RAT Re: Flanders

[J H <jonoh1@juno.com>]

Lee,
  8pm. Sunday. Ch 11. (Or, if you have a show, he's Homer's christian
neighbor.)
Jonathan Harris
National Fringe
LA

On Thu, 29 Apr 1999 13:55:09 -0700 leewochner@movingarts.org (Lee
Wochner) writes:
>All right, I admit it. I'm an uncultured nabob. Maybe I've just been
>spending too much time with Dostoevsky, et al. Who is Flanders? I've 
>been
>enduring not getting this reference for oh, about 165 posts so far, 
>but now
>I've had enough.
>
>Lee,
>Flandless
>
>
>
>
>At 4:22 PM 4/29/99, josh@whirl-i-gig.com wrote:
>>Last night, after a reading I gave of some of my fiction, a
>>twenty-something ultra-yuppy lawyer approached me.  This is what he 
>said:
>>
>>"I want you to know that I had to leave the room halfway through your
>>reading.  It was so...depressing--I mean, I thought I liked it until 
>I
>>thought about what you were saying, and then I was...I just don't 
>want to
>>hear about that stuff.  Why don't you write about happy stuff?"
>>
>>I thought about answering him by saying, "Because I'm not Flanders"
>>Instead, I smiled ingratiatingly and asked him to elaborate; what
>>specifically was so depressing?
>>
>>He couldn't really say.  What he did say was that the most disturbing 
>thing
>>about my reading was that I seemed to be happy to get this distressed
>>response from him.
>>
>>And I have to admit that I was.
>>
>>As I left, he cornered me one more time.  He asked for my phone 
>number.  He
>>asked me if, given the right situation, I would be willing to put my 
>work
>>up for sale.
>>
>>I said yes.
>>
>>This made me happy as well.
>>
>>I'm sure he will remember my work.  And to me, that's what it is to 
>be not
>>a flanders.  A flanders is someone who's so actively trying to be
>>inoffensive as to offend the seekers of wisdom--no matter how myopic 
>and
>>homerlike these seekers are.
>>
>>The world is not a happy place and acting like it is will not make it
>>so--it'll just leave you less prepared for the stab in the back.
>>
>>Up with People kills more souls than it saves.
>>
>>Joshua Furst
>>Self Centered Pit Bull
>
>______________________________________________________________________
>www.movingarts.org
>
>Internet access for Moving Arts generously provided by MindSpring.  
>For
>more information, call (800) 719.4664.
>
>
>

___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]