cat person

genital manoeuvre

We don’t know about his behavior. He wasn’t the predatory guy in the story. Xp

I’m thinking that many, many works of literature past and present have some element of real life inspirations and obsessing over this one is kinda weird. Did someone read Crime and Punishment and think “oh shit he wrote about my life he makes Raskolnikov sound like such a dick and I’m totally not.”

Or is it that now in the 21st century all art is assumed to be thinly veiled autobiography.

my assumptions are as follows: roupenian had a bad date/dates/experience with this dude.

she was talking about this with a friend, they mentioned that he used to have a much younger girlfriend.

she fictionalized her experiences with the guy - how closely the story hews to reality we'll never know. she also made the character not her, but the much younger girlfriend, who she only knew small biographical details about which she included.

then it's also possible that the overly sensitive guy perhaps stewed over the depiction of him to the extent that it was a contributing factor in his death

I’m thinking that many, many works of literature past and present have some element of real life inspirations and obsessing over this one is kinda weird. Did someone read Crime and Punishment and think “oh shit he wrote about my life he makes Raskolnikov sound like such a dick and I’m totally not.”

― KEEP HONKING -- I'M BOBOING (Boring, Maryland), Thursday, July 8, 2021 9:46 AM (one minute ago) bookmarkflaglink

it's an age old question. i believe thomas mann, right after he married his wife, wrote a book where a character based on his wife fucks her brother. this was not without controversy im sure

Looks this way, yes

xp

Bernhard wrote that one book about how much the narrator hated everyone at this one party while he sat in a chair and people at a party Bernhard went to sued him for it and tried to get the book destroyed

cat person story nbd, who care, etc, but yeah the writer was lazy and could have changed a couple things

i've been waiting my whole life to say this sentence, but, Bongo Jongus otm

I just repeated a lagoon post tbh

great artists steal iirc

damn i hate all discourse about this story nearly as much as the story itself

krat person (a story about kratom)

yep very happy to avoid it completely (beyond this thread) xp

even this thread! in what way does this merit any thought at all!

brad extremely otm

sorry i've been really cranky lately

I think it's interesting

It’s salacious tho

.... all right

wasn't there a mad tv sketch where eric clapton tried to push ppl out of windows to write more hit songs

I get that sentiment totally, but I actually found the response piece quite moving(?) and worth reading on its own, even divorced from the original story, just as a reflection on the moment

(many xps to brad)

think it's a perfectly fine short story tbh

the ethics of writing about real people - in fiction or non-fiction - is something we're never going to get to the bottom of so yes, the discourse is a bit useless. but this essay introduces a possibly sensational and yes, as per treeship, salacious element which interests some (including myself)

The big question has to do with Charles. The woman in the story has now had her say—she was not some naive victim, and resents being presented as such. She has warm feelings toward her now deceased older ex boyfriend. But he is dead now and Roupenian’s letter strongly implies he did something that justified her representation of him. And we know he was bothered by this, maybe tormented. Was that right or fair? We don’t know.

y’all are weird i’m out

The big question has to do with Charles. The woman in the story has now had her say—she was not some naive victim, and resents being presented as such. She has warm feelings toward her now deceased older ex boyfriend. But he is dead now and Roupenian’s letter strongly implies he did something that justified her representation of him. And we know he was bothered by this, maybe tormented. Was that right or fair? We don’t know.

― treeship., Thursday, July 8, 2021 10:09 AM (twelve minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

everyone he knew, even acquaintances, would be aware that he was cat person also. which depending on how he actually acted towards roupenian could be a kind of "just desserts", or you know, could've been an unjustified nightmare

Roupenian’s letter strongly implies he did something that justified her representation of him

I don't really see that this is strongly implied by the quotes in the Slate piece.

I mean she doesn’t say she understands how hard it was for him, just her

Emil.y otm — that’s why it resonated when it came out

And while I don't rate the story very highly, it's relatable for a lot of people because those experiences have been had by a lot of people. It could be anyone.

And she said they had an “encounter.” Kind of an ominous phrase.

Cp

I swear to God, in the waiting room where I’m reading the Cat Person article, there’s an episode of The Golden Girls playing where Blanche is angry that a character in a novel is based on her pic.twitter.com/Egs0Ple298

— David Burr Gerrard (@DBGerrard) July 8, 2021

Xp sry

It's sprinkled that the story killed Charles, without accusing. Just leaving traces of anger.

It's a really good piece.

I guess I meant that I didn't see an indication that he objectively did something that would justify being represented in that way (which doesn't necessarily mean he didn't). I agree that she doesn't seem to feel bad for him (which could possibly mean that he 'deserved' it). xps Not sure I get ominousness from the word "encounter" either but I'm p out of touch.

xp

If he didn’t treat Roupenian poorly, it is pretty inexcusable for her to have made him into an easily identifiable symbol of a groomer.

As jim said, his friends and acquaintances would have recognized him based on the details in the story.

One should only base fictional characters on people who don't really exist, like message board posters.

I think you should disguise it better. Simon’s point from above.

With Treeship on this.

People can base fictional characters on anything they want and people who become the basis for characters can respond accordingly based on how they feel about it.xps

I also think it should be disguised better bc otherwise you’re exploiting someone else’s life which is cruel, or at the very least grossly insensitive to the feelings of other people.

If he didn’t treat Roupenian poorly, it is pretty inexcusable for her to have made him into an easily identifiable symbol of a groomer.

We don't know anything about how he treated Roupenian but it does seem fairly certain that he was not a groomer with her as she was not young at the time of their 'encounter'. (She moved to Michigan for her MFA degree.)

Would anyone have a different perspective if Charles had had some kind of public profile? That by "exposing himself" expectations of privacy were different?

lag∞n is right

― Bongo Jongus, Thursday, July 8, 2021 12:32 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

otm

I would probably be more critical if he were a public figure.