An interlude
Oh my – this is funny – tragic but funny. Aspiring author self-destructs in public. Is urged to stop self-destructing. Continues self-destruction process. Tragic…I can’t wait to read the rest.
Tip Jar
Oh my – this is funny – tragic but funny. Aspiring author self-destructs in public. Is urged to stop self-destructing. Continues self-destruction process. Tragic…I can’t wait to read the rest.
Oh. My. God. It’s too good. It’s a fun train wreck.
Ophelia – I’m cackling so hard I’m afraid I’m disturbing the counseling patients in the office next-door to mine. I mean:
and
That’s my new band name. Hypnotically Gyno. Yeah, with a y.
You sure you wouldn’t prefer Out at Another Table?
Haw!
Oh dear.
Memo to self: If you ever manage to write a book and get the inevitable bad review, just let it go. Really, let it go.
I followed her link to the video of her reading. That was before I saw the two [spoilers] comments she wrote. Scrolling down slowly, the second one caused a really sharp intake of breath. It’s sad, but you somehow can’t take your eyes off it.
I got the distinct impression that the 5- and 4-star reviews were by Polly-O.
Down in the comments she was really interested in everyone’s balls.
“My writing is just fine!” Oh dear oh dear oh dear oh dear.
“Fuck off!”
Hehehehehehehe
In fairness, she’s still more civil than Alain de Botton…
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/5712899/Alain-de-Botton-tells-New-York-Times-reviewer-I-will-hate-you-until-I-die.html
Oh the LOLZ! That’s an Epic Meltdown if ever there was one. And I love this:
And here’s part of her bio from her website. What in the holy hell is going on here? That second paragraph is particularly painful in oh-so-many ways:
That broke my brain. Omfg.
@ Miranda
Parody-defying…
It’s late in the evening here, and this is my first much-needed belly laugh of the day.
It’s would not be hard to believe that this isn’t a cleverer-than-usual elaborately set-up Poe. But I guess it’s a case of Author Digs Hole, Falls Into It, Knocks Herself On Head With Spade.
John Scalzi mentioned this, too. Almost too embarrassing to read.
Almost. Hee.
Wait, all I’m seeing is BigAl’s book blog…I’m not finding any of that good littrachur. Is there another link to click? Am I missing it? Hwlp…
(excerpt from Miranda’s quote:)
Ah! The pathway to dismal storytelling [and, it would seem, batshit insanity] is the repudiation of sex and rock and roll–what about drugs, though?
oh, there they are. Also, computers. The HORROR! Precious. Thanks, Ophelia, this really brightened my day :)
Are you serious, Marc? It’s the underlined link in the post, this: http://booksandpals.blogspot.com/2011/03/greek-seaman-jacqueline-howett.html
Here’s a footnote from the poetry page of her blog. I guess she’s…consistent.
Quite the target-rich environment, her blog. My head is spinning.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Oh man…
(Marc I hope you found it!)
“Fuck off!” Just became the new “WINNING!”
The comments at John Scalzi’s are great too. #7 –
Just another example of why critical thinking is so important. The number of people you encounter trying to make a living or enjoy a hobby on the internet who suddenly flip out when you criticize something they hold dearly can never be overestimated.
And heck the review wasn’t even bad.
I’ll guess I’ll have to be the first to say it…This lady sounds like she has a few screws loose, which would under other circumstances make her the object of our compassion — but here we are, a jeering mob. Funny as hell, though. And I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Vogon Poetry.
I like her excuse that it’s because she’s English and Big Al just doesn’t get the style. While British and American authors do have recognizably different styles[1], I’m pretty sure that what poor Jacquie writes in is neither the Queen’s English, nor that of any of Brittania’s former colonies.
[1] For some reason, Ophelia’s style always struck me as British, to the extent that I was surprised to discover that she is a Yank.
@23: Not so much critical thinking as a capacity for self-assessment. Raging case of Dunning-Kruger going on there, I think.
She’s a prosaic McGonagall! Very entertaining.
Although I found the line:
…rather sinister. There’s an implication of inevitability about it.
