You know when you’re in college and you don’t know what you’re doing or what you’re going to be and you sort of hate yourself and you switch from an English major to Journalism because the guys in your creative writing classes keep telling you that your writing is “too feminine” and “esoteric” and you start to realize that no one will ever like or understand your weird little voice?
And then, decades later, you see this class listing at the very college where you once struggled.
And suddenly you realize that maybe everything happened just the way it was supposed to.
And that life is very, very strange.
I wish they had classes like this when I was in college.
Wow, Jenny….. that is a little surreal, but amazing none-the-less!!
Well geez, at least you are getting the credit you deserve. And sometimes listening to those funny voices in your head is a good thing. The tough part is trying to figure out when it’s not a good thing. Congratulations on more fame for you, you deserve it!
Be a guest speaker! Be a guest speaker! Even if you have to pre-record it because talking in front of people is diarrhea! Literally. Do it! The speaking … not the diarrhea.
SO AWESOME! You are basically a professor now, right? I’m certain that’s how this works. Congrats, Dr. Jenny!
(From your lips to their ears. ASU, PLEASE MAKE ME AN HONORARY DOCTOR. I PROMISE NOT TO DO ANY MAJOR SURGERY UNLESS THERE’S A PRETTY GOOD REASON. ~ Jenny)
This is amazing. Thank you for sharing! 💖
Very cool!
SLOW CLAP Full circle, this is awesome
Love you Jenny Lawson.
There is a book based on your book?
How cool! I feel like I might ace this class but that it would be cheating because you’re my tribe and I “know” you.
Life is strange. But often in a good way Jenny.
It’s the Amazon dildo fiasco all over again.
Kinda.
Well… in a much better way!
You were just ahead of your time, Jenny. Pioneers always have it rough. But now look at you!!!
YOU’VE MADE IT! AND YOU’RE NORMALIZING US! THANK YOU, I LOVE YOU!
Awesome!! Is this an on line class? You could sign up under a fake name, fuck with the teacher the whole class and when you drive her/him TOTALLY crazy you can be all like SUPRISE Mother Fucker, remember me! I just ruled this thing!
The Universe does work in a very mysterious way. So. Are you signing up for the class? You should at least sit in on it at the back ;). I dropped English at college, just 3 months before the exam, I’d been studying for nearly 2 years. It was to concentrate on my art and photography courses. Was the right decision, but always knew I wasn’t done with it as a creative outlet.
NOOICE!
I TOTALLY think you should enroll under a pseudonym, and pose thought provoking questions to the professor.
This is awesome, and such a great thing to read for so many of us who are struggling to find our own voice. Thank you, Jenny!
But why does it say “book based on her book”?? Shouldn’t it say “book based on her blog”? Either way, you know you’ve made it when they teach you at college.
(It’s either a typo for “book based on her life” or they’re using one of the books that discuss my book. I’ve never read any but there are books that discuss my books that I’ve seen on Amazon. I think one is like, “Conversations About Let’s Pretend This Never Happened”? Not sure if it’s cliff notes or an actual book with real criticisms or just a book that looks enough like my book to scam people into buying it accidentally. ~ Jenny)
Congratulations! I think it will be very hard for anyone to figure out why your humor works so well. It is unique. And wonderful.
Wow. You’re on a syllabus. That is SO cool:-)
super cool!!
WOAH. Forget everything that happened before because this is the moment. Like I feel like coming full circle is the definition of making it, right? 😂🤣😂🤣😂
So awesome!
This is so cool. Way to go, Jenny!!!!!!
Jenny, you should offer to come in as a guest speaker! We all know how much you like traveling and public speaking 😉
I’m like “I KNOW HER!”
Which I don’t, really.
I guess that’s the nature of your “too feminine” and “esoteric” writing. I feel like I do!!
So did they contact you at all about this? I would think they would want your input on the subject. Still really really cool!
Glad to see you sounding so much better than last week. U a famous alumnus! 👍🏽🥰
In voice of Master Po (“Kung Fu”, TV Series 197201975)
“Grasshopper – one can never fail one’s self if you continue along the path to becoming your true self.”
<Deep, contemplative pause.>
“Or if you gather many stuffed, dead animals.”
