How I came across ‘Okstupid’ by Walter Mackey
Carnivorous Judy is Walter Mackey’s handle on Facebook. He had posted a picture of Bjork CDs that many of my FB friend’s involved in ‘internet literature’ had commented on. Jimmy Chen (my favorite internet writer) had photoshoped his face into a Bjork CD, and I wanted to link Jimmy Chen’s image, so ‘friended’ Carnivorous Judy. I messaged ‘Judy’ to introduce myself, and began chatting. He sent me an ebook/pdf ‘titanic’ a collection of poetry and I realized he was a ‘dude’ who named his handle after Judge Judy, as his poems had daytime TV and game show cultural references. I sent him a link of a story and chatted more. I liked his poetry. Today he FB statused about reviewing his new ebook. I responded and he sent me a pdf.
Review of ‘Okstupid’
Often people will quote a line from another story/poem/ or song that influenced the story; Walter quotes an excerpt from an instant messanger chat with Spencer Madison (an internet lit-er) and Stacey Teague (possibly the daughter of the model I can only remember in name, Cheryl Tieg. Oh, it’s “tieg”). After reading the story does this short chat excerpt make a lot of sense.
The story is told in the 3rd person from Sarah’s (the protagonists) view regarding meeting Greg on okcupid, chatting and going on a date to the library. The story begins with the line, “Sarah felt mostly let down by the men in her life.” This line, when I reread it, felt somewhat like Lorrie Moore or Mary Gaitskill, or some 1970′s-80′s New York American women writer. It’s emotional yet terse and ‘outside’ of the emotion, which is the tone of the story. I found the use of the female narrator by a man to be somewhat Proustian, and the story is influenced by the archetypal internet writer Tao Lin, but with a knowledge of this influence recognized with nods to Tao in the prose. Similarly to Tao Lin’s work, I felt reading ‘Okstupid’ that I was talking to smart and ‘in-the-know’ bookstore/record store workers or grad students with their clever inside jokes, often repeated and referenced back to, and a self-conscious, almost parodying of their behavior/emotional life.
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