Waiter Rant

[annissamazing]

I used to love reading Waiter Rant. And then he posted this today and it is so full of misogyny that I couldn't finish it. I left a comment, which I felt was polite, but it was not accepted. Feh.

Comments

[yamx]

Well, it's true that there's a lot of misogyny, but it's not the author's. The first/main POV character, Willem, is clearly misogynistic, as you say, but then, he's also an asshole. The piece even says so explicitly. And he has equally assholish thoughts about foreigners, fat people, policemen, and pretty much the entire human race.

And the second POV character is a sociopathic high-class hitman who doesn't care who the people he kills are, and is described as equally cold about killing either gender.

So I'd argue that the piece itself is not misogynistic. One of the characters is, and it's part of his characterization and clearly portrayed as negative.

[annissamazing]

Fair enough. Perhaps this sort of story just ain't my thing. :) I felt ill reading just the first half.

[yamx]

Yeah, most stories ask us to identify with the POV character, so stories where the POV is an asshole can be very uncomfortable to read. I suspect that's the effect he's going for here. Not everyone's cup of tea, certainly.

I thought it dragged on way too long. It might be a much more interesting story if he tightened it by about 30%. The first two thirds are just set-up, to let us know Willem is really an ass, and I think most people get that two paras in.

[garillama.livejournal.com]

I was with that for most of the story, but the portrayal of the woman made me really uncomfortable (and that wasn't Willem's POV). It was so shallow and stereotypical. Yup, every woman who has promiscuous sex feels like she "dies a little" every time she gets laid. And then tells that to the guy she just slept with who she's trying to kick out. WTF?

I'll probably keep reading him, but I'm not too impressed with his fiction writing. I suppose everyone need practice, though.

[yamx]

*shrugs* She's not every woman, though. She's one woman. Showing her this way isn't meant to make us think all women who have promiscuous sex feel that way any more than having Willem be an asshole is supposed to make us think all waiters are assholes.

In fact, her kicking him out seem less like actual characterization to me than like a plot device: the author needs her to kick him out right after or the whole "time of death matches taxi" conceit won't work anymore.

I'm not impressed with the story, either (see my long comment below), but what we're seeing here is, imo, weak characterization (of everyone), not misogyny.

[sandyosullivan.livejournal.com]

It's just so ridiculously poorly written, it's hard to take it seriously. I think if yamx is right and it's that the character is meant to be misogynistic - quite - the problem is that the writer is just so poor at their craft that they aren't able to engage the reader in that dynamic. Yeah, a good (read: bad) writer to avoid.

[yamx]

I quite liked him back when he wrote about his own experiences a as waiter (or other things from his own life). But since he's "branched out" into short stories and philosophical discussions and whatnot, the blog's lost all interest for me.

[annissamazing]

I loved Waiter Rant when he was working in restaurants and I want(ed) to purchase his book on tipping.

I think my comment went something like, "Your talent with words is undeniable, but I couldn't get past the blatant misogyny in this story. Wet panties, great tits, and dumb hostesses are not what I come to Waiter Rant for. If the story hadn't been so well-written, I would have thought your blog had been hijacked."

I actually think he's a good writer and I found his stories about working in a restaurant very compelling. But I've removed him from my RSS feed. I've found that I don't read what he posts anymore. It's not what I signed up for.

[yamx]

I think he's a good writer, too, but yes, the new subject matter just isn't as compelling as the old.

Take this story (spoiler alert!):

Willem is a complete asshole; eh thinks little of women and mistreats his busboy, destroys other people's property and kicks a homeless guy for no reason.

Willem has a one-night stand with a very hot,very eccentric, woman who throws him out afterwards.

The next day, Willem is arrested. The woman was found dead in her apartment, the time of death roughly matches when Willem was picked up there by a taxi, one of his work shirts was found smeared with her blood, he has a history of violence and being an asshole, there's no way anyone will believe he didn't do it.

Cut to mysterious Mexican man. He thinks about how he is a successful serial assassin, how he killed the woman in question, how that asshole waiter took the fall for it, how life is good.

Big reveal: it's the busboy!!! (Which everyone saw coming, because he's the *only* Mexican character in the story, he had access to the shirt, and it'd make no sense for the assassin to be some random dude we hadn't seen before.)

Now, why am I supposed to care?

I feel sorry for the woman, of course, but mostly on principle: being violently murdered is bad, obviously, but we hadn't been shown enough of her to care about her on a personal level.

Willem is an ass. Going to prison for a murder you didn't commit is bad, and I'm against it, but again - on principle. I don't really care what happens to Willem.

Ramirez seems the nicest of the bunch, except - HE'S A PROFESSIONAL HITMAN. He kills people for money. He never asks why. He feels nothing when he does it, and he makes it as quick or as painful as his client wants him to.

Am I supposed to feel satisfaction that he got away with it again? Sorry, I'm not a psychopath.

So, in a nutshell, this is a story about people I don't care about doing things I find horrible. It fails to emotionally engage me because I can't identify, or even sympathize, with anyone in it.

[annissamazing]

Wow. I was feeling bad that I didn't finish the story before criticizing it, but now I'm really glad I didn't read to the end.

Oddly, this:
"this is a story about people I don't care about doing things I find horrible. It fails to emotionally engage me because I can't identify, or even sympathize, with anyone in it."
is exactly why I don't watch reality TV.

[yamx]

I admit to occasionally watching reality TV, but usually when I'm either sick or otherwise so burned out that I just need something that takes absolutely no brain cells to follow. And even then, I usually end up giggling hysterically at what are supposed to be the dramatic or touching moments...

I posted a slightly cleaned-up version of my comment above, with a few positives thrown in, as a comment. We'll see if it gets turned down, too. (Figured after having put all this effort into typing it up, I might as well let the author know, in case he finds concrit useful.)

[annissamazing]

I hope it gets through moderation, and if it doesn't, I hope he takes the criticism to heart because you've made excellent points. He's a talented writer and if he could make his characters sympathetic, he could go a long way.

[yamx]

I think it did - at least the "awaiting moderation" line is gone now, so I assume that means it was let through.

He has several "I loved it!" comments too, though, so this may just be a case of you and me not being the right audience for it.