused by G's sobriety, just that the rift followed it, but yeah.) I will argue that in mid-to-late '05, at more than a couple shows, G made snarky edits to the lyrics of Prison onstage that I wouldn't call diplomatic. *grin

[silhouettes1]

but no longer welcomeOkay. His parents NEVER kicked him out.. They gave him the ultimatum of clean up, stop with the drugs, stop skipping school, go to church with the family or leave.. and it was a completely empty threat. Bert's family is so goddamn molly Mormon (molly is a term we use for uber Mormon here). Family comes first in the church. Family is THE most important thing.. next to Christ and the church itself. Not only would them KICKING him out have gone COMPLETELY against their religion but the rest of the ward (local group of church members) would have completely judged them.. so harshly that they would have had to probably change entire stakes (a bigger local group of church members

[zillahseye]

All of that fits with what I've been told. In a way, I've always felt it made the argument, though--whatever kid his family wanted, whatever kind of son they'd accept, it wasn't Bert.

[silhouettes1]

It's probably too late for anyone to actually read this, but I'll try anyway. I know that sleeping on couches and in friend's garages doesn't fit the media image of homelessness, but it can seriously fuck you up none the less. Actually getting to school, getting fed, staying even relatively safe from physical and verbal abuse, managing to hold onto that special minimal amount of stuff you never feel right without (music, pocket knife, hoody) is damn difficult when you have to move frequently and without warning. Add to that the fact that you're 15, coming from a fucked-up situation, can't drive, and have no real source of income other than shoplifting cigarettes for other people (which isn't all that safe). It makes you incredibly dependent on people (like friends' parents, or older kids you don't know if you can trust) who don't have any obligation to feed you. You sink to a whole new level of the usual teenager's no control over your life, while at the same time you have way, way too much control (as in this can really kill you

[sinsense]

I know you won't get this as an email response, because you're anonymous, but I hope you check back. This is a really good elucidation of the problem with the way we (and by "we," I obviously mean "people w/privilege") conceptualize the realities of homelessness. I'm referring both to my own depiction of it in the original post, and the contrary claims that have been made in the comments. I talked to stonedtodeath a little bit about this in a separate venue, and we came to something like the same conclusion. You've phrased it well, though, when you write: You sink to a whole new level of the usual teenager's no control over your life, while at the same time you have way, way too much control.

I sound like a geeky academic (which, okay, I am), but basically I'm just writing back to say that I really appreciate you putting your opinion and experience here.

[violin_road]

I've actually been verrrry curious about the span of time between Gee getting sober and the G/B breakup - that is indeed when that astoundingly intimate SURS interview was filmed, y/n? Where not only are they clearly still boyfriends, but Gerard seems ... not ... the most sober I have ever seen a person. I mean, very not clearly in the depths he'd been in before, but also, uh. Well. *gestures broadly*

[hahaha sry to turn this into a discussion forum, sinsense!

[zillahseye]

If they weren't stoned as fuck in the SURS interview (however stoned fuck gets) I'll eat my hat. *grin* Not that I have any PERSONAL KNOWLEDGE of such things.

I suppose it'd depend how you saw the relationship and "breakup" or whatever. Some mags at the time reported that Bert was making an effort to try to sober up when he was around G, at least for a bit. The popular belief seems to be that Bert couldn't hack it and G couldn't hack being around someone who couldn't hack it. I think Bert's acrimony (and hurt) come off a little strong for it to be that simple. Also, I think G's a little less perfect in relationships than he tends to be portrayed--a fucked-up guy, if you can believe the words from his own mouth.

[violin_road]

OKAY THANK GOD. Because seriously, ahahaha, I am so afraid of being like "... you guys, Gerard Way is so fucking stoned in this interview that occured several months after his official date of sobriety" in public; I am glad I am not the only one who feels that way ♥ Because like. I have spent a whole lot of time being the only non-high person in the room, and ... that is what that interview feels like. If the other people in the room are boyfriends. *tinhats merrily*

Some mags at the time reported that Bert was making an effort to try to sober up when he was around G, at least for a bit. The popular belief seems to be that Bert couldn't hack it and G couldn't hack being around someone who couldn't hack it.
a-HA, okay. That makes a whole fucking lot of sense, and is now my personal canon, because ... yeah. Whole fucking lot of sense. [Although also, yes, a lot of other stuff; oh Gerard. *pats his fucked little head*]

[zillahseye]

I honestly don't believe that efforts at mutual sobriety had as much to do with it as people think, or in the way they think. Saying "Bert was an addicted loser and Gerard had to go on to save the world!" is simplistic enough to be BS. I think there was a lotta fucked-up in that relationship, whatever its nature, and not all (maybe not even HALF) of it was Bert's.

i vote that gerard was fucking bert's mom :D

[violin_road]

Yeah, but "drugs" is a convenient enough shorthand, since there's no way [overwhelmingly] that [generic] we will ever know the "true story."

And that's the story of every breakup, isn't it? Someone has an issue, one or both of them can't get past it, the end.

Re: i vote that gerard was fucking bert's mom :D

[zillahseye]

That's a fact. I hate to settle on that as the shorthand, though, not knowing if it's true--both because it's predictable and because it's simple. I guess my wish is the same as sinsense's--to see people devote a little time and effort to making them both flawed and interesting, to remembering that there are two parties in every rift and smacking GOOD and EVIL labels on them is often the mark of a lazy thinker.

What if Gerard was a closet case and Bert's very open talk about their makeout session, about music videos of them in bed together, of cocksucking and sexual openness, drove him to pull away once he was sober? Think of hte angst! WHAT IF? WHERE IS THAT FIC, FANDOM? WHERE?! I WILL SHAKE YOU TIL IT FALLS OUT DON'T THINK I WON'T!

Re: i vote that gerard was fucking bert's mom :D

[violin_road]

... Man, how much do I want that story, esp in light of the fact that Gerard now won't shut up about sucking cock.

You know. Now that he's come clean about his devastating breakup with ~*~Mystery Girlfriend, and then gotten engaged and abruptly un-engaged to a lady, and then married another lady ...

Oh, Gerard. Oh your wee head.

Re: i vote that gerard was fucking bert's mom :D

[zillahseye]

I will pay you in cookies to write and/or encourage that fic! Just because it goes against tropes!

Re: i vote that gerard was fucking bert's mom :D

[violin_road]

Ahhhhhhh god. As soon as I figure out whether or not I have flunked out of school, and then as soon as I figure out whether or not I care, and then as soon as I finish my fxc that's now like four days late, that is moving to the top of the list :D

i warn you however that it will probably contain fair quantities of mikeyway. because everything that can, does. *grin*

Re: i vote that gerard was fucking bert's mom :D

[zillahseye]

I...wow. Okay! Sure! Awesome!