And her site has bits of the book up too. It’s not pretty.
Peter – well to be sure I did stop reading the comments eventually, and people there did point out that since she hadn’t returned in a long time it was turning into a bit of a mob.
But what exactly is the line between a few screws loose and a hilarious sense of entitlement coupled with a bad case of Dunning-Kruger effect? Ah that is a deep question.
Eamon –
It is a little. It’s a mash of the two. I read a lot of UK media etc, I know quite a few people there, over the years I’ve absorbed a lot of trans-Atlantic phrases…It’s a mongrel style.
On the plus side, she probably has sold about 2000% more copies than she would have if she had just politely thanked him for his review.
I’m English.
The style isn’t got by me.
She has a style that can only be described as awkward. Or incomprehensible.
Excerpt from the author’s weebly site. The whole chapter is like this: clumsy sentences, spelling & punctuation errors and naively detailed descriptions of everything including the kitchen sink.
Admit it. It must have been tempting to respond to some of the gnu bashers with:
My writing is just fine. Fuck off!
Grendel’s, well of course that’s what I think, but I know better than to say it!
Hmm. Something’s not right there.
Much better.
And for a brief interlude from the interlude, see Why Should New Atheists Engage in Interfaith Service? Rieux seems to be holding down the fort pretty well.
I found that hilarious. But given I English poorly seriously write incomprehensibly, shoudn’t comment first person singluar pronoun! You can all just fuck off! Feels cathartic that.
This is hilarious, thanks for sharing!
I started laughing at the title which made me think of the old gag line “The fleet is in and the streets are full of seamen.”
The first series of entries (Fuck off!) were funny but after the pile on it got a bit sad. The woman came across as somewhat unstable and it felt a little awkward to see so many individuals apparently joining the thread just to make fun of her.
Funny as hell.
The “fuck off” from her comment made me laugh out loud.
Okay I got it – it was the comments themselves. That’s what you get when you try to follow links while rocking a baby to sleep.
Pathetic grammarian and crybaby though she is, she’s still higher in my esteem than Orlando Figes. Which isn’t saying much, of course.
I skimmed the first chapter. It’s mostly about recipes for fish. Some people are going to go out for something to eat, but then they decide not to. It’s the feelgood story of the year. A rollercoaster of a read with plenty of hot gypsies.
As for whether we’re unfairly mocking the afflicted, I didn’t think so until she said she couldn’t see anything wrong with the ‘hypnotic’ sentence. Now I’m not so sure. When dozens of people tell you there’s a rabbit away and your response is “FOOLS!!!!!!! I’LL SHOW YOU ALL!!!!!” I’m inclined to think you’ve left the realms of sanity. Sanity is just a speck on the horizon to you.
When this is coupled with the fact that this is a woman who was so scared of computers that she hid in Wales (where they presumably don’t have computers) and seems to think that all Arabs suddenly became educated all at once one day in 1988 and I think we probably have someone who should not be allowed out by herself. I can’t decide whether her obvious sock-puppetry in the Amazon comments is evidence of incompetence or insanity.
On balance, perhaps we should mock her a little bit more just to be sure.
The Yoda school of sentence structure she went to I think.
Hamilton @35: Thanks! You’ll note I linked to Ophelia and quoted her at some length.
I honestly feel bad about that particular disagreement. I think Epstein and Figdor have their hearts in the right place; Figdor even uses the term “New Atheism” in what he intends to be a positive context, which is a lot more than we can expect from most abettors of religious privilege. They’re just missing the forest for the trees, and that’s disappointing.
BTW, I too thought, for a long time, that Ophelia was British. I was really surprised to find out she lives in Washington.
The piling on is a little sad (and probably more than a little if you read on, but I didn’t)…but the comments are closed now and it’s all over the internet anyway, so [whispers] I think it’s ok to laugh.
I commented on that John Figdor piece. Rieux, yes – they’re good guys. We’ve been working out some of our differences on Facebook, oddly enough. More room for jokes there, or something.
From the obviously self-written bio Miranda posted:
Oh, so English is her second language then! That explains everything.
/sarcasm