A belated review.

[ashcanprobably]

Good Morning,

As an accepted member of youcantwrite, I took the liberty of review- flaming mmmrorschach, a fellow accepted member, in his own journal. Click, click! All links lead to the brutal display.

If that's not enough, here's another literary hatchet job, which resulted in what should be the holy grail for any accepted member/reviewer: journal deletion

Comments

[mengus]

Modded. It brings a smile to my face to read the acerbic comments you've linked. It's been a long time since I've seen anything like that on lj.

questions questions

[ashcanprobably]

Do you think Jaime will give me feedback for the book review I e-mailed him? This is a book that he masturbates to with the utmost abandon. He seemed pretty excited about it when I first mentioned it. Then ... not so much. It's really a lovely review.

Do you really think he'll ignore my three paragraphs? How do you think he'll ignore them?? Will he delete the comment notification immediately from his Inbox as soon as he sees my username??? Will he open it and confirm that it was from the forbidden thread, then delete it before his vision is poisoned or his word crumbles???? Will he read it and just pretend not to have read it????? Will he avert his eyes when he crosses paths with my comment as he responds to others at the bottom of his comments page??????

I did it for you, youcantwrite! It was you all along, the lens through which I've loved and lost!

I totally edited this comment to change the entire tense of the second paragraph. It really opened up possibilities.

Re: questions questions

[mengus]

All of this conjecture, Luis! I doubt that he'll feel confident enough to give you feedback on your book review after you've thrown him off balance and prickled his social insecurities.

Did he ignore your three paragraphs? Gmail comment notifications are all but irresistible! I think it's far more likely that you inspired glum feelings, and probably an existential crisis of the internet variety. Should he care about your excoriation of his internet presence? I suspect he's having the internal Care Battle. Should he care? No, he should not, and yet hating himself for how much he does, despite knowing better. Ah, wicked.

[hotlavamonster]

Why did I never know you worked for AA????? I will take one of everything in the biggest size.

[gringo_in_tj]

You have to take it in steps.

no no no

[ashcanprobably]

I must protest! No responding to my comments with vague statements before I can get a crack at them. It's not only rude, meaningless, distracting, etc. it ruins the whole aesthetic of the thread! No wonder this place went belly up, bunch of old doters spitting nonsense at each other. Check your rotten filaments, I'm bringing the pulse back to the days of BOOM BAP! Take what in steps?? That simply makes no sense! One should always go for the gusto.

@Sarah, how would you like your BUTT magazine? It's just one of the many third party knickknacks we sell, products we can really get behind! I don't work in a store, by the way, I'm at HQ, I've gone corporate! If I comment in a thread, will you receive it as originator of the thread?? I've been away sooooo long. LJ has mutated!

BUTT I'm enjoying this editing feature, quick someone comment or I'll never be satisfied!

Re: no no no

[gringo_in_tj]

Good luck with the fast response thing. No one comes here anymore, we're all too busy playing Farmville or some shit. I tried to keep it alive, but no one would help me build my sheep stable.

[gringo_in_tj]

I'm not that impressed. Sure, it's good drama, but is it EPIC drama? Does it involve MASSES OF PEOPLE and destroy reputations? No.

But, if an added mod can resurrect this dead and lifeless excuse for an otherwise bitchin' idea, then I'm all for it.

nay nay nay

[ashcanprobably]

Edited at 2010-03-04 03:32 pm (local) to correct the misspelling of the word bitchin'.

BITCHIN' BITCHIN' BITCHIN'. This website is bitchin'!

You spelled it bithin'. And when my eyes passed over it, it reminded me of a hot day in Seville. Sometimes an error within the comment is worth more than the comment itself.

[gringo_in_tj]

Yep, the keyboard is slower than my fat fingers. I fixed it, but I KNEW that someone would catch my Selville slip. But I'm with you, I kind of like "bithin'. South Park humor, yo.

real talk

[ashcanprobably]

I have never seen one complete episode of South Park in my life. I've only been subjected to snippets and it's just the worst ever!

[yieldsigns]

I'd like to know if that book is any good. Did you read it in the original French? Wikipedia (yes, I know, a no no) claims that "[h]is style is remarkable for its idiosyncratic use of the French language," and I wonder if that might not lead to bad translation.

Also, I've not seen it, but Once Upon A Time In The West?

[ashcanprobably]

French is such a smooth language it almost versifies itself, so as a rule I don't much admire the stylistic tricks of a French writer. It's not as rough-hewn as say, Spanish, where you have no choice but to be sparse. While I can read French well enough, I wouldn't be able to pick up on the subtle effusions of style by Huysmans, not even his repetitions. Whenever I dip into a non-native language, I am more so concentrated on creating the resultant image, sentence by sentence, rather than considering the composition as a whole. À rebours has a flimsy storyline. The book is mostly a compilation of classical preferences in painting, botany, architecture, gemology, etc., so I wouldn't recommend reading it unless you have a firm background in art history and some knowledge of Latin and Greek literature. This way you can form a true picture of what a weirdo Huysmans made of his protagonist, Des Esseintes. Otherwise, expect to nod off quite frequently. I read it in the Oxford edition, which are generally faithful, translated by Margaret

[hotlavamonster]

Oh! Recently I brought home all the books being stored with my parents. And I found that one of yours! Such nice memories.

[ashcanprobably]

You should message me your new address so I can send you more.