MFA in M4W
August 7, 2013 1:55 PM Subscribe
A short piece in the style of a Craigslist Missed Connection.
via Gawker and a bunch of other places.
via Gawker and a bunch of other places.
This is one of those things where I think to myself "now that's a real missed connection" and then immediately think "but I don't think it's appropriate to confront a woman who is alone on the subway."
posted by gucci mane at 2:08 PM on August 7, 2013 [7 favorites]
posted by gucci mane at 2:08 PM on August 7, 2013 [7 favorites]
Ah, this made me all weepy and shit.
posted by Fists O'Fury at 2:14 PM on August 7, 2013
posted by Fists O'Fury at 2:14 PM on August 7, 2013
I liked it until it jumped to the months and years part. It seemed totally possible until then.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:15 PM on August 7, 2013
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:15 PM on August 7, 2013
One day, in the middle of the afternoon, you stood up as the train pulled into Queensboro Plaza. It was difficult for you, this simple task of standing up, you hadn't done it in sixty years.
She probably had to use the bathroom.
posted by oulipian at 2:24 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
She probably had to use the bathroom.
posted by oulipian at 2:24 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
I don't think it's appropriate to confront a woman who is alone on the subway
Me too, as a rule. But if you've been making furtive glances at each other while both living on the same car for over a decade, it's probably OK.
posted by glhaynes at 2:33 PM on August 7, 2013 [6 favorites]
Me too, as a rule. But if you've been making furtive glances at each other while both living on the same car for over a decade, it's probably OK.
posted by glhaynes at 2:33 PM on August 7, 2013 [6 favorites]
Thanks Gucci. I like your song about lemons.
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:51 PM on August 7, 2013
posted by 2bucksplus at 2:51 PM on August 7, 2013
Nice story, it took a little while to get into though because I think I've been trained to, whenever I see black text/white background and a peace symbol favicon, immediately brace myself for some kind of unfunny over-the-top sales schtick for someone's piss stained sofa.
And did he ever return? No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned. :(
posted by mcrandello at 3:05 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
And did he ever return? No he never returned and his fate is still unlearned. :(
posted by mcrandello at 3:05 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
I wonder how many people won't read all the way through, and miss that what starts off as a typical/trite Missed Connection, turns into something fantastic, bizarre, sad, funny, and poignant.
posted by MoxieProxy at 3:09 PM on August 7, 2013 [4 favorites]
posted by MoxieProxy at 3:09 PM on August 7, 2013 [4 favorites]
BUT HOW DID THEY PEE
posted by windbox at 3:10 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by windbox at 3:10 PM on August 7, 2013 [2 favorites]
I liked it until it jumped to the months and years part. It seemed totally possible until then.
I dunno, I'm still thinking maybe it's real
posted by threeants at 3:40 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
I dunno, I'm still thinking maybe it's real
posted by threeants at 3:40 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
spoiler alert: they were actually both homeless
posted by fuzzypantalones at 4:27 PM on August 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
posted by fuzzypantalones at 4:27 PM on August 7, 2013 [3 favorites]
I love this. Thanks!
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:04 PM on August 7, 2013
posted by wemayfreeze at 5:04 PM on August 7, 2013
Waaaait... that's THAT guy? Eeeew.
posted by not_on_display at 5:10 PM on August 7, 2013
posted by not_on_display at 5:10 PM on August 7, 2013
I was at the pet store the other day buying an overpriced jug of fish oil because my vet said that it would help my cat from breaking out all over her stupid goddamn cute little face. Anyway, there was an attractive young woman there about my age who I made eye contact with repeatedly but never worked up the courage to talk to. I left the store reasoning that this was due to both of the long and valuable threads I'd just read on MetaFilter about the countless ways women are approached and harassed in public.
The problem with that kind of logic is that it assumes that women don't have agency and thus aren't capable of telling you when it's okay to engage them. Women are capable of doing this. If she makes eye contact and holds it, say hi. If not, stop staring at her.
Take away the fantasy from this story and you're left with a guy picking up on signals that weren't there. He's assuming that the woman on the train, like him, is just suffering from a case of anxiety. When she averts her gaze, she wants to talk to him. When she hides behind a book, she's just displaying her intellectual plumage. When she checks to see if he's still staring at her, she's patiently waiting for him to be the man. The takeaway is that it's okay to not take women's signals at face value since they don't have the ability to accurately signal their intent. It's fine to infer romance because what women want more than careers and producing great works and being remembered in history books and being financially independent and being kind to their friends and having fun and living by their own codes is romance.
posted by dubusadus at 11:05 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
The problem with that kind of logic is that it assumes that women don't have agency and thus aren't capable of telling you when it's okay to engage them. Women are capable of doing this. If she makes eye contact and holds it, say hi. If not, stop staring at her.
Take away the fantasy from this story and you're left with a guy picking up on signals that weren't there. He's assuming that the woman on the train, like him, is just suffering from a case of anxiety. When she averts her gaze, she wants to talk to him. When she hides behind a book, she's just displaying her intellectual plumage. When she checks to see if he's still staring at her, she's patiently waiting for him to be the man. The takeaway is that it's okay to not take women's signals at face value since they don't have the ability to accurately signal their intent. It's fine to infer romance because what women want more than careers and producing great works and being remembered in history books and being financially independent and being kind to their friends and having fun and living by their own codes is romance.
I fell in love with you a little bit, in that stupid way where you completely make up a fictional version of the person you're looking at and fall in love with that person. But still I think there was something there.That's ground that's been tread by many films and stories where behaviors resembling stalking and sexual harassment are spun out to be romantic. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but rewriting a perceived missed connection into a fairy tale and posting it onto Craigslist sounds like someone anxiously endeavoring to keep their fantasy alive. While it's imaginative and the craft is okay, see it posted in m4w and not a student literary magazine makes me wonder about its artistic integrity.
posted by dubusadus at 11:05 PM on August 7, 2013 [1 favorite]
footnote: where the romance is varying amounts of being stuck on the goddamn subway with a complete stranger for 60 fucking years
posted by dubusadus at 11:15 PM on August 7, 2013
posted by dubusadus at 11:15 PM on August 7, 2013
As I take it, this isn't intended to be tortured romance at all -- moreso using hyperbole to skewer the same ?unwarranted? inferences that dubusadus suggests. For that, I enjoy it!
posted by jumpercake at 11:35 AM on August 8, 2013
posted by jumpercake at 11:35 AM on August 8, 2013
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That's the part when I started rolling my eyes and it didn't stop until I switched back to fluffy animal videos.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:04 PM on August 7, 2013 [3 favorites]