Angry Letter: ‘Little Man,’ I think
This is one of the most baffling angry letters I’ve ever received, and an alarming indictment of our education system. I literally had to read it three times before I could figure out what it meant.
First, the e-mail’s subject line: i thought of little man was wrong!!!
And then the e-mail:
I thought Little Man was pretty funny and well put together.
But I thought your opinion was stupid and unreasonable , because your opinion about scary movies was “While I found myself laughing at quite a bit of “Scary Movie” which I didn’t it was a movies thrown with ignorant comments and scenes. I won’t lie “Little Man” had the same scene with a little ignorants to, but it was well put together.
Now, if the person who wrote this e-mail (”Martha Walker,” according to her return address) were a sentient human being with even modest language skills, here is what she would have written. At least, this is my best guess at an interpretation:
“I thought ‘Little Man’ was pretty funny and well put-together. Your opinions are invalid to me because you liked ‘Scary Movie’ (from the same writers and director as ‘Little Man’), saying in your review, ‘I found myself laughing at quite a bit of “Scary Movie.”‘ I thought ‘Scary Movie’ had a lot of ignorant comments and scenes. [I didn't know how to translate that.] I admit, ‘Little Man’ had a bit of that, too, but overall it was good.”
I am glad we live in the Internet age. Fifteen years ago, this person could have communicated with me only by writing a letter, and surely that process — writing something by hand, addressing an envelope, mailing it, etc. — would have been beyond her capabilities.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:53 am
Subj: I thought woman had with wrong opinion, in?
Body: Wow!?! I can’t she is so angry with. She should keep her opinion when she writes about the movies ’scary movies and little man can’t. Who does she think she?
Peac out.
December 5th, 2006 at 8:31 am
SEE? That right there is why I keep writing my congressman about the need for computer-user licensing. Ungoverned usage like that could have led to the waste of time of somebody important. Like me.
December 5th, 2006 at 9:58 am
Unfortunately, I have received emails from people here at my company that were similar in level of illiteracy. And these are almost all college-educated people here. I weep.
December 5th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Excuse me, while I go weep for the future of our great country.
December 5th, 2006 at 10:55 am
Now days all a college education means is that your good at filling out bubbles on a bubble sheet. I’ve known some very intelligent people that have struggled in college and on the other end of the spectrum I’ve met some not so smart people that excel in their classes…it just isn’t fair.
December 5th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
I just hope and pray she used some sort of translating service. Because if English is her first language and THAT made sense as she typed it? *shudder*
December 5th, 2006 at 3:06 pm
I don’t understand her usage of ignorant. I thought ignorant meant lack of knowledge. So, the scenes in the movie are a result of not having knowledge? It doesn’t make sense to me!
December 5th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
Maybe she meant “ignernt.” http://www.dooryard.ca/ignernt.html
December 6th, 2006 at 1:20 am
Oh. So, it’s like saying that something or someone is rude. It makes a little more sense now.
December 6th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
We always need someone to scan our stuff at the grocery checkout line and take our order at Wendy’s. If people like Martha Walker got some more book smarts we would all starve to death because we wouldn’t be able to buy food. Thank you, Martha, for staying dumb and giving me back correct change.
December 7th, 2006 at 9:22 am
One might posit a correlation between language skills and the propensity to find Little Man a worthy film or…
Dumb people say and like dumb things….