So among the submitted comments on my latest post, the one about HAMILTON, was one from someone named Clyde treloar saying, “get a life adam.”
I would like to note among other things that I print his name exactly as he does, without capitalizing his last name or the initial letter in his sentence.
I would also like to note that this is the entirety of what he said.
As this was one of a number of posts I have done critical of Donald Trump, I assume with no other evidence that Mr. treloar (again, see, no capital), is a Trump voter, which is his right; certainly he provided no other argument beyond his suggestion that I get a life.
It is a safe assumption. I know that others of that orientation have done and said worse.
But even if his comment was politically neutral, a random gob of phlegm flung into a cold and uncaring universe, I would like to point out that it contained no argument, no clarity, no actual thesis beyond a general expression of antagonism; certainly, it invented nothing, content with iterating a simple three-word phrase that other antagonists invented long ago. It was the phenomenon of a phrase being plucked off a shelf of prefabricated rejoinders, by an individual who apparently hath not the capacity to produce any more articulate phrase by himself.
I would very much like to inquire just what he expected me to do, upon reading his comment.
Was I supposed to act like Sir Laurence Olivier did, in the Neil Diamond version of THE JAZZ SINGER, in which he responded to a perceived betrayal by tearing at his own clothing and shouting, “I haff no son?” Was I supposed to be sufficiently devastated by Mr. lower-case treloar’s missive to sit upright, declare that, you know what, he’s right, I’m wrong, and that I must now turn my back on a life of expressing my convictions and retire into silence?
Does he not know that I have spent decades contending in correspondence and in person with some of the most articulate, educated voices of our time, including a number of them capable of capitalizing their own names and inserting a comma into a sentence of four words? Does he not get that I handle words for a living, that I produce thousands a day and that these little blog rants are just me warming up? Does he think “get a life adam” is more than I can handle, in vocabulary or concept?
Does he know that even if I get knocked down there are others behind me?
I have a life, Mr. treloar. I also have an education, a rational mind, and a set of convictions. I have just enough irritation on other life-issues, tonight, to spend more time on you than you deserve, a span of time that ordinarily would be shorter than the firing of a neuron.
I honestly don’t have even the slightest clue what you have.
And this, my friends, is why you don’t pick word fights with writers.
I establish one last thing, by the way. None of this was written in anger. This was a two-finger exercise, the literary equivalent of putting away the dishes.
Warming up, for the chapter I’m writing next.
You’re worth no more effort than that, sir.
And now I’m done.
Comment By: David Vineyard
November 20th, 2016 at 8:17 pm
Startling sophistication on his part. A stunning intellectual argument like that is hard to counter. It’s also one of the most original statements I’ve ever read.
“get a life, adam”
I’ll have to remember that.
Comment By: John Ginn
November 20th, 2016 at 9:17 pm
He probably got his life in the bargain aisle at WalMart.
Comment By: John Ginn
November 20th, 2016 at 9:17 pm
That was probably an unfair generalization and very elitist thing for me to say, but that phrase has always bugged me. “Get a life.” It has its uses, like when someone might actually be in your face, but for general purposes, in cases such as this, what the hell does it even mean?
Comment By: Diana Slivinska
November 20th, 2016 at 9:17 pm
Bravo!!! FWIW, I purely hate that particular phrase. I have hated it since the first time I heard it, some 20 or so years ago.
I really enjoyed your warmup exercise; can’t wait for the full chapter!
Comment By: Jennifer Lynn Schillig
November 20th, 2016 at 11:17 pm
Shatner coined it, am I correct?
Comment By: Rebecca Davies
November 20th, 2016 at 8:29 pm
A “two-finger” exercise,Adam? I might be more inclined to characterise it as an exercise of but one finger. And I am certain you know the finger whereof I speak. I doubt even the intended recipient can fail to recognise it!
Comment By: Wrenn Simms
November 20th, 2016 at 9:17 pm
I all-a ready gotta one.
Comment By: Barb Padgett
November 20th, 2016 at 11:17 pm
I love that your blog has a tag for “Assholes”.
Comment By: Adam-Troy Castro
November 20th, 2016 at 11:17 pm
Yup, and the most prominent tag too. It keeps coming up.
Comment By: Ben
November 30th, 2016 at 1:09 pm
Just dropping by to see whether there is anything new concerning Andrea, and then I get blog posts like this instead.
Guess I’ll have no choice but to boycott your blog and get a life … until my next visit, anyway.