User posts New Yorker Article

Yes but people aren't going to see it that way. How it paints double-standards, or whatever you call what I pointed out. They're just going to identify with Margot and treat her like a victim. I'd honestly like to hear a woman's reaction to this story other than "so true". I just want to see what they think of the story. Robert was not a bad guy. Sure his overreaction at the end was bad, but the way story portrays Robert, I get the sense that Margot was one of his first sexual encounters. Or he didn't have many. It makes sense he'd be clingy and bar stalking. But can you blame him with the way the break-up was handled?

Another thing I found disturbing in the story was the inability to voice concerns with the character. She never does, and always waits until its too late. Then she seemed to have an issue when Robert didn't voice his concerns either. But this just seems to be more on the human condition of avoiding conflict.

Sorry if this is confusing. I'm buzzed and a virgin.

>please explain to this entire board how that wasn't Veeky Forums related. We're all waiting.
didn't even see that thread, i was referring to the fact that mods have been deleting threads that are deemed "off topic" even when there's good discussion but then letting cancerous shitposts stink up the place.

The writing was forgivable for a short story. It wasn't bad, but yes the only thing moving the story forward was the plot. I'm also not sure how I feel about the narrative perspective. It's third person, but really exclusively from Margot's viewpoint. It often includes asides and random thoughts as if it was written in first person. Not sure why it was in third person. Maybe this was just poorly executed free indirect discourse. I don't know. Narration felt too personal even though it was in third person.

i'm down to point out shitty guys when i see them, but shit like this sets the bar for 'creepy' so low. i'll admit i skimmed through most of it but for the most part i didn't see anything more than tragically awkward. showing up to the bar might be a little creepy if he was purposefully going just to see her, but he knows where she lives so i'd think there are easier ways to 'stalk' her.

it may be fictional (and i'm autistic for even arguing over this), but this story is still vindication for roasties who like to lead people on and treat them like shit then act like victims when the other person justifiably gets upset. getting called a whore in a string of text messages is far from the worst thing in the world, like Hahahaha Just Walk Away From The Screen Just Block His Number

Yeah it's biased towards Margot, but as you said Robert is not a bad guy and I feel bad for him. He definitely was not sexually experienced, and his stalking is understandable. It's unfortunate women will not think about his side of the story but what do you really expect? They're women, they're never wrong and everything is about how they fell.

I agree, it was basically 1st person Margo although technically third person. Didn't really like that

This is a really good perspective I hadn't previously thought of.

>Constantly report Peterson threads, depressed pepe posters, "books for this feel" bait and other posts of undisguised irrelevance
>Mods never hear my plea
>Find solace in the idea that my diligent reporting irritates them

Sweep my fucking board like you're supposed to or just give me the broom

>it may be fictional (and i'm autistic for even arguing over this), but this story is still vindication for roasties who like to lead people on and treat them like shit then act like victims when the other person justifiably gets upset
Especially with the reaction from her friends at the bar. "By then, Albert had heard a version of the story, though not quite the true one; nearly all her friends had." This line in particular implies that she made up a victim hood story. And Robert's reaction in the end will only make her further believe in and justify her victim hood.

Here's link in case any newcomers are interested:
newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

Mods pls, we had a good thing going by Veeky Forums standards. Maybe the content is disagreeable but there was relevant discussion happening

>female mustache

>not enjoying the aesthetics of peach fuzz
Mods pls no ban. This image is SFW

So what's up with the Title of the story?

"Cat Person," although she never sees his cats and thinks maybe he doesn't even have any.

Bitches fucking love cats, so many Robert seemed appealing at first but then he really wan't all that. Pretty shallow, really, but that's all I can think of.

Roasties being roasties

This is an important point
I don't even think he was creepy, and I don't know that the author painted him as creepy either, I think the fact that so many people are interpreting as creepy is part of the reason this may be an actual important piece of writing further down the line. It's the first time I've seen an actual modern take on the loner who isn't creepy, but just socially awkward.

Robert is undeniably weird by normie standards, but I didn't detect any malicious intent on his part (hard to do in a short story anyways). He occupies this weird position where he's kind of half-in but half-out of his shell, you know? He's sensitive and lacks self-confidence to the point where he second-guesses everything, but he's confident enough that he's able to drive their relationship forward to him boning her.

And I think she detects that insecurity and uses it as a way to boost her own self-esteem, especially with regard to the portion where she justifies her sleeping with him by imagining how happy he must be.

I think both characters are seriously suffering from some sort of depression, and it's a good representation of the millennial generation.

