Matt cited in English 101

June 26, 2003 11:40 AM

Matt has been featured in Shift, Slate, Forbes, Wired, and The New York Times. Now he hits the big time: a citation in a college freshman's English essay.
posted by Shadowkeeper to MetaFilter-Related at 11:40 AM (16 comments total)

Regarding this thread:

The ad uses the image of a beast like SUV to support the idea of male masculinity, power and the idea that you can control nature. Many truck and SUV sales come from this idea of power and masculinity. They create the image that with your new vehicle you can outrun, out power, and go to exotic places that no one else could possibly go. People tend to like vehicles that give them the power that their normal lives lack. These vehicles often create egos, which in return make the driver feel better than someone else. The ad does a great job of showing this male power obsessed recklessness. A spoof ad on the Internet said it best when interpreting the ad, A Big Red Angry Penis in A Land of Pussies and at the bottom said, "Start Running Over Hippies at Your Dodge Dealer " In my opinion it was a very good analogy.

Cracked me up.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 11:42 AM on June 26, 2003

heh, awesome.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:23 PM on June 26, 2003

"If I can stop one kid from driving an SUV, it will all have been worth it."
posted by danOstuporStar at 12:40 PM on June 26, 2003

It may be worth the purchase price just to be able to run over hippies.
posted by dg at 3:23 PM on June 26, 2003

Not to diss on the bloke who wrote this (oh to hell with that, it's unavoidable now, isn't it?), but I don't think I've seen an essay written in a more dry, stunted fashion. Sentence runs up to full speed, then full stop. Sentence accelerates, then full stop. I think he's going a bit hard on the ol' clutch in his prose SUV.
posted by Jimbob at 7:11 PM on June 26, 2003

jimbob, I think you are right. It seems very un-flowlike. It is hard to read. In short, I think it is very dry and stunted, also.
posted by angry modem at 7:58 PM on June 26, 2003

You guys are gonna be so embarrassed when this kid shows up on this very thread - and it turns out it's Laurie Garrett!
posted by soyjoy at 8:33 PM on June 26, 2003

When I was growing up I had always dreamed of being cited in a college freshman essay. I had always been caught up by the glimpse of prestige that it empowered.
posted by rusty at 5:02 AM on June 27, 2003

Actually, it's Blair Hornstein, but she lifted several paragraphs from Laurie.
posted by cortex at 5:31 AM on June 27, 2003

He's a college freshman, and at least he cited his work.

assholes.
posted by norm at 7:13 AM on June 27, 2003

I've read freshman comp papers that are much, much, much worse than this. This one actually isn't too bad, considering.
posted by eilatan at 8:04 AM on June 27, 2003

While in University, I did a fair bit of editing for friends, friends of friends, and people who lived in my dorm. As a freshman paper, this one is at least as good as 75% of the papers I read during that time. That doesn't make this paper not suck, but it does put it in some context.
posted by jacquilynne at 8:11 AM on June 27, 2003

Back in the '90s, I had a review of Cliff Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil on my Web site which was linked in a college paper. (It also contained some arguments about online communities, because I felt Stoll had got a lot of stuff wrong.) It was pretty bizarre to see myself cited as an authority of some kind, instead of just some guy who posted a book review on his Web site.
posted by kindall at 8:47 AM on June 27, 2003

It was pretty bizarre to see myself cited as an authority of some kind, instead of just some guy who posted a book review on his Web site.

yeah, but really everyone cited anywhere is just some guy who had an opinion. I mean, yes, getting a degree and a book deal means that at least s/he had to convince some number of other people that his/her opinions were valid, but when it comes down to it, all of them are just other guys with opinions... and so on, ad infinitum...

(trying to use "guy" there gender neutral, like "hey guys". I know it sounds kind of clonky, but, well, eh.)
posted by mdn at 9:37 AM on June 27, 2003

Matt (and a few others) also mentioned in this article for the BBC. Blatant self link.
posted by feelinglistless at 12:55 PM on June 27, 2003

Yeah, you'd be surprised what college kids, even seniors, turn out these days. Some damned sucky stuff in there... I don't trust my classmates to write the paper in group projects anymore.
posted by SpecialK at 2:33 PM on June 27, 2003