Cat Person

Let's end this Cat Person phenomenon once and for all.

Which character is the worst in your opinion?

Story: newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

Poll: strawpoll.me/14618999

Other urls found in this thread:

huffingtonpost.com/psyched-in-san-francisco/why-women-are-tired-the-p_b_9619732.html
twitter.com/SFWRedditImages

What a dog.

I don't care.

Anyone else think she looks like a fatter version of the sort of pornstar who always ends up with way too much cum on her face? I don't find her attractive (or particularly ugly, just not my taste) yet I can't look at her without flashbacks of glued up eyes and nose.

I really liked the story.

>lets end cat person
>posts another fucking thread about cat person
just stop

Robert calling her a whore at the end puts him over the top, but that’s what makes it a disappointing story. It was a cheap way for the author to justify Margot’s behaviour, would have been more interesting if it was left ambiguous what kind of man Robert was.

They're both shit. Self absorbed cunts who don't know the other's feelings because they're too attached to their versions of each other.

can someone give me a quick rundown?

You should honestly quit or cut down porn to a few times a year, it's a hell of a drug and warps your worldview.

I think everyone can identify with some aspects of the chracters and i think it is interesting how both were caught in an inertia towards loneliness and despair. Did margot consent? I suppose so but not in any meaningful way. Robert is a victim as well, absolutely enslaved to desire.

It takes less than 30 minutes to read the story.

Why do they both look like they consume a lot of soy every day?

"I was a nanny for a while, and then I spent a long time in graduate school, studying African literature." -Kristen Roupenian

yeah so I read it, and now what's the fuzz about? mediocre story about a mediocre sexual encounter...

I don't really watch porn.

Robert was more pathetic but she knew this from the start, its her fault for dating a nu-male and being annoyed she's not attracted to nu-males

>Did margot consent? I suppose so but not in any meaningful way.

They are both white, therefore horrible people.

Shut the fuck up. Stupid nigger

because "muh cultural wars"

I agree. The story was pretty decent until the ending, which sort of ruined the entire thing.

Literally the only piece of fiction my girlfriend has read this year, and she thought it was amazing. I explained to her why I thought the ending was a disappointment and she told me I just didn't understand it because I "wasn't a woman."

Considering the shock at this story being praised, I'm guessing most people didn't pick up on the constant male insecurity, possessiveness, and hyper-sexualization contra to aforementioned insecurity which is the only form of affection from Rob. Basically, betas are betas. The girl was insipid and shallow but criticized her nature, she felt passively obligated to perform for a male when he made no effort to perform unless it was dodging her person (-ality) to fuck her or to keep the conversation in constant luke-warm stasis. This epitomizes the online dating world. We build these connections and then we can only tell we love the person via empathy, as the person is fabricated in our mind and so too is empathy. However, most of these layers are somewhat unintended, and her intended attributes are defining how girls get built to fill these relationships with sexually, emotionally, and professionally ineqt guys. Or people in this thread, desu

>However, most of these layers are somewhat unintended,
Come on, her power fantasy is directly addressed

Not true, he bought her doritos without asking for sex. He dressed up nice for their date.

I see what you're getting at, but would it not be simpler to argue he did to direct his appearance to Margot? Recall the 7-11 kiss is why they fucked. Moreover, the title of the piece, "Cat Person," gives away the angle that disagrees with yours. Margot never found any cats despite the statement from Robert that there were cats, this hiddeness of identity is both typically post-modern, but a guiding identity is hidden in a house that is someone else's entirely. Would it not make sense to view this hiddenness as a sexual lust and power dynamic within Robert, that are void of emotional commitment or genuineness?

Margot's power fantasy is a stripping of her identity within Robert's gaze, not to herself. It's the pinnacle of her giving into his vision of her, a commodity -doll, a shameful lack of poeticism on the author's part here- for sex

Why would you think there were hidden cats if you werent immediately assaulted by the smell of cat piss on walking in the door?

Mutual commodification feels empty..woah.

I actually forgot that part, desu, but that adds to my analysis more than contradicts. The bodies aren't there but only the foul smell, lol his sex

Stealthily the best comment in the thread. You need to think about who the author is and her place in the greater scheme of things to understand what the story is (a strange sort of culture wars propaganda)

The 7-11 kiss was her moaning that she had no food and him trying to be romantic by meeting her late at night (despite having a job in the morning) and buying her shit. Remember she "Presented herself" to him for a kiss while drunk and he backed off? As for Robert's cats, she was only there a night and cats often sleep outside. Plus he lived in a house so they may have been sleeping in a different room. The thing about the cat person is that she simply didn't take the time to find out whether he was a cat person, it was just a convenient thing they shared that led to their having sex and thinking they had a "connection". Robert was just a dopey lonely romantic who obsessed over the first girl who showed interest, and she was a dumbass who built up this entire persona of "Robert TM" and then, realizing he wouldn't live up to it, detached this persona to "future boyfriend" who laughs at Robert with her in the future.

