I would not want to be this young woman. By now, five months after the event she attended at the University of Massachusetts Amherst featuring a discussion with Christina Hoff Sommers, Steven Crowder, and Milo Yiannopoulos on the problems besetting university campuses with speech considered "triggering," she has become a favorite meme among those who see such concerns as at best mildly hysterical, at worst a symptom of the total breakdown of our national character (I paraphrase). Audiences at several of Milo's recent talks (which you can see here ) have made reference to her, imitating her arm gestures (which I am having a hard time ignoring on the gif as I am writing) and laughing at her expense. Milo, to his credit, has admonished them: "No, we love Trigglypuff! Trigglypuff is wonderful!," while insisting that it is not she, but those who have lied to her about what will make her happy that are to blame. "She is going to be miserable," he has said (a...
Dear F.B., In response to your wondering (and setting aside the grammar of your question) yes and no: Everyone your age (and those a few years your senior, but still virile) does/do think almost 'all the time' about death. A random, unscientific sampling of selected individuals in this age group indicates that the little bandwidth remaining is taken up with a) mortgage payments b) college tuition c) why the Yankees can't win even with a $210M payroll and d) sex. And not necessarily in that order.
ReplyDeleteI see you are in competition with Job as to who has developed the better set of 'friends.' Red Bear's ruminating that your writing would make anyone miserable is, like, way wrong. The ruminations of F.B. are always interesting and thought-provoking, sometimes somber, occasionally poignant, but never misery-inducing.
Glad to know I'm not alone in thinking so much about death. I've wondered whether it was more an effect of age or of my father's dying, although as a writer I also wonder whether it's further exacerbated by the sense of time being so fleeting when there is so much to learn.
ReplyDeleteRe: Red Bear's concern. I'm happy to hear that Fencing Bear is on balance more somber and poignant than misery-producing. My mother and some of my students have commented (privately, not on particular posts) that they find some of FB's ruminations hard to read, but I am convinced that it is as important to write about her (my!) struggles as it is to provide advice.