Comments on: Say Hello To My Little Friends

By: Happy Go Lucky

Happy Go Lucky — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:57:43 +0000

My ex-room mate used to sell meth, yet paid fraction of rent. I paid $925 and she paid $400. I have full time job. I guess when you are low end dealer you are poor.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:42:10 +0000

Thandi– You imply that I’m close minded, when I tirelessly invited critics to elaborate on their objections. I also elaborated my views on social class at length.

Because I failed to acknowledge wrongdoing is not to suggest that I believe myself incapable of error– I simply wasn’t persuaded by the vague, contradictory criticisms which amounted to little more than accusations of bad etiquette (“Thou shalt not note or imply that lower classes exist”).

“Do you think the underlying tone would have been different had she been a 1st class dealer?”

Inevitably, since the “tone” that my critics allude to is my very mention of lower-class behavior. Get rid of the lower class details, and the objectionable “tone” is thereby erased.

Had the story been slightly different, where I was lower on the class-totem pole— a middle class girl living with Ivy League drug dealers — would anyone had squawked about my “tone” if I’d mentioned that Galoises cigarettes were chain-smoked, or that I walked into the bathroom to find a 50-year old man named “Llewelyn” naked before me?

Of course not, wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow.

The real question is: why is the acknowledgment of differences in social class considered the last taboo?

You think I’m smug & bigoted because I acknowledge class? I think you’re smug & bigoted because you consider it too loathsome for polite people to talk about.

By: Thandi

Thandi — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 05:28:27 +0000

Wow! this argument over the festive season? where was I? lol.

Lisa, with respect maybe it’s time to empty your full cup, if you cannot see your opponents view, and re-fill it slowly. How can you be so closed to criticism? It’s not the words themselves that are the problem, it’s the tone. You’re a great writer, and this was a lovely well written story except for the tone of superiority it had at some parts. I have nothing to do with America or Britain and their classes, but I got the same feel that GarterSnake did. It just came across as you keeping your roommate at a distance because of her class more than her behaviour. Do you think the underlying tone would have been different had she been a 1st class dealer? I don’t think you meant to come across that way just as much as I don’t think GarterSnake is projecting anything or being a turd (to address the people that said so), so see it as constructive criticism, especially if it turns into a many people debate.

By: Ace

Ace — Fri, 28 May 2010 05:51:56 +0000

Well, IDEALLY your roommates should not be cocaine dealers who solve their problems with a few gunshots… but those people are not necessarily “the worst of the worst”, what is basically proven by this case… some of the “normal” roommates turned out to be much worse…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:50:57 +0000

I just went back & re-read this & wow. Things got waaay blown out of proportion really fast.

Still one of my favorite stories, though.

By: Peterc

Peterc — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 16:32:05 +0000

I’m with lisadecember on this one. Delete the references to social class and there’s no story left. It’s about her class, their class, their joint confusion about how to deal with each other… Undue levels of paranoia about the mention of class and race usually betokens a greater concern with these things than does mentioning them to establish the context of the events. Mentioning that the roommate smokes Newports is “classist?” How so? Public health officials have made it an explicit policy for forty years to promote the view that cigarettes are low-class in order to discourage it. It’s the backbone of the anti-smoking movement. I’ve lived in that neighborhood myself, and it all read pretty recognizably to me. Great story, lisadecember.

By: mjs

mjs — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 06:58:22 +0000

I think many people have missed the point of this article. The purpose is to tell the story of the worst roommate, not a technical writing assignment. Why pick apart every word she used? Did it make it any less interesting of a story? Some people have way too much time on their hands to get worked up over these stories.

By: zomboid

zomboid — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:38:20 +0000

Hilarious. Gartersnake is so middle-class it’s unreal. Nice touch throwing in a little comment about your ‘writer’s training’ after telling the OP to ‘get over herself’ for mentioning her assignments.

By: Amanda

Amanda — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 11:17:50 +0000

I think Lisa made fun of herself as much as anyone else in this (very funny) story. It’s all light-hearted, I’m sure she meant no offense. And she has every right to tell the story in her own way, in her own words.
People are so quick to get offended these days.

By: froh

froh — Thu, 31 Dec 2009 18:12:03 +0000

To me, the most interesting part of this story is that the author got college credit for making hats out of construction paper and pipe cleaners.