mark’s Comments (group member since Nov 22, 2010)

mark’s comments from the The Extra Cool Group! (of people Michael is experimenting on) group.

i also got here because a friend pestered me into joining. but now she and the rest of my original real-life friends barely even bother with GR anymore. sigh. sometimes i feel like deleting them from my friends list because they are now just creating clutter on that list! but then i may have to face real-life consequences & commentary if i delete any real-life friends. ah well. i guess i just have an innate editing instinct.

i could care less either way, for the most part. the rare exception is when it is something that i not only love, but is personally meaningful to me....then if i person i love hates it, or even worse - mocks it, then a little part of me dies inside. but then little parts of me die everyday, so really its no big deal! slowly sloughing off all those awkward human parts like so much dead skin is forward movement; i look forward to the day when i am entirely composed of shiny metallic robot parts and all the messy human ingredients have been lost like dust in the wind. all we are is dust in the wind!

i am just a wee lad when it comes to comparing how popular my reviews are to other reviews. i think the most i've received is maybe a dozen votes, if that. i'm not going to even post a link to my so-called best review, it's not worthy!

i don't automatically respect a review because it has a lot of Likes - but i have to say, whenever i check out the Best Reviewers list, most of the reviewers there are pretty awesome. just some really strong writing going on. engaging, funny, personal, in depth, intelligent, passionate, all the good things i want to see in a review.

"consistent" is probably the better word to use in my original sentence, objectively speaking.

it is an entirely subjective version of perfection or excellence, of course. but one i try to be objective about it!

this one:

a very impressive novel. not knowing anything about it or the author (didn't even have a back cover when i read it) made its mysteries even more compelling.

5: a perfect novel

4: an excellent novel. i'd read it again.

3: a good novel. lots of great parts. far from perfect.

2: a fair novel. some interesting parts. overall, probably forgettable in the long run.

1: a poor novel. wouldn't read it again. or maybe so awful, i would.

my most memorable english teacher was a faded southern belle who enjoyed commenting on the War of Northern Oppression, openly imitated & mocked her openly gay teaching assistant, asked girls with short skirts What Are You Selling Honey, and would describe her hot flashes to her students as she was having them ("i think i'm having another hot flash darlings!"). she had the film A Man For All Seasons memorized, you could see her mouthing the lines of dialogue as she watched it. she was a real character, especially in orange county. she told me i'd never amount to anything!

ah, mrs. durham, rest in peace. forgive me for pouring superglue in your classroom keyholes! i will always appreciate her for introducing me to Light in August.

and what is your favorite, nancy?

i love No Country but i haven't watched it a second time yet. usually i watch them multiple times, but that one was a little painful. i'll get to it soon though.

what is your favorite coen brothers film? mine is Barton Fink. but there's a lot that are tied for second.

it is an old game plan, but also a tried and true one!

Philip wrote: "@ Mark's comment #73: Whatever. You're just an idiot that doesn't know anything. Of course you've had trolls you idiotic idiot. You're just a fanboy.

There. I am now officially your first troll..."

yeah! my innocence has been taken away!

i must be especially golden-sweet, or more likely not widely read at all, because i've never had any trolls.

i've only had one bad argument in a group. it was with a few people at once, i eventually took it off-line but then they brought it right back into the group, finally the moderator had to step in. they just went batshit, totally insulting, because they felt i was calling an author out as a child molester. which really wasn't the case at all. saying someone has a problematic engagement with child molestation is different than saying that person actually is a child molestor in real life. but the dumbasses just wouldn't let that point sink in, it was like they were related to the author or something, and couldn't deal with any form of criticism. i'd say things like "i'm sure he's a swell guy but i hate how he always has to use molestation as a shock tactic" and then they'd respond with comments like "people like you who intellectualize everything are disgusting, you need to get laid more" or "from the picture of the author he looks like a very nice, chubby guy and not a molestor at all". it was all very frustrating. and funny too.

some of my own irritable comments on various threads & reviews have gotten push-back, but more in the form of debate than just trashing.

i've read troll comments in other reviews, of course. i think. for me a troll is someone who just makes a lame, short, almost pointless attack and then just takes off. sometimes i wonder if the troll comments i've read were made by the reviewer's friends, because i've made some asshole comments here and there to my own friends' reviews (real life friends, that is). that's just how i talk to my friends outside of GR i guess. its such a lucky thing to be my friend in real life, such awesome benefits like ongoing asshole commentary!

as far as negative or one-star reviews go, i just don't have a lot of interest or energy writing them. what's the point? the one-star books often make me feel like i wasted my time anyway. i do write them of course, but they tend to be brief. i'd much rather talk about something i'm excited about than go on about something i found to be irritating, boring, or offensive. same goes for music. and movies. and restaurants! especially restaurants.

this is one of the most absorbing threads on a book review that i've seen on GR. and i'm still reading it, actually. its all so fascinating! i loved your first comment back to the first commentator.

i guess i am one of those people to whom the coen brothers can do no wrong. i've found each and every one of their films to be impressive. really looking forward to True Grit!

i think the novel is beautiful but deeply problematic, namely because of its misogyny. it is a favorite novel but in a way a guilty favorite, because of that misogyny. the writing is amazing. the emotions and complicated thoughts of the male characters are sensitively portrayed. when reading it as a young queer, it really spoke to me, corny as that may sound. but i was also a political young queer, and the misogyny really stood out. the primary female character is described in really disturbing terms and functions only as a kind of adversary or a problem to be overcome. i would have appreciated her character to be as richly developed and as sympathetically portrayed as the two male characters. it was a disappointment, but i put it aside in favor of how much i responded to the novel's beauty. reading it more recently (in the past 5 years, not sure when) only made me realize how troubling and unnecessary the misogyny was, in such an otherwise moving and gorgeously written novel. it is a common enough problem in gay literature overall.

me too, it is a personal favorite. the writing...so beautiful!

i don't. but now that i think about it, i'd like to. i've read some amazing reviews in which the writing is superior to many of the books that i actually read and review. alas, those shining reviews are probably gone from my life forever!

mine were pretty unambitious reviews for The Cannibal and Giovanni's Room. i later updated the Cannibal review; i felt it deserved better. maybe some day Giovanni will get the same treatment. i used the phrase "poetic prose" in that one and it sort of embarrasses me. plus he is looking so forlorn, just sitting there in the corner, patiently awaiting an update. well maybe if he wasn't such a misogynist, i'd have more time for him!