Do I look like I have the time and the patience to invest in that?
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you look like you should read The Strange Bird
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Ryan Castro: Illuminati Confirmed
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It’s not bad. It’s that I’m older and thereby had to have them close them close in age.
Writing was also a 30something move.
I did my editing for today, but since tomorrow starts officially my part-time schedule at work, meaning I get 4 (!) days in a row to not work, I am taking day of writing and just watching figure skating.
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My Protagonist Is Immensely Unlikable—That’s The Point This was too interesting of a read to not share. Cross your fingers and hope you don’t get this guy in your next critique or workshop. At least there aren’t too many people this entitled on Wattpad.
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Comes up out of a nap to start reading this. Blinks in minor shock by the 4th paragraph.
Shoot, that’s the level of arrogance I pretend to have…is this dude for real?
Now, I find we throw around the phrase mysogenistic way too easily as a society, but even a buffoon should know that mysogeny is not excluded from being passive aggressive.
Now, unlikeable social commentary characters are not new. That’s Confederacy of Dunces and I’ve already gone into why I loathe that thing while my mother loved it. But like a well-seasoned meal that that’s just NOT to my taste, you CAN tell when something is well-written in spite of being loathesome. And by 4 paragraphs in, I’m not sure this dude is it.
Now…does the rest of this article get humorous or is it as tedious to read as the first bit?
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I thought this was satire for a moment, but then I realized he was arrogant by the end. Also, Max, a character doesn’t have to be described to be punchable. Their actions speak louder than words.
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Evidently this is the suspect:
He’s a comedy writer, so the whole essay must be meant to be satire. I found it pretty humorous. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯
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I honestly didn’t. 
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I just noticed the motto under the McSweeney’s logo says “Daily humor almost every day since 1998.” So I guess this is one of those almost days. (>‿◠)
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Yep lol. I didn’t care to check it out tbh.
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Now see, your comment was funny.
Don’t get me wrong. I like poking at pretentiousness. Playing arrogant is fun. Just I’ve read better.
Gotta understand I’m 100% not the target audience if this was real or with it being satire, as I’m not in either camp on the subject of likeability, personality traits being dubbed mysogenistic, etc.
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Ok, finally woke up enough to finish it. My lip twitched once.
I think what kills it for me is all the name dropping. I get why the names and titles are dropped, but it’s nothing relevant to me.
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:o
ah, the struggles of being older u^u
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Eh, it’s always the same answer. You gotta write what people wanna read. Nobody owes you liking books, characters etc. yeah, other writers pulled off unlikable leads, male or female. You didn’t. Ain’t on the critics. It’s on you. Either you’re a garbage writer or you missed the window of time when it was funny/acceptable/interesting to the public. Obv, everyone can write. But everyone else can not read and will not read.
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I will say that I would love to watch such a dude in action on someone else’s works (yay! Trainwrecks), but the first thing out my mouth when dealing with them would be, “Yes, yes, I do this for shits and giggles, quit being a douche canoe .” The receiving end is where this behavior is the worst because it’s unproductive without being 100% right, and since there is still a ton of subjectivity in the craft, there’s no such thing as 100%. People have too much of their egos wrapped up in their babies.
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I think the author makes a compelling point, though, that goes beyond likability: his talents are not appreciated by his undeserving fellow workshop members. Anyone with his capability of prose can be trusted to write good fiction; it is merely the responsibility of those around him to appreciate his genius for what it is. I’m not sure if even I could appreciate the nuances of his magnum opus.
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