6 Comments

A man bites dog SubStack?

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I’m certainly not going to read it but I checked Amazon reviews: worst, 2 stars: “None of the characters are likable. Not one.

I suppose this is why some of the literary world considers it razor-sharp sarcasm or darkly funny. I didn't think so.”

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What's the ratio of aspiring novelists to actually published novel? Assume 1000 to 1 (although probably much higher). 999 rejected straight white males likely say, "It's an extremely competitive market, I just didn't have enough talent or luck to succeed." 999 Asian women surely say, "White racist, misogynist, homophobic, Asian-hating males stole the place I rightly deserve, damn them!"

Applied to almost all American selection processes by 2015.

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Surprised it wasn't titled "Yellow Karen".

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This is why the Percival Everett novel "Erasure" and its cinematic adaptation have been received so ebulliently by center right commentators: the story is simply much more credible (and humorous). Verisimilitude is crucial to a good (realistic) novel, as tautological as that may sound to normal readers.

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I concocted a connection between Wodehouse’s Jeeves and the concept of “eucatastrophe” elucidated in JRR Tolkien’s essay “On Faerie Stories”. Eucatastrophe is basically the salvation of the hero after all his plans turn upside down. Bertie has a terrible plan which goes wrong, then Jeeves slides in with a kind of odd plan, and that goes wrong too! Then the situation is saved when the heiress runs off with the chauffeur.

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