The story is essentially an economics parable as it is little more than an episodic account of exchanges (the red vines, the doritos, the anxiety over id's, the movie theater, she makes a quick account of his possessions upon entering his house, he thinks pussy is what you buy with consideration) The essential imbalance is based in our economic structure.

i'm really enjoying these.

>he thinks pussy is what you buy with consideration

I don't get this angle. I mean Robert wanted sex sure, but SHE flirted with him initially, SHE tried to kiss him when drunk despite him backing off, SHE asked if she could visit his house, etc.

I mean I imagine Robert would have prepared his house in a more romantic way if he thought he was going to take her back. He had a mattress on the floor and had to download a movie when she was there, suggesting he hadn't planned for her to be there. Sure he lashes out and calls her a whore, but it's because he is lonely and feels she is treating their relationship lightly because she's fucked a bunch of guys, which she has.

Most likely not as it lacks the economic vocabulary and reading it as such would be falling in line with a stereotypical perspective we want pseudo-feminists to hold. I'm not sure if you're trolling desu

He asks to go to her place but she cannot because it is a dorm room and he acts a little testy over it probably because he autisitically made up the cats

Why did they have sex if they aren't married?

I'm not, but as a woman I'm going to read them anyway and then shit-talk the people who wrote them for oppressing me.

/Thread

You are the one falling for psychological cliches; i doubt you have any serious interest in feminist criticism. See pic related.

then you wouldn't have a story. these things don't happen to people with self respect.

>probably because he autisitically made up the cats

Stupid conjecture, considering how drunk they both were. And he could just lie and say they were outside. HE offers to take her home, and SHE asks where he lives and asks to visit. Holy fuck you roasties are so blind.

That's actually fascinating and I haven't seen that. Any reading reccs? Also economically is still an inadequate reading, we dont know the car he drives, his types of clothes, types of albums or art, size of house, or what he drinks

This is due to the guilt he boiled up in her, not the dorm, not the bar. I agree with your conjecture though, it's a keystone which might be better served asking why she did that than that she did it and it bespeaks her complicity with Roberts sexual ploys

i would have like to see her drink 4 beers, or 5, or maybe even six. then try to straddle him in the drivers seat on the way home causing them to swerve into oncoming traffic.

What guilt??!??!

He made a dry joke about her clothing. You can equally say that she made him feel guilty for being fat after mocking his candy consumption. In the bar they have a great time and he teases an imaginary image of her for the sake making her laugh. He doesn't neg her. He doesn't "gaslight" her. He doesn't pressure her into sex. She tries to kiss him and he backs off, he offers to drive her home and she asks to visit his house. He stands inside his house silently watching her from a distance and she makes no move to leave or reject his advances. The fact she then feels ashamed of fucking a fat dude is beside the point. It is HER FUCKING MENTAL WEAKNESS which leads to her going along with it rather than having some courage and saying "hey, you know what, I think we're rushing things". She doesn't even have the decency to explain the rude text her friend sent. She simply goes out to get drunk with her and dodges the consequences. No "sorry Robert my friends sent that, but I really am just looking for friendship right now. It's nothing you did wrong, and thanks again for our date." Can you expect Robert to be civil after receiving that kind of bizarre, selfish treatment? So he calls her a whore? Oh wow.

tl;dr

>The way he looked at her then was like an exaggerated version of the expression she’d seen on the faces of all the guys she’d been naked with, not that there were that many—six in total, Robert made seven.

Go back to /Robert9000/ please

It may be inadequate but i am concerned with the amount of gratuity given to the psychology of characters since they of course have no psychology; they are aspects of psychology but purely functional to illustrate; i like cat person because the characters exhibit little depth they are illustrating an imbalance of power and i do think the imbalance is economic in its nature, because in the end margot only fucks robert with a sense of obligation, not wanting to be accused of "false advertising" and then she sees how she has become a commodity, Robert on the other end of this human centipede, is bereft of humanity, a consumer, and he is defined by his consumption. I recommend Beauvoir's The Second Sex very much btw.

Why are so many people quoating this passage?

Do guys think 7 sexual partners is a lot for a sexually active woman?

I honestly don't disagree, I think you're reading the story to find fault in woman, and her will is weak twice and contrary to the purpose of her character, first with the number. I'm curious, what would you blame Robert for, if at all?

at age 20? yes.
At the very least, it's enough experience to have avoided this story altogether so i don't know what her fucking deal was.

