Generally, writing about the things you’ve written is a publishing world no-no. What good can come from it? Inevitably, any response to commenters or critics will read as defensive, and frankly, it’s almost always best to let what you’ve written stand (or fall) on its own merits.
But sometimes the comments are so amazingly, wonderfully, stupendously nuts that I simply can’t resist.
I recently published a short article in the web magazine Tablet recounting my most recent trip home to Mississippi with JP to visit my mother (that it has to do with parenting relations is my justification for mentioning it here).
I won’t go too much into the details of the article, other than to say it has to do with my interests: the past, weird Jews, and uncomfortable pauses in conversation. For more information, I would encourage you to read the piece.
There have been, by the standards of most public response to my writing, a fair number of comments on the article, and as is typically true with comments on websites, the reactions were, by and large, negative. This isn’t a complaint on my part–the nasty always reads funnier than the nice. Those who know me personally are aware that I take far more pleasure in causing a reader upset (and hearing about it) than receiving praise that I have a hard time accepting.
In that light, I will present you with what may be my most favoritest, number one, super awesome comment of all time, from a fellow who chose “Angry and Disgusted” as his (or her) online moniker:
What a disgusting pathetic woman [note: that’s my mother this person is talking about]! She’s a self-hating anti-semitic scumbag! So is her son [that’s me] who excuses the actions of his evil mother. This women is basically a nazi. There is no difference between her and hitler, except that he murdered millions of Jews. Theodore and his mother are the poster children for Judenrats!
My mother–same as Hitler, minus the genocide.
Good stuff!
Hitler eh? Um, does you mom have a teeny mustache? I think not. Case closed.
One thing I do like about this comment is that there’s a grain of truth there: there’s no difference between any of us and Hitler, really, except that he murdered millions of Jews. As it happens, though, that’s a pretty big “except”, maybe big enough to invalidate any comparison.
Your mother was history’s greatest monster. But she did make a lovely brisket. So, maybe history’s second greatest monster.
Ha! No prizes for second-place, alas.