Charlie Shrugged

My two cents on the rapidly declining quality of work here in the cafe.

It seems I am the last to post a rant about the quality (or lack thereof) here on the café. I’m not usually one to jump on the bandwagon, but I was tired of venting my amazing ideas and analogies in comments.

 

I, too, remember being a big fish in a little pond here. Being a working member of a small cooperative town. I was one of the youngin’s, and I was taken under wings throughout the café. I would post work – hell, I even felt comfortable posting old (bad) work – and get honest, constructive feedback. And simultaneously get a ‘glow job’. It seemed that the other writers on the café understood the compliment-construct-compliment structure that my school teachers had taught me. When I posted work, even work that was universally adored, I would receive a “I like this, and this is why…” or a “I didn’t see anything that needed improvement…”

 

But as more and more people joined, the proverbial gene pool was diluted. I compared the café to a small town, and it’s true. Suddenly, the hardworking, upstanding citizens were being overrun by the big city population. Anyone see the movie Idiocracy? It might ring a bell or two.

 

As long as we’re comparing the café to outside objects, even other works of fiction, let’s compare it to one of my favorites; Atlas Shrugged.

 

For those of you unfamiliar with the work, in a survey conducted by the Library of Congress, people voted it the second most influential book in their lives. The first? The Bible. I highly encourage everyone intelligent enough to read it. I was warned when I started it that it was boring. It was a page turner for me. I loved it. And it really did change the way I view the world.

 

Now, let me hop off of my soap box and give you a synopsis. Dagny, the antagonist (look it up, dramaverse) is the last of a dying breed. She began to notice that all of the leaders of industry – the best minds – were disappearing. And the people taking their place were insufficient and greedy, and couldn’t grasp the true meaning of capitalism. All of the people that wanted to earn money and gain recognition for the right reasons – because they were the best at what they did, or strove to be the best – were going missing. As the novel unfolds, Dagny begins to see the ugly side of it all as she uncovers why her peers are missing. The greedy, unintelligent men that are only in it for the money and/or the fame don’t realize the hard work and the agility of mind required to be truly successful. In their jealousy, they have been pushing the worthy out of the game. Pushing unfair laws and regulations through Congress, making the superior support the lowly in a twisted sort of charity that leaves everyone with nothing. It’s a bit difficult to explain to those who have not read the book. *note: go read the book*

 

And how does this compare to the café? The unworthy are flooding the café with their craptacular work, and their backstabbing drama. It’s making it more and more difficult for like minds to find each other.

 

The main problem, however, is that no matter how loudly we complain as we walk to Mulligan Valley, there’s really no way to improve the trash that lines our streets. It would be unfair, not to mention probably impossible, to have posting standards. Have each piece reviewing by a third party before it’s posted. And what about the people who write the infamous roses-are-red emoetry? Maybe that really is how they feel. We can’t say, “Sorry, if you’ve been lobotomized, you’re not allowed to post.”

 

What separates is the yearning to improve. I saw someone mention the terrible wave of High School work flooding the café. And while I agree it’s a common thread, I can’t help but think of all of the wonderfully bright potential we would miss out on. I started writing long before High School. Looking back, of course, I can see where I’ve improved. However, there were two things that made my improvement possible; the want to do it, and the support I received.

 

The very unfortunate part, is that we cannot make people want to improve. Like an addict. You can’t help an addict until they want help. You can’t make a writer better if they’re addicted to writing crap.

 

So I look around at my dwindling list of friends and see those that have departed. Some of them left before the great purge. Did they see what I’m just now starting to see? Did John Galt appear and show them the light? Ferry them off to a little unknown site somewhere else, where only the worthy write? Where everyone contributes equally to improving themselves for the betterment of all?

 

And now the real predicament is this – how long do I stay? I’m seeing the downhill spiral of quality, of mentality. Do I leave it all behind, and go somewhere where I can really improve myself? Find something like the old café? Or, like Dagny, do I stay and fight for what I know to be right? I still believe that a handful of the gifted can make a difference. So I will stay. I will post stories and poems that are decent enough to start with, and welcome review and criticism. I will fix the problems, work on improving my writing. I still believe in myself, in my few friends. I’m willing to wait, and work hard, while the contemptible masses eventually grow bored of the café, and move on to the next.

 

Who is John Galt?

Reviews

[Blackbirdsong]

Sadly the majority of people commenting here are the ones who have seen the problem and tried to work on improving. The ones who are content to write crap - and no I don't mean high school kids, but adults who are complacent and lazy - aren't. Then there are those who write the exact same review on everything they read...beautifully written, well penned...it means as much to receive as it did to write...nothing. As far as Idiocracy...love that film and sadly that satire isn't that far from the truth of how things are at the cafe. Thankfully the top writers and top writing lists are gone. I can't tell you how grateful I am not to see that list manipulated by those who instead of working to improve as writers, worked to get on those lists. I do miss seeing a venue for the work that was deserving to be up there, but the bottom feeders most likely would find a way to manipulate that too, so just as well. Those of us who are good are aware of our abilities. Lists of publication credits, job offers, offers asking us to submit our work to any number of book, magazines and the like are our top lists, and frankly I prefer it that way. That is the true test of what it means to be a top writer.