>Robert [...] is bereft of humanity, a consumer

The nigger just wanted to be left alone. He has a job, has his own home, has a house full of books and music and art, and spends his time off attending the cinema alone. She is the fucking cunt who invaded his safe space and trashed his self-esteem because she wanted sex with him after one date, which she didn't even consider a date. Robert is baited into thinking a romantic relationship may be available to him, and as soon as he opens himself up to her he is ridiculed, dismissed and treated like a piece of shit. No wonder he calls her a whore, because that's exactly what she is.

Ohhh this reading got spicy as fuck. Could the economic reading only accomodate a reality where the cats are the only thing unbuyable -other beings? How does Robert buy Margot, via his other possessions?

Im 21 and have been naked with more than 21 people, it's an ambiguous enough number we could pick a side

It's interesting how the feminist writing of shallow characters is operating two-fold, it shows our intrinsic biases and also forces us to see a reality for women. Most of us appear to be blatantly sexist

do you think that's too many?

I blame Robert for the same kind of thing I blame Travis Bickle for, i.e. having so little experience with people that he attempts to apply media depictions of behaviour (e.g. porno) to an IRL situation, leaving the person involved feeling like she is not being treated like a person. But look how fucking terrified Robert is even in his own home with this girl. She is scared he will kill her for no fucking reason, but he is fucking terrified of her because it looks like he has no friends, no relationship experience, no social life and, as she admits, terrible self-esteem. He just spergs out and tries to over-compensate for his inexperience and it ends up being a pathetic display of false bravado (e.g. can't unhook her bra). He isn't treating Margot like shit because he asks her to stick around so he can cook her food, etc. If he was a callous brutish retard he would just fuck her and then tell her to leave. But he doesn't. He apologizes for his shitty performance and makes it clear he doesn't know what he did wrong. And then of course stalking her at the bar and spamming her with foul text messages is wrong, but shit man this guy was already dead and she pissed all over him.

But...that's not true. I'm a 22 y.o. female and I've penetrative sex with 8 guys and oral sex with 14 (including most of the 8). I've kissed well over 40 guys. But am I somehow a whore, or have poor judgement, or am incapable of knowing what love is? Not at all. If anything I understand love more than a girl with no experience.

This is pretty weak bait.

I've been naked with 24 people. Yes that's too many
7? Judging by most girls I've been with that means she's fucked 5
Girls fall into two categories -as far as I can tell- sub five or above 10, it splits the middle and makes us guess how many she's fucked.

Rule 16
I can't believe Veeky Forums would break it

>it's enough experience to have avoided this story altogether
>But am I somehow a whore, or have poor judgement
1. in my eyes you're a whore, but that's not important.
2. i said she had experience, so i don't know what you're on about.

Margot was not actually compensated, that is in the nature of imbalance. And I would say, neither of them had any of this in mind, but the comparison is illuminated by their pointless derive from theater to store to theater to bar. They are not thinking economically, they are not acting autonomously; commodity fetishism determines everything and it is horrific.

Bro can you take your absurd marxist theories to revleft please?

This is what misogyny looks like.

This is what patriarchy looks like.

This is why #ImWithHer

Why is Robert entitled to anything? Oh his expectations were not fully met so he is right to abuse someone.

I only like Veeky Forums, i am sorry.

He IS NOT entitled to anything. Nor does he fucking think he is.

1. M flirts with R

2. R offers to buy M food since she's hungry

3. M tells R that she has told her parents about him

4. M feels pissed that R isn't responding because he's busy at work

4. R asks M to see a movie

6. M agrees and R doesn't make a move

7. M is pissed (again) because R won't make a move

8. R invites M to a bar

9. M cries because she wasn't let in and R comforts her

10. M doesn't mind being comforted and lets R kiss her

11. M is pissed (again) because R was a shitty kisser

12. R says she is too drunk to kiss again but M insists

13. R suggests he drive M home but she climbs on him and kisses him

14. M asks to visit R's house

15. M again describes R as a potential murderer despite asking to become intimate with him

16. R kisses M, puts on a condom and provides her with foreplay despite is obvious inexperience

17. M suddenly regrets forcing things this far but goes along with sex because she's a dumb fucking cunt

18. R asks M if she is okay after sex, admits his insecurity, and offers to cook her food

19. M leaves in the middle of the night and ignores his texts for weeks

20. M finally lets her friend send a shitty text telling R not to contact her

21. M is pissed (again) when R turns up at the bar she invited him to

22. R lashes out and calls her a whore for ignoring him and M's actions are all justified.

you have autism.

I think the story shows the what happens when mediated social constructions of western female (prince charming she deserve prince charming) and male (porn not satisfying an emotional connection) collide.

