Author: Matthew Groff

Short Story Review: “Nondisclosure Agreement” by Said Sayrafiezadeh

(The short story “Nondisclosure Agreement” by Said Sayrafiezadeh appeared in the May 9^th, 2022 issue of The New Yorker.)

(I see dead people and SPOILERS ahead!)

(Note: This review was updated on 5/8/22)

I don’t like being a grownup; it sucks. I’m not saying that I want to be a kid, because that also sucked. What I am saying is that adulthood is not all that it’s cracked up to be. The narrator in Said Sayrafiezadeh’s story “Nondisclosure Agreement” seems to be discovering this as well.

The narrator is a relatively recent grad school graduate in literature, who misses being in school, and has been finding dissatisfaction in post grad school life by meandering through a string a meaningless low paying service jobs. That is until he lands a position doing data entry at a mail-order catalog company. From the get-go, the story lets you know that this job does not work out, though the narrator is offered double the salary than he was expecting. The narrator enjoys his large paycheck, and gets a larger apartment, a new car, and better clothes. Then one day the narrator and his boss have a moment where they discover that they both have a love of poetry and literature. Turns out the boss originaly wanted to publish a lit journal, but his bankrolling parents wouldn’t allow it, so the boss was forced to create the mail-order catalog company. The narrator suggests to his boss that he should read his work, including his grad thesis. The boss loves the work and decides to publish them, which starts a process of editing and reediting with no end in sight, as the boss keeps moving the publication date off further and further into the future.

I started off liking this story, and then I just became confused by it. The story felt like it couldn’t decide what style or form it should take, like it was at odds with itself. From the beginning, the story seems rooted in realism. Yet, these slightly Kafka-esk elements are dropped in, like how the narrator is the only full-time employee, doing data entry for a company in a dying industry, the never-ending edits, the delaying of publication, and how money just comes out of nowhere.

Then there is the narrator. For the hero of the story, he does nothing heroic. He just puts up with everything. The character is shallow, selfish, and gullible when someone shows the slightest interest in his work. I don’t think those are disqualifying traits to have for the main character, but the character still has to confront something, or at least make a choice. Unfortunately, the narrator makes no choices, which leaves the story feeling unfulfilled.

Which brings me to my final point, as this story executes a trick that I have been seeing in several other short stories of late; the foreshadowing of a climax that never materializes. (I’m sure there is a succinct one-word term for this that I am not aware of, most likely in German.) It works like this; the story tells us from the beginning how it will end, then the reader is reminded two more times in the story how it will end. When the ending of the story arrives (and it’s an ending not a climax) it’s not the ending that was foreshadowed, but a different one, but it should lead to the foreshadowed ending. It’s a literary bait and switch, as in the climax doesn’t happen in the story, but sometime after the story ends. We are told there will be a lawsuit between the boss and the narrator, and we are also told the boss is crazy. The lawsuit is meant to function as the climax, and the craziness of the boss, which is his inability to publish the journal, is never given any evidence as to why he would behave this way. Yet, the story is being presented in such a manner that the reader needs to accept these two criteria for the story to reach its conclusion. Sadly, this trick doesn’t work.

What we are presented with is a story and a narrator who straddling between the two worlds of child and adulthood. Both worlds may suck, but inevitably, you have to make a choice to live in one. Maybe that was the point of “Nondisclosure Agreement,” but it’s not clear, because no one made a decision.

(Say, don’t forget to like this post, or share it, or leave a comment. I got bills to pay, you know.)

May 4, 2022
Basic Human Rights

The story out of Politico shouldn’t have surprised anyone, but somehow we were all surprised by it. Of course, the Conservatives on the Supreme Court were going to overturn Roe; everyone knew this. It’s been their goal for thirty years.

I do grow very tired of Chief Justice Roberts insistence that the SCOTUS is not a political institution, and is an independent deliberative body. Sadly, the truth is that you are not an independent thinker if your reasoning is completely predictable. That goes for both sides. Its why I want liberals on the court to protect Roe, just like how they want conservative up there to destroy Roe. Again, we all know this. Roberts needs to get with the program.

Also, if you don’t want to be seen as a political body, then stop doing political shit. The reality of the matter is that there are at least four justices up there that want it to be political. They could have concurred with the lower court’s ruling, but no, they had to her the case. They chose to be political on this matter.

And this should be the Democrats rallying cry from here on out, but I’m not encouraged. The Democrats will fuck this up. They have just been given a political gift of a major issue to talk about that NOT the economy, and it’s an issue they can win on. If the Dems frame it as “They take away your rights, we defend your rights.” The Roberts court limited voting rights, labor rights, free speech rights, now women’s rights. What could be next? Gay Marriage? Interracial Marriage? Right to Council?

But they won’t. The Democrats will drop the ball. They already have. Chuck Schumer is already calling for a vote in the Senate so Americans will know where each Senator stands. We already know where everyone stands!!! That does nothing! Why do Democrats keep bringing balloons to the gun fight? Conservatives got the upper hand on this issue by appealing directly to people’s emotions. Not by calling for symbolic votes. Chuck, you gotta start playing the same game, but you won’t. Schumer and the other Democrat leadership will roll out useless gestures and meaningless facts, when they need to be telling people that the house is on fire, because the house really is on fire!

