How could I have been so shortsighted? I totally take it all back. Because, you know, really? She should read JANE AUSTEN, that’s who she should read.

—Um, okay, seriously. Sorry for the more unnecessary of the acid-splashing…and in fact I *did* find a couple of posts on her and her confrère’s site that I rather liked; but then my favorite was yanked down today. Someone’s being her own editor over there, for sure.

Of course I judge things, and sometimes I dismiss them (though not casually). That’s what readers do, or we’re kidding ourselves. (And here I deleted a brief tractatus On Criticism, because this is the a.r.w.’s blog, not mine; and it’s a beautiful growing organic thing she’s got goin’ on here, praise be!)

my blog is more of a journal i keep intensely private, available only to friends from high school, people whose opinions don’t matter. each time i post (getting rarer) i hover over the button, unsure if i want the drivel i spent 3 hours spewing out to be seen by anyone else. it’s emo shit. blogs are an uncomfortable artistic medium for me, something between cerebral vomit, hastily scribbled break-up poetry and (rarer still) a few aesthetically decent words strung together forming an original thought. part of me still sees blogs as a juvenile libation meant to spark creativity, where inevitably the words are drunk with their own self-importance, the author’s “feelings” a daily source of inspiration. the other part sees the potential for a valid and articulate source of art, a refreshing down-to-earth approach that again totes honesty as it’s foundation.

i’ve seen both.

i see jessica roy as the former. the almost right word, the latter. i feel the two styles shouldn’t mix. the end result? we all read the article, the lashing comments, and the rebuttal. i don’t have the heart to tear her to shreds because she has not learned the mother of all rules of blogging: filter those intense emotions into something you will not hate yourself for later, something coherent at least. blogger’s remorse is awful. i know she felt it. not for her topic or opinion, but critiques on style and word choice are harsh. when you’re your own editor things go to press that a fellow writer would have never let slide.

i think i will sit back on my pedestal now and enjoy the view

aren’t we all learning these lessons, just like jessica roy?

i write this post because i admire her — it’s better to express yourself than keep everything locked up inside.

i do not believe that we can judge her or dismiss her. i do not believe it is our position to do either.

i have respect for her honesty and her desire to make it public.

She is learning life is unfair. There is no purity, there is no escaping it. We are all cavemen.

Perhaps she’s never felt this, or learned this before. Perhaps she remained sheltered for long enough that her ignorance of this world was blissful.

For those reasons, I’m inclined to cut her some slack. There’s time enough for her to be jaded without her readers calling her out as naive and immature. She knows it now.

And if she doesn’t know any better? Then she’s certainly no different than those she describes. She will be “absorbed” into that world. And some other young thing will hop along and write bitter sounding prose about her.

There is no justice in this world, no fairness. Jessica Roy has perhaps learned that. We shouldn’t worship that fact just because she chose to share it with us.

I’m slightly drunk so I apologize for any misspellings….

I couldn’t make heads or tails of the article written by the “writer” from NYU, a school I spent 4 years attending in a city I miss, but as with anything she realized that in life one must sometimes move on and out. Unfortunately for her when trying to make her experience something special she bored to tears. No wonder she can’t get anywhere.

Plus maybe she blew some editors just KIDDING oh come on Jessica Roy can you not take a joke.