March 23rd, 2020 - Out There
Dear TNY,
It’s Panic Monday in this Panic Epidemic and it’s fucking “Out There” that you offered?
I’m going to try to be brief (spoiler alert: I could not be brief). Agendas aren’t stories. They are fucking sentimentality, a waste of time, and only serve to support those in favor of said agenda while further alienating those who are indifferent, unaware, or against said agenda (i.e. they don’t actually further “the cause”, whatever that may be). Summary isn’t a story. It’s just fucking summary. “Out There” isn’t “The Best Writing Anywhere. Everywhere.” It’s…I once adopted a dog that had recently undergone surgery on both of its broken, back legs and could not go through the State required spaying after the leg surgery because of the previous surgery’s time-proximity to the aforementioned spaying, so the vet allowed me to take the dog home under a State signed contract such that I would bring the canine back at said time and date for the conclusive reproductive surgery; and I did follow through with this delivery, even after I discovered through nipple and udder size increase, that the dog was in fact pregnant, and what was I supposed to do, TNY, with a dog that was pregnant that I also was legally required to bring back for spaying based on contractual agreement with the State; regardless, the dog was brought in and the spaying occurred and all the puppies (because they did exist) were removed and, I assume, blended up with the dog’s reproductive organs, and placed in a nondescript biohazard bag and removed to whatever sort of hellscape that that type of heart-wrenching matter goes; and that was that. “Out There” isn’t so much a story as it is that bag of material, and it’s contents, that the vet disposed of.
Okay. That’s…probably too much. Here’s my beef: This makes the main character look shallow, unaware, selfish, and weak. And my experience with women in real life is that they aren’t this. They are complex and multifaceted, like most other people. Women, like men (and every other variation out there), as well as story characters, deserve balanced characterization that provides the reader some level of empathetic response because they (read: everyone) are(is) both good and bad. But this main character is not. She is a trashmonger shitstick. That’s all.
Nope. Can’t stop now. I’m fucking livid. I’d like to talk about premise. So, Kafka gives us a man who wakes up as a roach, yes? And every single detail after that has to support that world or else the narrative falls down, right? But in this story we are told that the blots are only male and that they get hacked by the Russians and their sole purpose is to, what? Steal money from women and also send really weird messages to their friends? Let me get this straight...you, TNY, and the author, think that the most lucrative swindling scam in the future involving male/female relations is male blots that are so selfless they can rob women? Are you on fucking crack? Because real women could do this to real men right the fuck now and we’d happily give our bank accounts away. No theft necessary. I’m right here. Hit me up on the contact tab. I cannot fathom that you reckon the foundation of this “cockroach” world is believable, that the Russians have decided the best way to make money is off of women with men blots when they could just make women blots or hire existing women to rob men. The fucking ego in that. The lack of understanding of social order. The lack of pulling your fucking head from your ass and just looking at the world. Dudes, money or not, are driven by chemicals that very much want women to pay attention to them. Fuck my face, they’d do anything. Now. Not even in the future. Yeah, and do terrible trash things. That’s why we are the best mark. With wage imbalance (men have greater economic value than women, and I recognize that’s not fair and sympathize with women), why would anyone rob the economically lesser half?! It makes no fucking sense. If I’m Lev the mobster, I’m gonna fleece the swinging cods, not the discerning ladies. Christ what a fucking terrible premise. And then what? We are supposed to empathize with someone that got every motherfucking thing she wanted and then was displeased?! Like…DEBBIE T, YOU FUCKING ASSHAT, THIS IS ANOTHER GODDAMN “CAT PERSON” AND I CAN’T STAND WHEN YOU PUBLISH SHIT THAT YOU KNOW WILL CREATE CONTROVERSY INSTEAD OF EMPATHY, AND SPECIFICALLY IN THIS CASE WILL ONLY CREATE GREATER BARRIERS WITH REGARD TO SEXISM AND NOT BREAK THEM DOWN. This character is unlikable (a la “Cat Person”). This means that anyone that relates to or empathizes with this character will be unable to see their own narcissistic, poor behavior and will only further bolster their outward “positive” self-image, rendering criticism of the story into criticism of them, i.e. impossible (a la “Cat Person”). I don’t even know what the point of a story like this is except to start a fucking twitter war. So everyone to his or her trenches, I guess. The only hope is that anyone who is sure that this story represents the goodness and light and transcendence and hope and love and awe of humanity secretly despises themselves so much they can barely function.
To be clear: I’m all for whatever flavor you come in as a person and I support equal rights (and however I felt about the dog abortion as well as how I feel about human abortions, I believe it’s the woman’s right to choose (the dog didn’t have a right, it was a real point of conflict for me)). People say two wrongs don’t make a right. I say (and am stealing it, natch) that sometimes you need to straighten a stick by bending it too far in the other direction. In this case, social agenda is only harmed by stories like this. Because while certain voices are heard loudly and supported, others are quietly shutting down and learning to ignore those loud voices and display exactly the type of behavior that social agenda is trying to eliminate.
But hey! Sell your copies! Capitalism!
Fuck your face you fucking pigs.
Nick
