"Roger Ebert Doesn't Give A Shit, And I Love Him For It"

Robbed by cancer of his ability to speak, Roger Ebert has been letting loose on the Internet and in print. And we like it. A lot.

(That headline, by the way, comes from a comment on this post.)

Last year, when Ebert officially retired from his television show and returned to full-time reviewing at The Chicago Sun-Times, he also devoted himself to blogging and Tweeting. He’s blogged about how the limitations imposed by his illness, combined with the existence of the Internet, have meant that his writing “has expanded within my mind, reaches deeper, emerges more clearly, is more satisfactory.” In the process, we’ve gotten the chance to know Ebert a little better, unleashed on every topic in film and beyond, full of righteous anger and thoughtfulness alike — and freaking hilarious. Some examples of his awesomeness:

1) His Twitter account, where he is truly unedited:

2) He’s not afraid to take an implicitly feminist stance in his reviews and articles— such as here, or with his gentle mocking of Avatar over at Slate: “We already know how the female Na’vi evolved breasts. They evolved them on Cameron’s drawing board, because you can’t have a love affair between two Na’vi who are both breastless and therefore apparently male.”

3) On his blog, he’s created and is actively engaged with a community on his site, including writing sincere appreciations of his readers’ blogs and reading all of the comments on his own, numbering in the hundreds.

4) He has been writing beautiful, lyrical meditations on the effects of his illness, including not being able to eat or speak. (His last spoken words, he says, were goodbye to his wife.)

5) This is how his wife Chaz, pictured above, describes him: “One of the things I admire about Roger is that his ego and his intellect enjoy a challenge. He likes a woman of substance who is smart and has something to say.”

6) This funny, sweet line, in a paean to making out in his youth: “My hands strayed to the netherlands. My own movables were subject to trespass.”

Anyone else?

Making Out Is Its Own Reward [Roger Ebert’s Journal]
Nil By Mouth [Roger Ebert’s Journal]
I Think I’m Musing My Mind [Roger Ebert’s Journal]
Finding My Own Voice [Roger Ebert’s Journal]
The Hurt Locker Is the Movie of the Year [Slate Movie Club]
The Blogs Of My Blog [Roger Ebert’s Journal]
Ebert Meets Match With Wife Chaz [Variety]