tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post161454291017939801..comments2023-10-02T09:49:52.837-04:00Comments on Bridget Callahan is Your Best Friend: Swing State Syndrome and Why This Writer Guy can Piss OffBridget Callahanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06729980008876962813noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-16715661314906955822012-11-06T02:55:37.075-05:002012-11-06T02:55:37.075-05:00Mr. Kirn is angry at what he perceives to be an un...Mr. Kirn is angry at what he perceives to be an unfair process and he's having his little tantrum with plenty of stereotypes and name calling. Fine. I'm above it. <br /><br />I inhale. I exhale. I eat and sleep and defecate. Mr. Kirn and I have these things in common. I understand the soul of a Hulett ore unloader. Mr. Kirn understands name calling.<br /><br />I win. He loses. Simple math.<br /><br />Funny thing is that I read Kirn's essay via another friend before dropping in over here. It infuriated me at first. Then I came to this, "But then I tried googling your biography, and there wasn't much to find, except maybe you converted to Mormonism as a teenager once?" My lips split into a toothy grin. That was my reaction as well--to google him and try to find out who the hell Kirn is. Just like you, I came up with nuttin' other than that LDS essay. This silly jamoke sure has a lot of opinions about us, but how much experience does he have?<br /><br />We think alike, Callahan, so keep on keepin' on. <br /><br />Yeah, yeah.Erin O'Brienhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09089592061725346901noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-6910170127260549232012-11-05T17:01:47.623-05:002012-11-05T17:01:47.623-05:00Well if he stopped reminding people where he was f...Well if he stopped reminding people where he was from, he wouldn't be able to capitalize on his "midwest insight".Bridget Callahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06729980008876962813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-18253818746441468292012-11-05T15:53:20.131-05:002012-11-05T15:53:20.131-05:00I really wish Walter Kirn wouldn't keep saying...I really wish Walter Kirn wouldn't keep saying he's from here. He is like a brown streak on white underwear - it is not our greatest shame, but it is also not something we want to be reminded of. AShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18144485005669218292noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-53282924756718513152012-11-05T15:24:41.286-05:002012-11-05T15:24:41.286-05:00My favorite comment though was the one where someo...My favorite comment though was the one where someone was like "Ohio, is totally like this, except Columbus which is amazing" and all I could think was "Man, that is not what the rest of Ohio thinks about Columbus."Bridget Callahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06729980008876962813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-5060396827752837962012-11-05T15:13:20.293-05:002012-11-05T15:13:20.293-05:00It is tired isn't it, ripping on the midwest? ...It is tired isn't it, ripping on the midwest? I was surprised by how many comments in the original article were praising how "clever" the writer was, as if it takes a genius to take pot shots.<br />The author could have better spent his time talking about how ridiculous the electoral college is.Winopantshttp://winoonaramble.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-69152099003580337202012-11-05T14:18:06.311-05:002012-11-05T14:18:06.311-05:00This is a comment my friend Christine left on the ...This is a comment my friend Christine left on the FB link, that I think is a very good point and should be here...<br /><br />"since the author (whose overall argument is pretty tired) brought it up, it's good to remember that the response creative people have to the Midwest (all right, he says Ohio, but we all know he just means flyover country) is not always "OMG get me out of here - I can't wait to make fun of this place from the coast, mwahaha!" They may leave physically, but the Midwest is always their creative landscape and the decision to leave is (as you know) fraught with mixed emotion. The vast majority of American Nobel prize winners in Literature were from (and wrote about) the Midwest, and there's no doubting the deep connection Bradbury, Vonnegut, and even Sinclair Lewis (who was virtually run out of town on a rail after Main Street) felt toward the Midwest. David Foster Wallace lived in the Midwest, he liked the Midwest and he liked Midwestern people, so full of himself or not, love him or hate him, he's proof that Kirn's argument is overly simplistic. Also: Sherwood Anderson based the characters in Winesburg, Ohio, on people he met in the boarding house where he lived in Chicago. So there's also that."Bridget Callahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06729980008876962813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-17060022811409026402012-11-05T10:44:19.967-05:002012-11-05T10:44:19.967-05:00I know, right? It's a writer's paradise.I know, right? It's a writer's paradise. Bridget Callahanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06729980008876962813noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9077624495684601002.post-83342877317156337902012-11-05T10:33:00.943-05:002012-11-05T10:33:00.943-05:00Ohio. The thing about how this fellow is right is...Ohio. The thing about how this fellow is right is what interests me and what I'm always interested in noticing, documenting - and that's just how representative Ohio is of the country. You've got Rust-Belt Vs. Sun-Belt Vs. River-Town all here, the old remain in Cleveland the young congregate in Columbus, just Detroit and Charlotte and New Orleans in microcosm with just the one highway to connect them. Now we've got our energy boom - so we're like Texas or Oklahoma - extractive industries oh-my. Financial and Healthcare - the Cadillacs of the service economy both prosper in the suburbs, of which we've an abundance while extractive copper mining flourishes in the cities. And demographically we're right in the middle of it.<br /><br />The thing I like though is how this was once a dreamworld - the Township system and the first inkling of manifest destiny - all the great ambitions of the revolutionary war - all brought to life. <br /><br />Which is to say - it's not as if, in the effulgence of our rising star of perfect, miniature representation - that we don't have a proportional share of geniuses, wizards, mormons, assholes, saints and fuckups - heck we've got them in the exactly the proportions you'd expect us to have, as the perfectly realized miniature America. <br /><br />Except, as you know, ours are better. Kingtycoonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08927699380769686351noreply@blogger.com