>first response is trying to imply it was rape
>second response is a typical woman's reaction ie believing the not quite true version of her and Robert Margot told her friends
It's amazing how one story can generate polar opposite readings. Hopefully the author doesn't be a retard and state her intentions in writing the story.

Robert is literally the male version of a cat lady

I guess in the sense that he's socially awkward and reclusive?

i think the author is baiting all the roasties to claim a stake in Margot's victimhood. because Margot is self-involved and the story is in third person so it's harder to see that the narrator is unreliable, but I think the narrator is. perhaps this is the "version" of the story shes telling her girlfriends and the one she plans on telling her future bf. robert does nothing wrong except feel insecure right at the end and calls her a whore, and i think thats trap for the roasties to be all "OMGGGGG" but they completely ignore robert's subjectivity and margot's complicity in her bad sex. like woman's victimhood is entirely based on the idea that they are coerced into sexual situations by men, but what happens when the guy is completely insecure and passive? i think it's satirizing that idea of "caving" in to a man's desire and giving him sex when she doesn't want to, and margot is so self-involved that she ends up making her sexual encounter much worse than she is, just to avoid finally saying that she doesn't want a relationship

the author is basically saying what Margot is using female victimhood to escape the pain of her decision not to see Robert, whom she did like and was disappointed by the sex. literally something we all know happens, but its hidden by Margot's perspective, with help from the 3rd person to keep us from distrusting Margot, so we end up on Margot's side in the end, and the author is kind of critiquing the ease by which we take her side

It's not thought. Read this article newyorker.com/books/this-week-in-fiction/fiction-this-week-kristen-roupenian-2017-12-11. It's an interview with the author. She basically comes and says that Robert is a villain, but she tries to make him sympathetic until the end so you can experience what Margot felt. And she basically says Margot is a victim. The author completely takes Margot's side, especially since the story is "inspired by a personal experience with a guy".

I like your analysis, but if "I'm not retarded I was just pretending to be trololol" is a premise for publishing work then, well, fuck it I'm going Ted Kayczinskimode

I like this analysis too, but I don't think the author was trying to be that deep.

And here's more roastie postie

The fact that she sees Margot as the primary victim only raises the caliber of storytelling in my opinion. She also says right after that she intended to leave room for Robert being a victim as well, and I think the way people are able to latch onto both sides and provide compelling evidence for their belief is pretty neat and indicative of a well constructed story.

>even the narcissistic monologue during sex

god i thought that was a clue that we weren't really supposed to take Margot's side

really, girls should just fuck themselves if that's what they think during sex. leave us guys out of your insane fap sessions, ladies

And in the same sentence she also says it's pretty clear what kind of person Robert is, definitively shutting down any interpretation of Robert as anything but a bad guy.

That's disappointing. Why can't women authors be good?

well that was an excruciating read

>Margot lay on the bed and stared at the ceiling, noticing for the first time that there were stickers on it, those little stars and moons that were supposed to glow in the dark.

fuuuuuuuck and he's 34 too

i've gotta say i was trolling the previous thread because muh new yorker but this story is really good. laser-accurate depiction of how much of an awkward freak robert is (and in such a characteristic way of 'internet-addicted slob' guys - this is a new type that must be anatomized), and the narrator's sense of degradation, of soiling herself by having sex with him, which is on some level irrevocable

the point isn't whether you "identify" or "side" with Margot or Robert - even if the writer intended for you to "side" with Margot the story is good enough to resist that. you could say the very end with Robert at the bar and then the final text messages is a little hard on robert but men say stuff like that to women who reject them all the fucking time. This entire thing is clearly a close paraphrase of an experience that really happened - there wasn't a single aspect of this that rung false

and lads, I know that many of you did not enjoy this because you're some variation of robert and you don't want to see yourself. i was like robert as an adolescent (im 26). the thing with the stars on his ceiling, that was me at 19 in my first serious thing with a girl, my room was still full of stuff from when i was a little kid. when she ghosted me after a few weeks and i was shellshocked grasping for reasons why it went wrong i was standing in the doorway to my room one morning and i saw my participation soccer trophies on my shelf and my toy box and all this fucking childhood crap that in a young man's room reeks of "weak seed" "virgin" "awkward" "impotence" and the belated pattern recognition hit me like a sack of bricks. gives me the heebie jeebies just thinkign about it

seriously if this guy is like you, getting mad at the story for embarrassing you is not the right way to go. rather thank the writer for her ruthlessness