In this episode, Down the Rabbit Hole discusses the highly infamous Empress Theresa novel, alongside its equally notorious author, Norman Bouting.
Tropes that apply to this episode
- Anti-Climax: The months-long arguments between Norman Boutin and his critics would end up coming to an anti-climatic end as the original discussions page would get locked due to reaching the post limit. Whether or not Norman and his critics moved on to another discussion is yet to be seen.
- Berserk Button: Any criticism or failure to recognize his supposed brilliance will seriously piss Norman off.
- Can't Take Criticism: Exaggerated. Norman's intense narcissism led to him having volatile arguments with any and all critics of his book, to the point where the original discussion got locked because it reached its post limit (At least 10,000 posts).
- Dear Negative Reader: Norman took this stance with every public discussion of his book, claiming that those who dislike his work were either jealous folks playing mind games, or evil atheists persecuting him for being a man of faith.
- The Narcissist: To the extreme with Norman. Norman had intense narcissism, which manifested itself in him regarding Empress Theresa as the greatest book of all time, beliving he has greater reach or power than he really has (For example, he believes that his now-defunct website had far greater reach than Amazon, one of the largest websites on the internet), and believes that Empress Theresa is a masterpiece to the point of arguing with anyone who saw it as anything less, to name a few examples.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Norman was absolutely convinced of his literary genius and that he was a superior author to Harper Lee despite having only self-published a very poorly written sci-fi novel and railing against anyone who didn't see him as he saw himself.
- Tempting Fate: Norman dares the owner of Lousy Book Covers to put Norman's latest and final cover for Empress Theresa on the website, stating that it was better than the "Graphic design junk you sell to naive writers" while adding "I know you won't." Predictably, the site owner pinned the cover on his website for several days, with the book and Norman being ridiculed and criticized.
