4 ms·

I applaud the professor's patience. His last well mannered response to the troll (AKA, self proclaimed literary writer) with the full blown narcissistic persona

I applaud the professor's patience. His last well mannered response to the troll (AKA, self proclaimed literary writer) with the full blown narcissistic personality disorder (Could park his car right next to Kanye West) was a whopping 2,500 words. It would take me a whole day to write something that long but the real question is WHY did he bother?

mr_tyzic 11y ago
Maybe because something like this comes up a lot.
- Normal_gaussian 11y ago
  It is not uncommon for me to write long and complicated messages - as emails, texts, or even letters - just to delete them as they are wasteful of others time and fail to come to an identifiable point. To finally have someone who would both read and reply to such an exploration would be amazing, to have that person reply in such a way that turns my masturbatory ranting into a real discussion would be bliss.
  - SCAQTony 11y ago
    I see. Though a troll, he might have known that a saner portion of the blogoshere would have read it and learned from it
noname123 11y ago
My feelings as well. tl;dr, I am sorry I can't read your unsolicited manuscript because I am a humble writer with a humble background with a duties to my humble college students in creative writing class. Let me mention all of my friends who are really humble, from middle-upper class who have earned an inheritance to travel and write from their experiences; but not all of them are white lest you get the wrong idea about me, in fact one of them is colored with such a interesting background you should hear about because he gets confused for either being "Black" or "Arab"; so in closing, I am a really humble person who have lots of humble friends who value friendship; wait, by the way did I mention that I am really humble?
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago
  Are you Alan?
  - blueblob 11y ago
    Pretty sure alan wouldn't have a name consisting of "no name," he sounds more like "TheGreatestAlan" kind of type.
  - noname123 11y ago
    No I am not Alan. My commentary is just how reading the author's explanation; he came off as so many people I've known previously at liberal arts colleges and then later at parties/cafes college towns. The "conscientious" type who likes the idea of pursuing something "pure" and "artistic," but ultimately their lives lead them to nothing beyond the wording on the marketing on a college brochure, "think deeply, be worldly, travel!" I'd love to go into a in-depth analysis of the original author's text, and how every single of his example of his friends he upheld is a stereotype that is in the wheelhouse of a New York City MFA class or Lena Dunham's "Girls".(Unfortunately, I am trying to debug Docker to run a compute cluster job. ) I am deeply disappointed that the author didn't try to use the opportunity to try to appeal to the craft of writing as a daily discipline, a joy, a pain, a biological compulsion for people who persist regardless of prestige nor fame; or why writing in particular means so much to him, and revealing his own egotism and follies; instead, he wrote a rant that is a thinly-veined guise about he and his circle of friends are the "truer artists" with "much more interesting life experiences" than Alan. However, perhaps you have a more nuanced reading than I did, I'd love to hear what was your takeaway from the author's article?
    - AnimalMuppet 11y ago
      I didn't read it like that at all. I read it as a very very very patient reply to an arrogant jerk. I didn't read the author as being about "pure" and "artistic" writing. Given limited time, he's investing it in people he has some reason to care about, not in some random "you must pay attention to me because I'm a major literary figure even though you stupid mundanes haven't realized it yet" type who demanded the author's attention.
aklemm 11y ago
Why bother? Because it's an excellent opportunity to write, so he did. The idea that he took time to write instead of read Alan's work says it all.
- peatmoss 11y ago
  I think the set up here is great too! He did a nice job of combining the catharsis of troll slaying with a very personal review of his friends' work. This sort of thing isn't typically my bag, but I read it start to finish. If it were just a complaint about a troll, or just a review of his friends' work, I'm not sure I'd have followed it to the end, or read it aloud to my wife.
XaspR8d 11y ago
It sounds like a concept that the author has been toying with for a while, how reading is not only a deliberate choice with an onslaught of competing options, but that the choice, even for those in a literary profession, isn't particularly "well-informed". A lot of the writers I know say they write to understand and refine their ideas. So maybe it just started as a personal thought and then he decided to publish it, maybe because he hears similar questions often?
- SCAQTony 11y ago
  That must of been it for I am astonished how well it read.
megablast 11y ago
Well, he also had an article to write.

mr_tyzic 11y ago

Maybe because something like this comes up a lot.

