/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.14630084]

how do I get over myself and better accept criticism? in school I never read my professor's comments out of a combination fear and arrogance and working with editors any little suggestion makes me feel insulted and get super defensive

[Anonymous No.14630257]

"How" do I get over myself and "better accept criticism?" In school I never read my professor's comments out of a combination "of fear and arrogance ." "Any little suggestion from working with editors" makes me feel insulted and "I" get super defensive

Probably because you have 0 concept of English, grammar, and punctuation. Learn how to self edit and don't use big words if you don't understand how speech patterns work

[Anonymous No.14630274]

>>14630257
NNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGG

[Anonymous No.14630585]

>>14630257
He may have little comprehension of grammar but your punctuation is terrible.

[Anonymous No.14630593]

>>14630257
This has to be bait.

[Anonymous No.14630602]

I'm the same, ever since I can remember I've never looked at the professor's comments, even if I get a good grade

[Anonymous No.14630746]

>>14630084
Read Good Old Neon. It's about exactly what you're saying

[Anonymous No.14630753]

>>14630746
i've read it twice i dont see the relationship at all. wouldn't good old neon guy be super attentive to criticism?

[Anonymous No.14630766]

>be TA
>write people extensive feedback on their papers
>spend probably 4x longer on grading than the other TAs because I actually try to deconstruct your sloppy fucking lumpy argument and shitty "look at all these words I just learned this month!" precocious undergraduate prose and give you the fairest hearing possible of what you were at least TRYING to say
>not a single student reads feedback
>they don't even pick their papers up after class

Why do you break my heart like this

[Anonymous No.14630768]

>>14630593
>>14630602
Now That's What I Call Bait Volume II

[Anonymous No.14630775]

>>14630766
I'd hug you if I could, anon

[Anonymous No.14630788]

>>14630753
Did you really not realize that the story is an exposition of why the narrator's worldview is insanely stupid and smallminded

[Anonymous No.14630853]

>>14630753
I just meant in terms of being unable to release your ego. You must try to project an image of being intelligent and studious such that any criticism that runs against that image causes you to feel defensive. Inside you feel like a fraud, so you embellish your image even more to hide behind it, which in turn makes you more insecure and feel like more of a fraud, etc,. That's one component of GoN.

>>14630788
Is that really all that it is? I felt like it had more to do with working out the fraudulence paradox and the failure of communicating the self through language.

[Anonymous No.14630878]

>>14630853
In my reading of the story, the narrator realizes that the only way to not be fraudulent is to throw himself into the "grand drama of life, instead of observing it" (I'm misquoting, I don't have the story with me) but at that point he's so far gone that he feels like he can't muster the strength to change. That you should be living life instead of watching it like a TV show. And yeah, the language stuff is in there thematically too. But I think the overall point of the story is to make the narrator look like a shithead, in the hopes of making readers who live their lives in the same way realize that they need to change.

[Anonymous No.14630913]

I need more info, what exactly are you writing? Journalism, essays, editorials, short stories, novels? Depending on the answer, your problem could be multiple things including general illiteracy (no offense), stubbornness, an inflated ego, and a poor understanding of the editorial process. You have to accept the PROVEN fact that other people know things you don't know, and you have to listen to them or make an ass of yourself.

[Anonymous No.14630922]

>>14630766
get a load of this dork

[Anonymous No.14630928]

>>14630878
Yeah, he says that he's spent his whole life observing the drama (and thinking about what the people around him are thinking about him) rather than living it.

I agree with you other than the fact that part of what makes the narrator detestable is that he thinks that he knows people and what they think, when in reality, since what we can convey through language is, to use his metaphor, like trying to see someone through a keyhole, we really can't "know" the narrator. To presume that he is this juvenile pseud who is massively insecure and needs to be one step ahead of everyone would be to ignore all that is behind the door. Now that I'm writing this, I guess I would say that my takeaway is to manage your "keyhole" presentation of yourself such that you aren't like the narrator. Maybe we don't judge him completely because we can't "know" him, but certainly we should try to let go of our egos, much like a Buddhist release, in order to get out of the paradox.

[Anonymous No.14630948]

>>14630928
Yeah, I think that's all true, but when you consider DFW's devotion to Wittgenstein I think that the obsessive need to "really know" someone through language (which of course is impossible) is meant to be shown as something that should be more or less dismissed, as in, to be shown to be impossible and therefore destructive. Not that it isn't something that's potentially interesting to think about, but if you actually live your life wanting to express "the real you" you'll find it impossible and it'll drive yu nuts.

[Anonymous No.14630998]

>>14630948
Agreed. It's a lesson that I learned from reading it.

[Anonymous No.14631072]

>>14630878
>the only way to not be fraudulent is to throw himself into the "grand drama of life, instead of observing it" (I'm misquoting, I don't have the story with me) but at that point he's so far gone that he feels like he can't muster the strength to change. That you should be living life instead of watching it like a TV show.
this is a really bad take

[Anomynous No.14631492]

Anon, when you're writing, do you not constantly criticize your own work in order to ensure high quality?
If not, then you have an extremely fragile ego.

[Anonymous No.14631530]

>>14631072
How so? I haven't read the story for a while, but that's what I got out of it

[Anonymous No.14631706]

>>14630084

To you your work is unique, to an editor it is one of hundreds they will see that year, all written by equally arrogant pseuds that think they are God's gift to literature. And you all make the same mistakes and you all insist that it's correct or that it's your 'style'. And we roll our eyes and do the same song and dance every single time.

t. Editor

[Anonymous No.14631717]

>>14630766

>be TA
>point out uselessness in other people's work
>fail to realize that my job is the most useless of all

Pottery

[Anonymous No.14631732]

>>14630084
Expose yourself to criticism whenever you can. It will 100% make your work better. It is a 100% fact that people who have never gotten feedback (about anything--appearance, creative work, performance, etc.) are insufferable, delusional, and cringe-inducing. Try to avoid that.

[Anonymous No.14631756]

You are not exceptional now and you will never will be unless you recognize that

[Anonymous No.14631794]

>>14631706
Shit this might be the best explanation for why most editors are utter garbage - they serve more as an averaging ruler than actually making the effort to improve upon each individual work. Works for mass marketed spy novels, disastrous for anything with a modicum of soul.

[Anonymous No.14631813]

>>14631706
cringe

[Anonymous No.14631853]

>>14631813
Not editor anon and not claiming to be an expert myself. For about a year and a half I engaged in biweekly editing of amateur trash and had my own submitted trash edited. I had to quit after that because I couldn't do it anymore. Dealing with fragile egos was exhausting. It's analogous to a doctor half heartedly telling an obese fuck to limit their caloric intake.