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Read other letters about this article
I mean, I assume that if this is a real letter, the Salon editors made it somehow seem worse, but boy what a lot of material.
What is apparent here is that the letter writer is an appalling person, whose boyfriends, as they have woken up to it have successively dumped her -- first her "most beloved ex-boyfriend" who fled to China, not before (and this is pretty obvious) taking a deferral on medical school (assuming he had taken his MCATs.) Boyfriend number 1 has one should note some sort of pre-medical degree, sounds like a bio-whatsit if infectious disease is his thing. As far as the burning man thing is concerned, sheesh, they guy just worked his ass off to get good grades in a science program and is now looking at 7+ years of medical education -- I think he just wanted to have fun, away from a whiney, self absorbed and very self impressed girl-friend. To translate the description of him -- exceeding brilliant (umm I'm as dumb as a stump, but a good scientific training and a better legal one makes it easy to pass as brilliant) - eccentric (umm yes, do eccentric well, but actually dull and conventional), and emotionally aloof (umm don't get sucked into emotional whack-jobs fantasies.)
Next, boyfriend the philosopher has split, after as far as I can tell, being treated like shit for a month. A couple of things -- first, for my sine I know a lot of "philosophers" - sheesh come to think of it I have a philosophy degree ("Natural Philosophy" in fact (aka Physics, hence the BA and not BSc.)) Well what a shock -- this appears to be what she wanted. Frankly, I feel sorry for the poor schmuck -- here is is with a degree and a chunk of a masters degree in philosophy probably wondering "what now!" and holding off finishing up, so he can see if anyone might hire him (good luck) The best thing he could possibly do is vaguely sit out the recession in grad school -- and this would be a good idea even if his degree made him more employable, say by being Natural P, or Chemistry (there is a real shortage of old-fashioned bench chemists), or engineering.
But what really strikes me is that this creature, in her vanities, her self-image as some sort of Ibsen heroine, her intelligence (really?) is actually going into some sort of graduate program at the end of which it is proposed to foist her on some unfortunate third-world country as an adviser. Good grief, what will she do for the image of the United States. I mean is there anyone who reads this who does no see the letter writer as a horror (except for her perhaps)?
At the ned of the letter, the astonishing thing is that the letter writer seems to think she has a choice, between boyfriends number one and two. I don't think this is even remotely feasible -- frankly, I suspect both detest her at this point. I only read her letter and I already do.
