On An Interesting Phenomenon In Comments
Does this happen to you?
Sometimes people read my pieces and comment that they agree with “the message”, but the message they include is the exact opposite of what I tried to convey;
sometimes an invalidating experience, but also sometimes simply a humbling experience to highlight that perhaps I needed to use different words, or tell the story again in a different context,
and a reminder that sometimes when I comment, that I have simply misunderstood the deeper meaning of the piece, and I humbly acknowledge that that happens too.
I think I currently draw the line at comments that were made on a piece meant to tell a story most untold — if you reinforce a status quo that has been damaging, exclusionary, then I might correct you to highlight that your “view of the norm” is exactly what contributed to the existing circumstances.
But if it’s simply that a metaphor I used meant something to me and another to you, I absorb that as the beauty of diversity in the world — for flowers may be beauty to you but spell respiratory trouble to me, and beautiful music to me could remind you of tragedy.
Inviting Elle Beau ❇︎ | Betsy Denson | David Majister | Jennifer Dunne | Sean Peck | Emily Wilcox | America Zed | Natasha Kurien | Doran Lamb| Penofgold | if you’re up to it and anyone else interested to smash that writer’s block, join in on this tiny challenge and write a response, wherever it takes you! It can be a tiny poem, a shortform piece or an essay — whatever comes into that brain noodle!
What considerations do you have when you comment or interact with someone else’s work? How much do you expect others’ writing to include your experiences or be accurate based on your lens vs. be absent about your specific experiences?
Submit it to The Brain is a Noodle or be sure to tag me in your response if you publish elsewhere, so I can read it and share it with the world!
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Hi I’m Lucy Dan 蛋小姐 (she/her/她) and maybe I think too hard about the comments I make and whether they add value to whoever is receiving them. Maybe I don’t, and more people start to think before commenting. It definitely depends on the alignment of the stars, what breakfast I had and whether it’s raining :’)
Hop down the rabbit hole? 🐰🕳
^ by Teressa P.
