Posted by Adam on January 25, 2000, at 15:51:13
In reply to Re: Give Me a Break!, posted by Erik Hanson on January 25, 2000, at 14:14:58
I'm sorry I haven't posted in a while. I've been super busy with work. I just couldn't let this one pass, though...
Erik: Talk about obnoxious! Even if you are offering something in return for someone's troubles (and I'm sorry, but a measly 50 bucks isn't going to get anyone excited whether they've earned it or not), you really shouldn't hurl insults their way after they fail to take the bait. I mean, congrats on getting into Hahvahd and having an agent and all, but if you're doing business (such as offering people chump money to put their personal thoughts and feelings in print), I would have thought a good community college and Dale Carnegie might have given you more acumen. Hell, I would have offered you something for free if I thought you were a sensitive individual who would put my story to good use; not because I am especially intelligent or organized, but because I'm a human being with experiences others might recognize or be moved by. That should be the point, shouldn't it, rather than lucre? You seem, for the present, incapable of conveying anything post-redaction about depression or its victims that I would find satisfying, and I wouldn't give you permission to use (or, heaven forbid, edit and interpret) my thoughts for all the money in the world. I happen to think the words on this board are priceless, and there are few if any human beings who deserve to be called a piece of shit. Not even you.
Learn some manners, some compassion, and some respect. No one is perfect, but I'm convinced if you strive for that goal you will gain the empathy and insight needed to write a fine book, and the people whose thoughts you wish to share might offer you them for nothing more than the privilege of being heard. It might help if working with you were to feel like a privilege. Harvard and an agent haven't give you that, I'm afraid.
> First of all, I'm not offering words of wisdom. If I wanted to offer my expertise in dealing with depression, I'd include it in a journal article or Ph.D-level paper, like the one I wrote last year. I went to Harvard for undergraduate, until I had to take a medical leave for depression and suicidality. If that isn't good enough for you, you pathetic asshole, how's this--I have a goddamn agent, and you don't. You should be glad to have the chance to have your set of unintelligent gripes and failed attempts at dealing with your own depression included in a real book. You sound like one of those bitter, piece-of-shit people who blames his psychiatrist for not "curing" him. I don't know why I bothered to post the request to this bulletin board in the first place. I mean, it was an idea for a book proposal, and now it's becoming clear that you all are much too disorganized and absent-minded to actually write up a little account of your rather run-of-the-mill depressions. And if you think you deserve more than 50 dollars for such an account, you need a dose of reality. Given that it would take you about an hour tops to write something, and considering that if I were to collect and read through and edit hundreds or even upwards of a thousand similar postings, the amount of time I'd spend, and the probable money I'd get for a book contract, would mean that fifty dollars was more than generous. But since this proposal is probably never gonna get off the ground, you can shove your accounts where the sun don't shine.
>
> Erik
poster:Adam
thread:19411
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000112/msgs/19672.html