[R. S. Gwynn]

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...edward-snowden

I expect all of us will have a cringe or two while reading this one. Mr. O'Neill nails it.

[Jayne Osborn]

Does this really warrant a whole new thread when you've also posted a link to the same long, tedious piece (IMO) on the "Rejections for Christmas" thread, Sam?

Jayne

Edited in: Oh, looking at the timings of each post, I see that this thread came first, then you saw fit to post it again three minutes later on Jen's thread, for some inexplicable reason. Life's too short . . .

[Matt Q]

Thanks Sam, I enjoyed it.

[Michael Cantor]

What Jayne said. In both threads where this was posted.

[Matt Q]

Jayne and Michael,

I'm interested in why you have such a strong reaction to this piece -- strong enough even to seem to chastise Sam for posting it. It seemed harmless enough to me. What am I missing here?

Matt

[R. S. Gwynn]

Matt, I wonder too. It's 3700 words, about average for a short story.

I deleted the redundant post.

[Michael Cantor]

I can't speak for Jayne, but what I was expressing was a reaction, not a strong reaction, and I simply referred to Jayne because (a) I agreed with her, and (b) it wasn't worth adding anything else. Sam posted it in two different threads (possibly you didn't notice that), and in Jennifer's thread it really had nothing to do with the subject. I also have to admit that initially I assumed it was an article, not a work of fiction, and found everybody involved (in the piece, not the audience) a little bit silly. Realizing it was fiction, changes my outlook, but not my conclusions. But it wasn't a big deal.

[Jayne Osborn]

I hadn't noticed the audio version till I saw Annie's post (over on the other thread), so I gave it another go.

It took half an hour to listen to (at least I could do other stuff at the same time!) but I got to the end; I didn't have the patience to read that far yesterday.

But it's not a huge deal, as Michael says. I'll just agree to disagree with you and Sam on this one, Matt.

Jayne

[Susan McLean]

I had already read the story before Sam posted the link. A former student had sent the link to me and asked me what I thought of the story. I replied that I get tired of never seeing poets portrayed as anything but figures of fun, but that I could certainly see the trends in poetry that the author was satirizing. All of the characters are tedious, but since they are meant to be, the story may work as satire for some readers.

Susan

[Jim Moonan]

I read the whole thing, just to see if I could, and am unimpressed. Unimpressed with the writing, unimpressed with the light in which he puts poets, unimpressed with the notion of a 'poetition', unimpressed with it all.... but mostly, I'm unimpressed with Edward Snowden.