Great piece here and I can only wish that those who need to read this will...I doubt they will. Self-delusion is a more enticing drink than truth. :)

[Siobhan MacIntyre]

Seriously, people!!!! "Who is John Galt?". Should we all be as bold as said character...maybe we should AAAALLL be Mystery Workers.

Agree with it all. And lest anyone say I'm trying to run off the high schoolers, lemme just clarify that I have abso-freaking-lutely no problem with anyone being ont his site as long as they are dedicated to the craft--and that includes improving their writing. The rest can go the same route as all the damn Californians who keep moving up here to my l'il rural city, drving up the property prices & taxes, and demanding we become more like Orange County: they can go the hell back to where they came from.

Why do WE have to find somewhere else, I ask. We were here first, thriving on learning to be better writers. We take back our "small city" but driving out the crack ho's and gangbangers (the emoetry poets and drama-versers, in Cafe-speak), and paint over all the grafitti. How do we do that? By the sheer force of our honest opinions, left like glittering jewels of reality amongst the glitter and glam of "That was so awesome!" and "Your such a good righter. This is the best peom I ever red." The emoets will go do some cutting and find some other venue that will oooh and ahhhh in rapture over their lame poetry and the drama-versers will run back to MySpace and blog about us...or they will shape the hell up and try to become a real writer...if that's really their intention to start with.

Sorry for ranting in your review...been a touchy week. ;-)

[Ican'trightwrite]

I really couldn't get that far in the Bible maybe it's because I'm not Christian or either I just got tired of the whole begot and begot s**t. I'm feeling really bad and I remeber coming to this site to read stuff like all night and the next night. That was of course long before the crash like in october or something like that. I'm sure that the when that you were talking about might be a lot further back.

I think the high school crowd should be a little more weclomed into this fold. I mean wow theirs actually people that age that would rather write things then play games or look up porn on this multimedia s**t we call the internet. But like a lot things I just I can't relate to them. Funny considering that I'm only 25 myself.

The whole site sucks. I've got one friend on here that I really trust. But it's a lot better then just having myself to review what I write. Where or what happened to the people that you used to call friends. Where did they go. It's such a sad thing that the people that should stay on this blasted site or others like it leave because of all the s**t that goes on or lack of it really.

The movie you mentioned is a bit disconcerning. It's supposed to be funny. And maybe I'm a little bit off but it reminded me a bit of Peter Sellers. Like it's funny but not that funny. I mean I could laugh my a*s off but at the same time it hurts because this is actually how people think. This is the way that things are passing away. The people that control the present now are controlling the past and it's all been pushed to something around the terms of wiki. Well I saw it on wiki. Yeah well I read it in a book years ago. I was there I know these things. That's part of the problem really and perhaps going to tend to be the problem with any online site. The desire for things to be so current that it's just overwhelming of the senses.

And your write who could judge this pieces if there was some sort of standard. I feel that something like this to be really comprenisive should hold being put on to parts or something like that. I think that one thing that this site really lacks is the forum that it used to have. It used to be open to everyone. Now it's just in the groups. And well the groups are nice it seems that there's a real disconnect with everyone here. And in a way you'd hope that a lot of people would or at least the people that matter would be checking on those forums to improve this site. It seems that we don't really have much a voice as a village to say much of anything that happens. I wish that there was real way to really bring things or change around.

[THE BLACK SEAL]

I agree with Jinx..who the hell is this john gait guy?
As for idiocracy i friggin loved it. I thought it was one of the funniest and sadly almost true movies i have ever seen about the apocalypse to come.
As for the stuff on the site, and i will just call it stuff.
I friggin think it is a joke. I mean what is this s**t where they post stuff like...
I was driving down the road and i thought it was night time but it was really daytime and i didn't figure it out for a second...yuch yuch yuch.
I do like my tongue and cheek stuff, and i do liek to poke fun, however i do have a very serious side to writing and to learning about writing.
I wish to improve. I wish to get better, and i enjoy writing a wide variety of material.
Not the see spot run crap that has flooded our streets as you put it.
This was a well done piece.
I enjoyed how you drew diverse comparisons and i found it to work quite well for what you were saying. It put ideas in the mind and gave you a foundation for your outburst.
Yes the bible is quite interesting, i rather enjoy it myself.
Anyway i did like this work, and i guess i will be posting this in the black seal next week after sio has her limelight...lol
The black seal is my way of attacking this site morons.
I want funny stuff in there but i want serious stuff as well.
I want quality writing and i am goign to expand the group to accomodate that.

[Christel Grady]

"Anyone see the move Idiocracy?" ~ movie (and yes, my other idiot-half loves that flick). I completely agree with you on every point, and yes, Atlas Shrugged is an awesome book! However, I will keep my glorious opinions to myself on this comment: see Jinx & Sio's vents for my spouting reactions to idiocy. : )

(I was really just looking for more Prophecy chapters, and stumbled upon this piece.)

[Jinx]

LOL Who is John Galt? Awesome write! Couldn't have said it better myself.