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To My Oblivious or Masochistic Reader
My skin turns black and falls from me,
and my bones burn with heat.
My lyre is turned to mourning,
and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.
–Job 30:30-31
I loathe you, but the question is whether or not your simplicity is
genuine.
Either way I’ll despise you all the more, but my curiosity has been
piqued and
I must learn before I leave this world—are you as stupid as you
appear, or is
it a sham?
I have been especially miserable, it’s true. Only just now, managing
to start
this bit took a lot out of me; I was out the door and back probably
three
times before finally arriving at this place; a dubious goal to have
reached
after such a process, but here I am and I will continue to write
until I’ve
found a suitable completion for the unlikely possibility of an
audience;
pathetic though you may be, you are my reader, and if I hate you
enough to
continue writing so be it.
Now, if only I can convince myself you’ll have the courage to read
further…
but don’t get the impression I have an exaggerated idea of my
position; that I
think simply by writing I might intimidate you. Far from it. I mean,
rather,
that my life is compelling and repulsive to you; compelling enough
for you to
take notice of me wherever I go (particular notice, in fact, with
strange,
contorted expressions on your faces), but also frightful enough to
hold you
outside the distance I’ve established; it is this distance which
provides a
situation finally tolerable and interesting for me.
So to my question—ladies and gentlemen, strangers and acquaintances;
the
gentlemen I ignore yet live painfully aware that you play a crucial
role in
defining me, and the ladies of my even stranger acquaintance, those
I’ve
wanted and despised or had then soon been finished with, not to
forget those
I’ve loved, of frigid, calculated beauty to be feared, and too, the
men they
eventually chose, those laughable and enviable puppets—who are you
to me? Why
do I have this burning contempt for you?
It’s a question of responsibility. The corner of lonely suffering I
wake up in
again and again is not a corner to which I’ve been forced, it is the
place
I’ve chosen to live. When I reach for a connection with a stranger my
attempt
is either so shy as to go by practically unnoticed or so bold as to
offend the
person I’m trying to reach, and in this way I encourage myself into
deeper
alienation where I’m to face the horrors and pleasures of realizing
my
freedom. It is this realization which most of you will be desiring
and
avoiding most of your lives, and it is this concept which, I’m
confidant, you
will never fully grasp.
You may ask: “So why bother writing about it, you cynical fuck?”
Interesting word, cynical. I’ve often heard it whispered from corners
in
reference to me and wondered if it weren’t being misused. If it’s
meant to say
that I’m distrustful of people’s motives, I fully agree; but there’s
this
common and modern use which refers to vague hopelessness and
dissatisfaction,
which besides being incorrect is simply not true of me. On the
contrary I find
it inspiring that I might take responsibility not just for little
decisions
along my way, but for everything about my place in this world or lack
thereof.
Rather than your having stupidly and carelessly insulted me all my
life
thereby pushing me into my pit of ruin, you have served as vehicles
for my own
decisions leading to the contempt and hatred for you I’ve now
expressed
explicitly, for you to read with pain, pleasure or indifference, as
you
please.
As for why I bothered, I wrote it to laugh at you of course. To make a
joke
both insulting and out of reach, so if only for a moment I might
bring you to
feel as alienated as I’ve been since the unfortunate day I entered
our
strange, despicable world. Ha!
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