Ben Nolan’s Thoughts on Bee Goldsmiths: 'Diary of A Date Rape' One Year Later
- 18nolanb6
- Jul 5, 2022
- 4 min read
“Rape is one of the most terrible crimes on earth and it happens every few minutes. The problem with groups who deal with rape is that they try to educate women about how to defend themselves. What really needs to be done is teaching men not to rape."
"Go to the source and start there”
-Kurt Cobain
Introduction: I think it’s necessary before I begin digging into my analysis and my opinions on Bee’s fantastic work to state why I’m doing this. I’ve read through Goldsmith’s masterpiece twice now and each time I was amazed by the pacing, the timing, the detail, and the passion she bled into it. I was torn apart by the sheer bravery and writing brilliance one would need as a date rape survivor to complete this mind-opening, kaleidoscopic brilliant piece of literature. While I can sit here and write a book about drug addiction or a book about sexism, having experienced very little of either of those things at all, Bee has crafted a masterpiece in bravery, in blood, in sweat, in tears, can you imagine how much strength that took? I just wanted to put out something as an ode to Bee, she is by far one of the best writers working today and I feel honoured to have been in contact with her before.
Thank You, Bee.
The first time I read Diary of a Date Rape, I think I was frozen, because I’d read various pieces of dark fiction before, but to just read this thing that was sort of like underground and actually real, with no fat or unneeded extras was just shocking, you know? I sort of felt well fuck, this is like the best book of all time, what the hell am I going to do? And then when a couple months later I dug my teeth into it again, I realised that it was more than that, I saw it as some kind of a game and it took me some time in my tiny head to think: ‘holy fuck, this is a persons life we’re talking about’ and it suddenly dawned on me that ‘this person spent restless nights trying to deal with this travesty, this utter violation of her body, doubting herself and if she could turn her attacker in’ and eventually I was lost in this. Suddenly in my head I realised that writing is not just a person sitting in front of a computer and typing out shite for some money and maybe a mention in the local paper, but a gritty, raw and direct way at one exerting their true feelings and emotions to a crowd, using blood, sweat, tears and courage to form a piece of art which tells the public how they suffered, how they bled deep red blood like wine and used that bullet-hard courage to do so, and Bee is chock-full of that.
When I’ve read pieces of dark fictional literature before, I’ve always been sort of resistant to it, because I never feel that the writers are genuine, experienced, or educated people in what they write. I don’t know, I think I’m probably just a tad uncomfortable with someone who has never experienced say: suicidal thoughts writing a story about a fictional character who has suicidal thoughts and then getting millions of dollars, profiting off of something he knows (being blunt) fuck all about. An example of this in great proportion is Jay Asher, the writer of ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ who wrote and published the book in 2007 which very, intensely unrealistically depicted problems relating to depression and suicide in teenagers. Some suicide attempt survivors and professional, doctorate psychiatrists have described both the book and the Netflix series as ‘Unrealistic, Painful, Small Minded and Generalising the mental health of every teenager into an unrealistic, pessimistic and inexperienced charade, where a middle-aged bald man cosplays as a depressed teenage girl and doesn’t realise this isn’t how humans, nor fucking monkeys communicate’. Sufficed to say, Jay Asher is an example of an inexperienced, cash cow of a human who exploited the subject of teenage mental health and suicide to line his black, leather wallet in his brown trousered pocket.
It is because of people like Jay Asher, that I am forever more grateful to people such as Bee, for writing from the heart, cutting no corners while also building her book realistically. Was it not TS. Elliot who said and I quote that “Writing is turning blood into ink” and I believe that Bee is the definition of this, throughout Diary of a Date Rape, she never shies away from giving her readers the blatant, cold, yet honest and needed to be spread truth. Of course, I’m not saying that dark fiction must be written by someone who has experienced the subject matter, but by someone who has at least done some fucking research, in society today we still have the power of the sixties in the air, but it’s just a lingering fart, we have taken away the point of any art: music, writing, film making, etc. by putting a fucking price tag on it. Writers, creatives, musicians, film makers, stop caring about money, I think if you're not doing what you love at all in any form, never mind anything else, you're in trouble, capitalism is the killer and the blood of art is drenched on his sweaty hands. There are many things to love and find interesting about Bee’s work, but I think the factor in her work that stands out the most to me is the fact she doesn’t care about money, she just wants to spread this message, one that desperately needs to be spread:
Date Rape Still Exists.
Innocent people are victimised by
Rape and sexual assault every day
Across the world.
It is preventable.
It is stoppable.
We need to talk about this more.
Feminism is not dead.
Feminism is just the idea that
Rightfully, men and women should be seen
As equals.
I will never give up on the idea that money kills art, that’s why Jay Asher is a multi-millionaire and small, independent writers like Bee Goldsmith who are producing real, uncut and blatantly true works of literature aren’t.
If you can’t buy the book, please spread the message via Bee’s website:
And if you can buy the book, it’s available on Amazon, it changed my life and how I look at literature:
Thank you, Bee.
You're an inspiration to me and so many others,
Don't stop here.
-Ben Nolan, June,’22
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