She has quite the ego tho and he's kind of pathetic but it's tough when you feel a real connection with the other person and they drop you but that's life.

i didn't like her writing tho, that line about the log of his erection.

lol

/thread

This is a better argument desu
How she fantasized about telling this imaginary person about it
Also R says "I've never been with someone with such nice tits before," which strips his caring beta persona very quickly as the narrative tells us of him giving away his façade of occultish libido/impotence

Sad to see this shit getting praised on Veeky Forums

Why don't you like it?

I refuse to read this story, kitchen sink drama is for soaps

Best comment.

I'm now sorry for her, seems like an unsuccessful lena dunham, and that's two times as sad.

Mind you, he was drinking at the bar whenever her friends escort her out to try to not have a confrontation with him, so for all we know he could have been drunk texting her whenever he called her a whore.

Not pretentious enough and feminist

No he says "I've always wanted to [explicit] a girl with nice t**s before" which to my mind comes across as him trying to compliment her without seeming beta, i.e. by trying to be dominant and smutty and falling on his face.

its part of the continuing female effort to create a form of wrong-doing called "emotional labour", the only reason this person thinks that their diary entry should be in the NYT (and why everyone else does) is because she wants what essentially amounts to a bad date to be taken more seriously, she's a WOMAN and she was VIOLATED

Of course he was drunk, the misspelling in his several texts prove that. But it doesn't excuse it.

I kind of hate when authors do that because people say weird shit in bed because their brain chemicals are firing up it doesn't always reveal their true intentions or motivations or insecurities. But here I guess Robert does but reveal his projections and insecurities.

I think the article is general enough that you can project whatever you want on to it to validate your own world view. So the people who are the loudest here will ultimately have the final say on what "cat person means".

Also, the story also feels like the author is projecting an actual experience that she had but this time with the false but validating resolution that we all make up in our minds to satisfy our egos.

No one will read this lol.

I agree with your last point desu, felt that way too
Overall, I still think there's a point besides its permeating uncertainty

>emotional labour

Is this really a thing? My gf just used that term the other day to describe how tough she has it. I thought she made it up.

This is the most beta thing to do, complimenting based on sexual inexperience in a sphere of life that's predicated on sexual experience

dump her bro

These people are empty boring people because they don't actually do that much with their lives, they just go to work and consume entertainment. Yes I'll tip my own fedorah fanks tam.

I bet she's ran out of things to watch on Netflix and I bet he has strong opinions about what type of porn is best.

huffingtonpost.com/psyched-in-san-francisco/why-women-are-tired-the-p_b_9619732.html

>pretentious

I hope everyone who ever unironically misused this word as empty criticism chokes on his vomit

>choke me daddy
It is highly unpretentious. It's written in the colloquial and avoids complex sentence structures

I'm an emotional labourer and I refuse to have my form of labour devalued or undermined. Might I remind you that I receive no monetary recompense for my labour, despite it being my official full-time form of employment. The only thing positive about it is that fact that I can work from home in my mom's house and don't have a boss. Other than that it's pretty much all negatives.

>“My life is my own,” she told me the next week, her face holding a lightness I had never seen before, even pre-divorce. “I don’t have to deal with his bullshit anymore. I don’t have to wonder what he’s feeling and what he’s avoiding feeling, I don’t have to be the one who supports him in his career, cheering him on and listening to his woes, acting as his most trusted confidant. I can do all that for myself now. I’m free!”
I'm confused. Every relationship I've had has been me running around trying to deal with their moodswings and getting zero support in return. Is that not normal?

this, entirely this

>why women are tired

Oh shit! She says that too!
>"I'm so tired"
>"I'm exhausted"
>"I do all the emotional work"

It all makes sense now.

>thot manipulates and sexually humiliates an insecure loser for idle amusement
>thot is a woman, so her emotions absolve her from any responsibility for her immoral behavior
>when insecure loser finally realizes he's been had and calls her out, thot feigns victimhood
>story is written in whiny womanish uptalk (narration sounds more like dialogue, dialogue sounds like that of a sitcom), prose equivalent of vocal fry
>emphasis placed on casual realism and mass commercial appeal rather than beauty or even entertainment
>sprinklings of trendy progressive attitudes and simpering faggot sarcasm abound
>main character/writer (can't remember their names) have since been embraced by the twitter brahmin as martyr-icons
>all-in-all, story isn't much more than a big sloppy ode to female resentment, and I deeply regret having wasted my time reading and thinking about it

Wowee I sure do wish we could have discussion like this on other pieces of literature. Has Veeky Forums ever done a reading club type thing where people read a book together and meet maybe once a week to discuss that weeks chapters or whatever?

They tried Infinite Jest. The problem is barrier to entry and /mods/ are asleep at the wheel. If we do it, it has to be once a month and it has to be at most 300-400 pages. That way we can all partake and it doesn't interfere with what I'm reading otherwise