The implications of this probable ruling are quite simple; Two Americas – Abortion, and Anti-Abortion. There will be states where women can live in liberty with equal rights, and states where liberty is claimed but denied to women. But it won’t end there, for the goal is to defeat all forms of abortion, to where women lose the basic human right to decide if and when they want to get pregnant. The hypocrisy of this possible ruling remarkable in its inability to hide how unworkable it would be in practice. House Divided, remember.

There is no exception for a basic human right.

May 3, 2022
I Got Bot Impersonated

Saturday night, I got a message from a friend asking me if I had a second Instagram account, and I do have a second account. Not too long ago, in a move of prognostic practicality or misplaced optimism, I grabbed an IG handle which is just my name with the word “writer” at the end of it. You know, just in case. I had assumed that was what she was referring to.

Then about an hour later, another friend sent me a message with a screen shot of an IG account asking “What’s the deal with this? Were you hacked?” I opened the picture to see an account that had my picture, but was not me. Had I been hacked? What I knew at that moment was that I was being impersonated! There is a fake me out there. And sadly, about twenty of my friends were following it.

I took the screen shot and sent out a message, trying to use a vernacular that sounded as much like me as possible, to prove that this was actually ME sending out this post, announcing not to follow the fake me, and please report the fake bot account. A friend later pointed out what I had said was what a bot would say, trying to sound human? (I love my friends.)

I had to go back to the first person who alerted me, and tell them not to follow the bot. I felt rather embarrassed for the situation, as if I had caused it. I have witnessed this situation happen to others with their accounts, dutifully reported the fake accounts as they requested, and never once thought that they were responsible for the situation. But when this happened to me, I somehow felt I had done this, somehow. By the next day, I no longer felt like that, but still I was surprised at the tiny level of shame that came up in me.

Let that be a lesson to us all; yet another reason that it’s good to have friends that keep an eye out. And, don’t taunt bots. They are listening, and I, for one, do welcome our new robot overlords, and look forward to working in their mines.

May 2, 2022
ODDS and ENDS: Moving, Weather, Tottenham, and Crappy Time Lords

(Half days are killers)

Last night, we brought up the idea of moving apartments to the kid. She did not like the idea, and I understand why. Her objection was that she didn’t want to leave her friends, and I knew that was coming. Having gone through the pandemic and not being able to see anyone, she now is living a rather normal childhood; school, parks, friends. (She’s just missing playdates, but I know that is coming.) For a seven-year-old, she’s living the dream. We mentioned to her that moving to a different neighborhood in the City would mean that we would have a bigger apartment to live in, and though she would be in a different school, we were still in the City and can come back and visit her friends. That didn’t sell her. To her, our little corner of Harlem is the best place in the world.

I don’t like getting older sometimes. Lately, I keep thinking and talking about the weather, which clearly is a sign that I am getting older. Such as, it was 40 degrees this morning, and it’s the end of April. As we are about to hit May, it should be warmer. I say this because the month of May is one of the reasons I still live in New York City. It’s supposed to be not too hot and not too cold. It’s a Baby Bear month! I want to put on a lite coat and sunglasses and take a walk. It’s the little things in life that make it worth living, and I need my little things, damn it!

Tottenham better beat Leicester, and West Ham needs to beat Arsenal. That’s my weekend.

What if we are living in the “fixed” timeline? What if things got so bad that people in the future went back in time and “fixed” whatever made things so bad, and this is the “better” version of things?

April 29, 2022
Short Story Review: “The Repugnant Conclusion” by Elif Batuman

(The short story “The Repugnant Conclusion” by Elif Batuman appeared in the April 25^th & May 2^nd issue of The New Yorker.)

Kierkegaard!

It’s just fun to say it! Kierkegaard!

I know he was Danish, but I like to say his name in a heavy German accent, like I’m acknowledging a rival has bested me.

Kierkegaard!

Personally, I like any short story that openly tackles anything philosophical. (Bonus points if you mention KIERKEGAARD!) “The Repugnant Conclusion,” by Elif Batuman, is such a story. The piece revolves around three friends who are sophomores at Harvard; Selin (the narrator), Svetlana, and Lakshmi. Summer vacation is over and they are all returning back to school, and they do what college kids do; they study, they talk, they think about sex, they have sex, they think about life in and out of school, and try to take what they are learning and use it, or at least discuss it. But they are not the old “normal” Ivy League college kids. They are Turkish, Russian and Indian respectively. It is a factor in their experience at college, and how they will go forth in the world when they leave. They are aware also of their Americanness, as well. All factors that weigh on them.

I enjoyed how this story introduced me to characters I had not experienced before, and I also enjoyed how they reminded me of my college experience with my friends. I found the story truthful in the perspectives each character had. Nothing seemed forced or put on. Yet, I knew full well that each character was staking a different philosophical position in a narrative structure. (Kierkegaard!) It’s a trick, and one that if played wrong could come across as heavy handed and shallow. I thought Batuman hit the right note. Maybe these characters will be like this for the rest of their lives, maybe it’s a phase, maybe they will evolve into something else. Maybe it’s just sophomore year.

And maybe it’s just life.

(Say, don’t forget to like this post, or share it, or leave a comment. I got bills to pay, you know.)

April 28, 2022