Normal_gaussian 11y ago
It is not uncommon for me to write long and complicated messages - as emails, texts, or even letters - just to delete them as they are wasteful of others time and fail to come to an identifiable point. To finally have someone who would both read and reply to such an exploration would be amazing, to have that person reply in such a way that turns my masturbatory ranting into a real discussion would be bliss.
- SCAQTony 11y ago
  I see. Though a troll, he might have known that a saner portion of the blogoshere would have read it and learned from it

noname123 11y ago

My feelings as well. tl;dr, I am sorry I can't read your unsolicited manuscript because I am a humble writer with a humble background with a duties to my humble college students in creative writing class. Let me mention all of my friends who are really humble, from middle-upper class who have earned an inheritance to travel and write from their experiences; but not all of them are white lest you get the wrong idea about me, in fact one of them is colored with such a interesting background you should hear about because he gets confused for either being "Black" or "Arab"; so in closing, I am a really humble person who have lots of humble friends who value friendship; wait, by the way did I mention that I am really humble?

PhasmaFelis 11y ago
Are you Alan?
- blueblob 11y ago
  Pretty sure alan wouldn't have a name consisting of "no name," he sounds more like "TheGreatestAlan" kind of type.
- noname123 11y ago
  No I am not Alan. My commentary is just how reading the author's explanation; he came off as so many people I've known previously at liberal arts colleges and then later at parties/cafes college towns. The "conscientious" type who likes the idea of pursuing something "pure" and "artistic," but ultimately their lives lead them to nothing beyond the wording on the marketing on a college brochure, "think deeply, be worldly, travel!" I'd love to go into a in-depth analysis of the original author's text, and how every single of his example of his friends he upheld is a stereotype that is in the wheelhouse of a New York City MFA class or Lena Dunham's "Girls".(Unfortunately, I am trying to debug Docker to run a compute cluster job. ) I am deeply disappointed that the author didn't try to use the opportunity to try to appeal to the craft of writing as a daily discipline, a joy, a pain, a biological compulsion for people who persist regardless of prestige nor fame; or why writing in particular means so much to him, and revealing his own egotism and follies; instead, he wrote a rant that is a thinly-veined guise about he and his circle of friends are the "truer artists" with "much more interesting life experiences" than Alan. However, perhaps you have a more nuanced reading than I did, I'd love to hear what was your takeaway from the author's article?
  - AnimalMuppet 11y ago
    I didn't read it like that at all. I read it as a very very very patient reply to an arrogant jerk. I didn't read the author as being about "pure" and "artistic" writing. Given limited time, he's investing it in people he has some reason to care about, not in some random "you must pay attention to me because I'm a major literary figure even though you stupid mundanes haven't realized it yet" type who demanded the author's attention.

aklemm 11y ago

Why bother? Because it's an excellent opportunity to write, so he did. The idea that he took time to write instead of read Alan's work says it all.

peatmoss 11y ago
I think the set up here is great too! He did a nice job of combining the catharsis of troll slaying with a very personal review of his friends' work. This sort of thing isn't typically my bag, but I read it start to finish. If it were just a complaint about a troll, or just a review of his friends' work, I'm not sure I'd have followed it to the end, or read it aloud to my wife.

XaspR8d 11y ago

It sounds like a concept that the author has been toying with for a while, how reading is not only a deliberate choice with an onslaught of competing options, but that the choice, even for those in a literary profession, isn't particularly "well-informed". A lot of the writers I know say they write to understand and refine their ideas. So maybe it just started as a personal thought and then he decided to publish it, maybe because he hears similar questions often?

SCAQTony 11y ago
That must of been it for I am astonished how well it read.

megablast 11y ago

Well, he also had an article to write.