the critical equivalent of that scene in INGLUORIOUS BASTERDS where Donnie and Omar machine-gun Hitler's face into meat sauce

Loved this article - tried to read On Earth and could bony get through it. Left very puzzled what everyone is raving about…

"The crows floated over the field’s wrinkled air . . . their shadows swooping over the land like things falling from the sky." Fuuuuck off, Ocean. Jesus.

This prose is fuckin dire, what the heck

I counted, there are 52 quotes of the book the article writer *isn't* reviewing. Cold-blooded murder my lord.

Dude explaining his own tortured platitude like he's Garth Marenghi:

I'm glad I wasn't the only one thinking about Garth Marenghi the whole time 😆

Oh my god, what an insufferable jackass. Successful, famous author whining that expecting him to meet any kind of standard of quality is doing A Privilege to him.

It was a mercy kill.

I remember reading “NSwEW” awhile back. Now, I’ll admit that I don’t read that much poetry and probably can’t judge very well, but I remember not engaging with it at all and feeling guilty because I thought the subject matter should evoke some feeling in me.

Reading this review, I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one baffled by Vuong’s choice of words and the sequence he put them in. Moral of the story: just because it’s based on something serious and personal doesn’t mean that it’s good.

Not having read any of his prose, I broadly tend to be sympathetic to attempts that fall short of their ambition but those quoted sentences (at least taken in isolation) yeeeeesh

Honestly, maybe a case of “meet the work, not the author.” While On Earth isn’t my favorite work, it had moments I thought were worth it, and this reads like Cinema Sins criticism from someone who just doesn’t want somewhat-sloppy poetry-prose once Vuong’s reactions to criticism are removed

i think given the extensive direct engagement with the text itself it's unfair to call it Cinema Sins crit

vuong reminds me of all the pretentious poetry bros i met in art school. he’s so full of himself that he just throws nonsense together and thinks it’s profound because he’s the one that wrote it.

Oh jesus christ, I could barely stand reading the blurbs of text used as examples. Genuinely repulsive in its pretentiousness.

absolutely brutal. every reviewer seemed to turn on him hard on this book. it's a great review, but why do reviewers all suddenly go for a writer as one? happened to lauren oyler a while back (i don't ask as a fan of either, just interested in the dynamic).

I have read Vuong, but the examples are giving a Rowlingesque 'fat = evil' trope in the article

The line about “laughter” being a part of “slaughter” was literally a bit in the new Naked Gun.

Personal favorite was the one about fetal commas.