Obviously this woman considers herself a good writer, and indeed in ways she may be, but she still doesn't know when she should use "me" instead of "I": should be: Pet peeve, see it everywhere. Published authors should know this. This is the most basic of grammar.Bouncers—Nigerian bouncers, bouncers from Berlin, underage bouncers I had known in grade school—waved my friends and I out of the crowd, to the front of the line,
"waved my friends and me out of the crowd"
Agreed. It's also only the tip of a bad-writing iceberg. (By the way, I like your polite euphemism, "this woman considers herself a good writer".) Her writing is far too close to her speaking voice, a sign of inexperience (no matter that she's seven years my senior). Developing a writing voice means taking the time to test what can carry over and what can only be audible. Opening your article with italics to suggest you're speaking with scare quotes means the reader has to reread what is supposed to sweep one in the doorway. This doesn't mean I completely disagree with the author: New York State has this jaded-to-narcolepsy problem all over. Even the broke-ass parts of upstate are victims of its cosmopolitan provincialism: the idea that a place is the center of the universe, so there is no reason to experience anything else. The best gift to a lifelong New Yorker, from Buffalo to Albany, is a one-way bus ticket.
Yeah, I missed that but now that you mention it my opinion of the piece has gone down drastically. I'm sure she knows on the grammatical rules and simple mistakes like this just show how much she (doesn't) care to re-read herself and edit her work :(
For some reason, this website is blocked at work, so I can't read the context. But I tend to agree that improper usage of me and I are annoying. The reason I would read the context first, however, is that if the author is writing conversation, then I think it's obviously OK to imagine what your character might say, independent of whether it's right or wrong. But if this is a first person narrative about an experience, by a professional (and likely read by an editor) then certainly, shame on them.
I agree, b_b, context is important. It is a long article talking about how she grew up in New York, left, then went back to achieve literary fame, and how New York isn't cool anymore. Considering that at least part of the time she lauds her credentials and her success on the literary scene in NYC, it seems to be a more formal approach as opposed to a casual forum, say, like Hubski. Her writing style is mostly elevated and, well - I'd call it strong but I think there is room for improvement. She could learn how to edit herself, for one. Guernica, the site, appears to be an online lit mag of some sort so I would assume she would have to have her piece approved by an editor.
Oh, cool. Is this the new thing? New Yorkers prattling about how uncool New York has become, even though it really is the shit? I'm not sure. Even more, I don't care. Rebecca Wolff obviously has chops, but I couldn't be bothered to finish this article.