Jul 27, 2009

An open letter to the person did not like my review of Twilight

Recently, I put together an admittedly snarky but sincerely heartfelt review of Stephenie Meyer's pop-phenomenon Twilight. It was not complimentary. Such is my right.

Now, someone has commented on it (via the comments section of the Chapters website, where I lay a copy of the review). I would not normally respond to hate mail (or at the very least actively dislike mail), but I thought I'd take a moment in this instance to respond. As the author put this up on a public site, I assume he or she does not care about the privacy of its contents, although I will keep the name (possibly a pseudonym) anonymous.

First, the comment (whole and unedited):
Waste and Insultingly poor, may I ask how old you are because clearly you have no taste in reading material. Stephenie Meyer is a amazing author and YES her books are for young adults which you must not be. Did you even read the whole book or the whole series ? The first book in my opinion is not the best but it is farely well written. The first book is mostly about how gorgeous Edward is but it is because Bella a mire human is amazed by never imaging someone who could love her as much as Edward does. I suggest that the next time you read a book thats in the series you read the other books as well before posting rubbish like this. I believe that your comment was a waste of time.! You could learn so much from this prodigious author.
Now, my response:

I don't really care. If you disagree with me, fine. If you feel you must respond, more power to you. If what I wrote offends you to such a degree that you feel your voice must be heard, I can do nothing but allow you to continue. You didn't attack me personally, so I have nothing to say other than I respectfully disagree. 

But if there is one thing I've learned over the years, it is this; no one, no one will ever take you seriously if you cannot form coherent sentences. Spelling, grammar, and punctuation count.

Response?

7 comments:

gypsysmom said...

Good for you, Corey! I'm saying that in response to your comment about spelling, grammar and punctuation. I suspect that I also agree with you about the book review but I haven't (and will not) read the book so it's not something I feel I should comment about.

It amazes me how many emails I get from people at work that have misspellings and incorrect grammar and don't even get me started on punctuation. These are from people who have at least one degree or diploma and most went through school when they still taught grammar and spelling. I blame the convenience of sending communications by email and texting. People just type and hit send without re-reading what they have written. They think spell check will catch any errors and if there is no red underlining they think everything must be okay.

To your statement that spelling, grammar and punctuation count I would add check and check again before you hit send.

Monica said...

oh i agree wholeheartedly, Mr. Redekop.

Scott said...

Yeah Mr. Redekop, you obviously don't have any taste in reading material. You only wrote a book that was not only entertaining, but showed how well read you are. But again, you have no taste.

There are so many persons that inhabit the internet and reply as such, one might think it's an epidemic. I think you nailed it with your comment about them being taken seriously.

Medusae said...

WAHAHA! Yeah, well, there will ever be fangirls.

You get the most flak when you're over the target ;)

I'm still sweating to think that Horeck might google his name one day and find my half-baked criticism of his life's work. I don't wanna hurt the feelings of an old man! But the review stands, nevertheless.
And yours should too!

Varied opinions make the world.

Mark said...

I guess you could say you're mired in controversy.

Remi said...

Sometimes you just have to tilt at windmills even if you know the intended target is not sufficiently evolved to be able to see more than one side to an argument. I've done it before. It's cathartic.

As for the bad grammar/spelling thing, I've come to accept that it will happen and there is nothing I can do about it.

What bothers me are bosses who use smilies or annoying abbreviations because they are far too busy to write with actual words.

Jeanne said...

I like the idea that if an author is "prodigious," she's above criticism! Now you know what you have to do to avoid criticism in the future...just write more!

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