Since you're not at AWP, the Grab-bag: Laugh, cry, and shake your fist

It's Friday.  It's AWP week.  If you're reading this, then you're likely not at the busiest day of the AWP conference.  I decided not to go this year.  I've been to the two past, and while I really enjoyed my previous trips to AWP (except for the part where the Denver airport limos didn't take me to the right hotel and caused me to have a cab ride that was twice the cost of the airport limo ride to get to the right hotel), I decided that I'm doing enough this year trip-wise.

On to the grab-bag.

Laugh: The Journal of Universal Rejection is now accepting submissions.  They are committed to rejecting your submission no matter what it is.  Although, I've heard that no one's gotten an actual rejection yet, just an automated message stating that they're backlogged.  Sounds like they've lost sight of their mission.

Cry: Tracy Hickman talks in this podcast  about the power of just words, and just writing, and what it is that we do as storytellers whether we realize it or not.

Shake your fist:  If you read this essay, "Don't date a girl who reads," you won't shake your fist at the writer -- you might heave a sigh at the end though -- you'll shake your fist at the dumbasses leaving comments after the essay.  Don't read the comments after the essay.  At least, I didn't, and I don't recommend spending your time, emotions, or brain power that way.  But the combined essay and comments did produce this conversation between me and theLiz.

theLiz: Just sent you this: "Don't date a girl who reads,"  Borderline pretentious, but I really really like it. Thought you might too.

me: From that I'm affirmed and saddened. Yes, I'll walk away from you. Dream bigger, schmuck.

theLiz: LOL

I think this may be another case of people over-reading/analyzing? The comments are SO pretentious and irritating they make my eyes bleed.

I'm not seeing this as an insult to the "girl who doesn't read" (or the "small town girl" which may be a stereotype but why the heck not use it? Doesn't bother me in the slightest) but an insult to himself, like "damn girls these days are so much more well-read and intelligent and self-sufficient than they used to be that they aren't willing to just settle for anything anymore." You have to WORK at it and really want to be with the woman. She has to KNOW that. There has to be really passion between the two of you, not just a house and babies, because they know there is more to life.

I think about the girls from [town lived in long ago] I know who who've had babies and aren't doing anything with their lives. Because not only are the uneducated but they "don't read" ie don't realize that there is anything else they could have done with their lives and it depresses the hell out of me.

I wouldn't settle for this schmuck either.

And I'm a girl who will never be satisfied unless I have the real thing.

Am I totally off base here? Are there layers to this that I'm just not seeing? This is why I don't want to be in an English class -- not everything that people write has to have 50 layers. I think he's just saying that it's easier to please a girl who doesn't think for herself. Women who know there is more out there are harder to keep happy. As well we should be.

I thought it was amusing.

me: If there are comments, I didn't read them. I've discovered that "comments" to pieces like these in journals and newspapers are for people too small and too stupid to find their own 15 min of fame and must therefore they must comment on someone else's. (they should at least start a blog-- it's not that much more work!-- and talk about it there, rather than argue in the comments of a published piece! ) 

This piece isn't an insult or a compliment. It's about a guy who got dumped for all the right reasons and he knows it, but getting dumped hurts like hell.

theLiz: THANK YOU. See I'm totally with you. And I like it and I find it amusing.

And you are totally right about the commenters with their big words and overanalyzing just trying to find their 15 minutes of fame.  Ugh. Don't read the comments. They ruined my initial enjoyment.

(a little bit later ... )

theLiz: LOL these people pissed me off so much I commented.

No in a sick kind of way I WANT to be in that English class with the asshole so I can go toe to toe with him.

Anyway. I'm really sad if there are a bunch of angry or angsty comments to this essay in the comments section because I loved the essay when I finished it because that feeling of I know why I got dumped and I really can't blame her ... but I really want to blame her was just so damn human. We are messed up little creatures with convoluted logic. And I loved that the piece highlighted that.