Literary Clusterfucks 2013

haha i kind of suspected that

I think she basically had 2 things in her life she felt good about, the writing group and the kidney donation, and sure she was weird about the latter, but then the group turned out to be backstabbing arseholes who stole the kidney thing, no wonder she lost it.

a (strange) woman on the verge of a (litigious) breakdown

god i felt so much secondhand embarrassment reading that article. larson is a fucking idiot for ever using that letter verbatim - she appears to be a pretty seasoned writer, shouldn't she know better?? but dorland is just... too much. its weird as fuck to notice your writer friends aren't acknowledging your so-called altruistic donation and call them out about it. who does that?? that's so cringey and completely lacking in self awareness. and then the way she just harped on about it to larson in repeated emails and texts before she even knew her letter had been used.

technically, i think larson is in the wrong, but dorland is even more unlikeable than her. i think i'm also heavily biased because i've been dealing with a coworker who is like dorland, but ratcheted up by a 1000.

kidney bean

This is classic shitty bully in-group taking advantage of feckless awkward needy loser, and for once not getting away with it, so for that alone I hope Dorland wins.

― Tsar Bombadil (James Morrison), Wednesday, 6 October 2021 02:05 (six hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

this totally

i couldn't give a rats ass about the legal whatnots of this and the story sounds pretty awful to be honest and while I agree that dorland sounds like a nightmare, this larson character sounds much more horrible. Like i would probably give dorling a wide berth but there is something very duplicitous and predatory about larson's behaviour and the cosiness of the grub street club that sounds very familiar. it seems obvious that dorling is a fragile, difficult character who it is not wise or kind to treat in the way larson did here but fundamentally it seems unjustified to write such a thin and judgemental story; her 'borrowing' craven and dressed up in far more self-righteousness and justification than the original dorling facebook messages. she at least did give someone her fn kidney. also as tracer hand has pointed out her very silly comment about moby dick either shows she has never read it or that she fundamentally knows that she nabbed a juicy story from facebook and that her story's primary interest is its tabloid salaciousness.

anyway because i am shallow and mean i enjoyed reading this

otm

“Kind of a nightmare” is exactly the phrase I would have used for dorling but the writers group is more like “basically the worst people in the world”

Good artists/worst people

haha i mean i could go along with that but sometimes people are mediocre artists and rubbish people

the cycle of novels i am basing on ilx will make proust look like custos

^^^ x1000

whoops, xpost

But that too

james morrison already supplying my rave cover blurbs

that either of them spoke with the paper for this story tells me what the take-away from the story is i.e. thread otm

yeah that was the most bizarre thing to me, speaking to a NYT reporter on the record as if they…wanted this story to come out?

dorland was the one who pitched it!

Hey anyone listening is a bonus, right?

Anyways like cat person or pretty much anything of this ilk i only read the ilx commentary which is the real value in any event that doesnt in any way affect me

Wait you don't want to read a story about white privilege and white savior complex? Very groundbreaking turn for a story to take.

Yeah yeah I wonder if Larson is using the language of social justice as a cover for merely being an asshole.

It happens

Yeah yeah I wonder if Larson is using the language of social justice as a cover for merely being an asshole.

― And of course the worms! (Boring, Maryland), Wednesday, October 6, 2021 11:08 AM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

haha yes I certainly do wonder!!

This is my last comment on the matter: Dawn Dorland is Shane in The White Lotus. They’re both essentially right—someone *did* try to fuck with them and is denying it—but the entitlement they both feel to disproportionate restitution is absolutely hideous and telling.

— a elaine vs. predator (@elainecorden) October 5, 2021

No such thing as bad press or bad kidney donations

Hannibal Lecter agrees

Lawyers are bringing in EARLIER DRAFTS of this short story & recorded versions of it found on internet & lawyers had to comb thru dozens of pages of sordid emails & texts abt said short story my god for once THE SHORT STORY is being treated w level of gravitas it deserves

— Gabe Hudson (@gabehudson) October 6, 2021

The amounts of money involved land like a punchline

I find it difficult to feel empathy for Dorland. She seems insufferable.

Larson, on the other hand, seems awful, but also seems like she just wants to be rid of this awful, insufferable honky who can't write.

lol if that was what she wanted her strategy appears to have backfired

Honky and the Wrath of Kidney

Good friend of mine from high school and college had this to say, whole (short) thread is worth reading.

the literary business (workshops, community centers, MFAs) is often about selling people on a writing community that is in fact highly artificial, and when this artificiality is exposed it can lead to all sorts of bizarre and frightening outcomes

— Sam Allingham (@SamSamAllingham) October 6, 2021

good stuff there! thx for sharing

sorry to introduce bad takes into the thread but

This morning I think it’s about two female writers getting stuck in a war of attrition over a $425 short story while a man got paid about $20K to write about it

— Jean Hannah Edelstein (@jhedelstein) October 6, 2021

exactly how much money do people think there is in short stories

new york times artcile was tl;dr, can someone summarize the literary clusterfuck

someone begged for attention and got it on the worst possible way

on, in, I'm not a ~~writer~~

new york times artcile was tl;dr, can someone summarize the literary clusterfuck

― flopson, Wednesday, October 6, 2021 8:12 PM (twenty-two minutes ago)

oh come on man it’s a breeze

exactly how much money do people think there is in short stories

I authentically think people drastically overestimate how many people can make a living as a writer of for-lack-of-a-better-word literary fiction

People drastically overestimate the connection between "I have heard of this person" and "this person is living a financially secure existence" in general.

does the NYT Mag actually pay 20k for a big story tho

Its not straight up like that its $1 per terrible take generated

brutal metrics imo

This is the game now its not what it was its what it is yknow

game is to be sold not to be told imo

I def think that whatever side you lean towards in this story reflects your own experiences with either personality type - like, I can’t think of any mean-girl/clique situations I’ve been the victim of myself, but I’ve had two really bad experiences with emotional vampires just in the last few years (and I hardly socialize so that’s a lot), one being the aforementioned current coworker and the other an attempt at making a new friend.

Ppl like dorland are hard to handle bc if you’re too nice they’ll absolutely drain you by dumping all their trauma on you and expecting deep interactions in return but if you’re not nice enough they’re constantly asking what they did wrong, apologizing in extremely obsequious ways, begging for your attention, while also making you feel like you’re the bad guy.

Yep, Dorland is the kind of person you'd run a million miles from. But she did something objectively good, regardless of the narcissistic motivations. I mean, donating a kidney to a total stranger increases the amount of wellbeing in the world. Larson on the other hand just seems cruel without any redeeming features!

yeah on one hand, Dorland's reactions to every single thing were just wayyyy over the top - who the hell emails people after they failed to respond to an FB post? or notices when people don't bring up their selfless act in conversations? contacting every organisation Larson ever worked with? the actual lawsuit itself? pitching the story to the NYT? just an absolute nightmare.

but none of this would've happened if Larson didn't decide to write a story that - regardless of what she says or how the story turned out later on - not only cribbed from Dorland's life/writing, but was clearly meant to mock her while knowing full well that everyone who ran in the same circles would recognise the character as Dorland. (Dorland was even alerted to the story via a mutual friend!).

it's just unnecessarily mean and petty, when the best thing would've just to have left her and her kidney donation alone. toy with an emotional vampire, don't be shocked if you get bit.

Dorland pitched the story to the NYT, but Larson played along and was happy to be interviewed, and if you go to her website, the homepage says "Hi. I wrote The Kindest." - she's milking it for all it's worth!