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Jeanette's Reviews > Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman
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No rating. From the introduction and the first/ next 20 pages I was repelled. Not for me on at least 4 or 5 different facets. Shrill means, to me, shrieking in unpleasant vibrato. This is beyond that, it is not only dark humor. It is filled with venom. Hate, anger and stereotype rule. No good intent is assumed for "the other". Self definitions and core are entirely self-involved to "value". Her "we think" is also in many ways self abusive. But most of all the crude language and context foul dialog becomes beyond dumb and not worthy readable time. She reminds me of George Carlin in his last years when he became the core of bitter and when his act became the opposite of funny. We saw his show in 3 successive decades. The last one was so bitter and so filled with vile emotional context and hateful to "other" intent, at least a tenth of the audience actually left. It was sad to see that brilliance become so tainted and so personally miserable. That this vitriol can be interpreted as humor becomes hard to understand for those of us who have different, and some of us who may have had far harder luck, health, life experiences and cultural contexts of our own. That she believes progress will occur from this shrieking calling out vitriol exposes how little she knows about homo sapiens emotional and cognitive reality.
This goes on my abandoned shelf.
This goes on my abandoned shelf.
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Jun 23, 2017 01:54AM
Ah, tell me how you really feel! Seriously, I respect your honesty. I started this but set it aside after 20 pages. Was planning to pick it up again, but now wondering about my decision.
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You may think the language, form, and attitude is worth it. For the fat girl shaming retorts and other snark. Humor is in 2017 something entirely apart from what it never was in tone before, even the most foul, like Chris Rock, was funny because of its inherent acknowledgment of "other". And some people in the day also centered on a easily recognized type of insult humor (it was designated that name) like Don Rickles. Hated live insult humor too, to be truthful, but not as much as this. In insult humor their was always a tiny bit of "at the end of it all" respect for the disdained and denigrated subject. Here it is universal vilifying "the other". And "the other" is also more than 2 or 3 categories as far as I can tell from my cultural window and majority of my life context. Here it is - you are "one think about me and my values of my WE THINK THIS group" or you are to be despised and annihilated with joy. Intolerant at its core by both judgment & expletive retort- and also intrinsically formed in anger given large range expression. She is very angry. Some I know ditched this book for the anger factor alone. One was in her 20's. This is my soap box issue and has been for at least 10 years because I live in IL where the sides are entrenched in more than 3 years without a budget and now bankruptcy. With violence ever escalating and some of it considered "valid". HUH! I've seen the most horrendous mob murder and I don't want to ever see that again. No respect for other opinions and values despite disagreeing with them is not worth my time for the reading, let alone for the enjoyment factor. She implies all that differ from her "worthy" values are evil and deserve verbal bullying or far worse. The introduction alone stopped 2 in the group that were going to read this. She reads there as if she were psychotic, IMHO.Not all young people like this kind of anger either. Nor do they abide the dumb language, especially those who have had to learn to speak English in polite and understandable formats for jobs and schooling.
You've brought such a different perspective to this book; your experience reading it was so very different than mine. I can't help but ask: What was it that originally drew you to this book?
Group read and review requested by YA librarian. Rarely do I do these- and this is one of the reasons why, I would guess. They also have a shelf of "librarian's favorite" on that same floor- and I think half of them are terrible for any age. Negative and filled with anger seems to denote progress?
Aside from reading her book, I've met her in person once and attended a lecture where she spoke. I can't fathom describing her as angry. She's bubbly and funny, approachable and candid. If I had to deal with even a fraction of the crap that gets thrown at her everyday, I'm near certain I would turn into a horrible, angry, unapproachable person, but she's maintained a happy and healthy attitude with aplomb.
Well, apart from the vile language itself which I detest as sounding eternally stupid, it's also in the focus of her tone. How that targets & I didn't get any bubbly in that approach at all. I got anger and reciprocation. I only know her from print, and from her print- I would not want to know her.
I really want to comment on this review but I have a feeling anything I have to say would fall on deaf ears, so I will not waste my time. This book is not for you. So be it. The only thing I will say is to reject what someone is saying because of "vile language" is childish and short-sighted.
It wasn't only because of the vile language. Her basic core of negativity with a whine was worse. I reject her victim voice too.When you need to name call a poster beyond an argument with the post-that says it all.
I wish Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ had a downvote the way Reddit does.
I'm with you Abigail.
Defensiveness and negativity grow out of the exact mood and attitudes displayed in this book. More examples of the "tolerant" to prove the state accomplished from all this above me. Divisiveness and nasty retort and snark based self- identity- good luck with all that!
Yep, I'll add my downvote to the chorus. Also, look around. There is a lot to be angry about. There is a lot to change. Doing it in a well-written way with humor to boot is awesome.
It doesn't work. Believe me, I've seen stuff in 70 plus years that you haven't. The kind of anger you mention is drinking poison from your own well.
