Touchy, Touchy, Touchy

There were two incidents on facebook today I want to talk about, and there is a link between the two of them, and that link is people being overly fucking sensitive.

The first case, I just can’t figure out how it happened because I’m not sure how facebook works, I guess, so if somebody who reads this could clue me in, that would be great.  Got a post, a harmless post. (are you a genius, can you figure out the next number in the set?)  I respond to those sometimes.

I got the majority answer, which I’m not sure was the only right answer, it doesn’t really matter, it’s not relevant to the story.  After reading the comments for awhile, I happened to look to see who sent the post.   The name seemed familiar.  Right, she defriended me…rather vehemently, I might add…a couple of months ago.  So, I checked to see if somehow we were still friends.  We are not.

I’m not too bothered.  I wasn’t as angry with her as she was with me.  I just can’t figure out how I saw her post.

The original cause of defriending was she went ballistic on some guy on her comment thread and told him to either apologize or fuck off or both and my comment was just “What did he say that was so bad?” and she snapped right back “You aren’t a part of this conversation.”

Oversensitive.  I wasn’t looking for an argument, I was actually trying to be conciliatory.  Also, it seems to me that if you’re posting stuff on facebook, pretty much anybody can be a part of the conversation if they want.

The incident today was similar.  A man posted a “sonnet” he’d written, and I put that in quotes because a lot of people say “Oh, look at this sonnet I just wrote” and you look and it isn’t a sonnet at all.  I have a lot of writers on my page, of course, but I’ve heard it at poetry readings, too.  “Here is a sonnet,” and they proceed to recite something which isn’t recognizable as a sonnet at all.

So, I wrote back and said “This is not a sonnet.”  He asked for an explanation and I gave him one, about syllable counts and rhyming and iambic pentameter and all that, and he said “Well, apparently you haven’t heard of modern sonnets, they don’t have to rhyme any more and stop posting, I’m done with this conversation.”

Oversensitive.  But, it inspired me to write this:

A cherry pie is more than just some food

That, by happenstance, has cherries on it

So, when poets ply their poetude

Not every piece they pen is called a sonnet

Of syllables there must be 10 per line

Perhaps eleven if one of them is weak

You might get away with only nine

But ten’s the magic number you should seek

Just 14 lines, or 18 is O.K.

And it must rhyme, like this: AABB

ABAB or else ABBA

You’ve got some choices, any of those three

Iambic meter is the hardest part

But necessary to this form of art

Next time somebody tells me they’ve written a sonnet and they bloody haven’t, they’re going to get a copy.