Bram Cohen's wife comes to his defense
BitTorrent founder Bram Cohen, whose sideline career is in writing horrifyingly violent fiction, approached me at a charity event Tuesday to discuss Valleywag's recent posts about him. I'll give him credit: He's as unapologetic about writing lines like "I don't like fucking bitches like you so don't count on not getting seriously hurt" as I am in criticizing him for them. In Valleywag's comments, Jenna Cohen, Bram's wife, has posted a defense. She says Cohen "has never used" Asperger's syndrome as an excuse. But she does have an interesting explanation for Cohen's stories of torture and rape: They're a turn-on. For her, too. She suggests they were his "porn collection." Here's the full comment:
Reporters tend to focus on Bram's potential Asperger's more that he does. He has never used it as an excuse, but used insight about it to understand himself and improve his communication skills. I've known Bram for 12 years and have worked on an off with Autistic spectrum children for 19 years. It was *me* who suggested to him that he might have it after knowing him for about 5 years. It is not a suggestion that I have made often or carelessly even though I have 100's of friend who are Bay Area tech geeks. Bram focuses on his individual strengths and challenges and works tirelessly to improve his communications and relationships with others. Having insight into Aspergers helped him immensely with this effort! He's honest about it because he's willing to be *humble* about not being good at somethings! Not as an excuse. I know very few people of *any* type who are as honest with themselves and others about their own shortcomings or who work as diligently to improve themselves as Bram. Over the last decade I have seen his interpersonal skills grow by leaps and bounds. We haven't sought a formal diagnosis, because we have nothing to prove and he has the support of his friends and family to continue working on perfecting some of the social and communication skills that don't come naturally to him. Despite his sometimes blunt comments and an inability to sugar coat his opinions... he is kind, caring, and down-to-earth. He's a loving playful dad, kind husband, friendly with neighbors, quick to admit his own faults (though not artificially humble about his few great strengths) I wish you would stop harping on those dumb stories... he just wrote them as a yung 'un to attract former goth girls like me ;) They were fiction.. duh! Let's see what we could deduce about *YOU* from *YOUR* porn collection! -Jenna Cohen