Letters to Inspiring Writers: Dear Alastair Harper
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From:
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<revisingproust@nonpretentious.com>
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Sent: Mon Oct 13 XX:XX
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To:
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Priority: Normal
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Subject:
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A Fan’s Evaluation
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Type: HTML Msg
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Dear Alastair:
I’m not a psychiatrist so don’t assume anything that I write below has any scientific basis or medical value. However, I’ve read _Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You_ (or at least half of it). I’ve read quite a few of your “stuff” (your articles). Therefore, I feel qualified to draw conclusions about the core of your identity: You’re one of those hipster-hating hipsters. While I hope this diagnosis grabs your attention, please don’t press the delete button before I have a chance to explain. Once I read your article “HIPONOMICS: The Cost of Cool in New York City” in “Bad Idea” (all of it), I was immediately intrigued by your familiar-yet-informal writing style. I found myself shaking my head like what you wrote was gospel. “Swiftly defined, stereotypical hipsters are people who enjoy the lifestyles and affect the attitudes of the famous without actually going to the trouble of achieving fame.” (Amen, Brotha!) I also shook my head because of your naïvete? stupïdite? How do you think those hipsters can afford their lifestyles? I thought you read Kerouac and Ginsberg. Some of them are from wealthy families; some of them are smart; all of them don’t want to grow up. Nevertheless, hipsters’s love of spending hours at the Salvation Army instead of working introduces mainstream society to new fashion trends found at your local Urban Outfitters, American Apparel, H&M, or the UK equivalent. (Yes, I did just compare the beatniks’s introduction of Tolstoy to hipsters’s introduction of leggings or thick glasses). Anyway, I could have written off your week of hipster debauchery and returned to my normal life. Instead, I decided to uncover what other astute observations you had shared with the world. Needless to say, I was impressed. Continue reading… |
