Yes, I'm a nerd who Googles her own name once a week, but here is a perfect example why: I found my first bad review, probably my first review period. No folks, you don't need to write a book to get criticism; all it takes is a short story.
Ann, Florida educator and online poet writes (on Everyone Loves a Leo from The Queer Collection):
"A prose piece by Dana Kaye describes the dance of a cocktail waitress as an 'epileptic seizure,' using an analogy that might disturb persons who suffer from epilepsy. Again, no intervention by the editor."
Therefore, I would like to publicly apologize to all of the epileptics I have disturbed or offended. It is my fault, and apparently the editor's, for not being more sensitive. And Miss Ann, I would encourage you to read on to the second paragraph of the story where it says that Michelle is a 16 year old visiting Tulane, not a cocktail waitress.
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3 comments:
My mother was an epilectic, and I witnessed one of her seizures. It was frightening and disturbing, but she never hid the fact that she had epilepsy. It was just one small aspect of her life.
If your scene is meant to evoke a disturbing image, then I see no reason why you should not use an epileptic seizure as a simile. I, for one, am not offended. I doubt if she would have been wither.
Must writers worry about stepping on toes? Of course not! We'd never write at all.
You don't have to apologise. 'Nuf said.
I am offended by your implication that cocktail waitresses and 16 year olds visiting Tulane are two different things.
I think Ann needs to lighten up and drop the politcally correct bullshit.
If we all worried about offending every single ailment or dofference on this planet we'd never leave home and never communicate.
I've seen people dance like they were epileptic, and if that's the image you need to describe then it's all good.
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