I am so going back to college for a PhD in Bloggess. Hugs, MP.
30% of your grade in this class is “Group Presentation”?????
Huh? Do we have to read to each other? Hold hands in a circle? Or does it mean you have huddle with some others and frantically wave your hands in the air, yelling “Me! Me!” every time the prof asks a question of the class? Why is it every time I think about “group presentation” I think of circle j…. never mind.
I SO totally agree with 19 — it would be coolamatious for you to take this class (in a disguise, of course!) and report back to us. 😀 I hope you get a little renumeration for being the inspiration/muse of the class.
That is so cool! No matter how successful we get, it’s always awesome to be recognized back where we started. That’s so totally affirming. Congrats!!
“You know when you’re in college and you don’t know what you’re doing”
I never went to college and don’t know what I’m doing, either.
Also, where can I get a copy of the book based on your book?
This is so freaking awesome. I look smug as hell right now on your behalf!
Happy, truly Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy! With you for this delightful discover! Actually, All of the Affirmations and Discoveries, this means for You, Jenny💕😁!
Bet you didn’t know you were writing a textbook. How excellent is that?!?
That is very cool. But I think it’s weird that they are using your books as the main text in a class about gender humor. I have never thought about your books or your blog as really addressing gender much. Living with mental illness and the humor about the tragedy that is everyday life, sure! I mean you are female, so I guess gender is sort of automatically included? Do you think of your writing as being gender-humor? I guess I think of it as HUMOR, that happens to be written by a person who identifies as female. I dunno. It kinda makes me annoyed they are still labelling you as “feminine writing” instead of just freaking awesome writing. But still, the professor must love your book to want to make it the center of the course, so yay! OMG, people will be writing papers about your writing. That must be truly surreal.
Nice! Not many people can say that they can go to a class to learn about themselves. You should go and contradict everything the Prof says about you. But only in a nice way – otherwise it wouldn’t be humor, right?
Wow, talk about validation. That sounds fabulous.
Wouldn’t it be nice to have a time machine to go back to ALL of the times we were taunted or teased or made to feel less and now that we’re older with more perspective, tell the little shits exactly where to go and what to do to themselves when they get there?
I think you need to take it anonymously so you can find out what teachers THINK you meant with symbolism and stuff. And after you argue with the professor a few times about what the author meant you can have a big reveal. “I AM the bloggers and that’s literally not what I meant.”
Oh god…please do this.
What would you do if you don’t know yourself that well and you failed? Actually, that would make a great story.
Just think! They’ll have to buy lots of your books to use as texts – ka-ching!
That is a total riot. This is up there with being a question on Jeopardy on the knowing you made it scale.
You were a trendsetter!
This is so awesome! It may be even better than those students doing a reading from your book. Nobody deserves this more than you. I am so freaking proud on your behalf. Way to go Jenny!
Wow! That is so awesome!
Does that mean you can start charging $300 for your “textbooks” now?
You should just show up.
I wish there had been a class about your books when I got my English degree! (But I think that was before Let’s Pretend This Never Happened was written…) Yay for you!
OMFG you should totally register for the class and just show up and watch everyone gradually shit fucking eggrolls!!!
Now you’re the author of academic tomes and I can feel super smart if I make notes in the margins of your books!
Take the class under a fake name!
Goes to show the only place for bullshit is in the garden where you can plant petunias over it.
Sent from my iPhone
>
Options: 1. Go in disguise. Harshly critique EVERYTHING! 2. Put your hair in curlers. Quietly sit in the back row. Wait for someone to connect the dots. https://possumscatsthingsgnawingatme.wordpress.com/2019/02/25/dog-day-done/
Oh my god, I so want to go back to school just so I can take that class. It sounds AWESOME.
To all those who suggest she should enroll, please recall the lesson of Kurt Vonnegut from “Back to School.”
https://youtu.be/pDLzLUmtU3w
“Next time, I’ll get Robert Ludlum!”
Ha! That’s awesome. You should email the professor and ask if it’s possible for a non-student to participant in this important course.
This seems relevant here https://imgur.com/gallery/QWGrU
Also, they misspelt “Internationally famous” 🙂
Wondering when someone will make a field of study called GSD – cause that is ME SISTA!!!
In case you weren’t sure if you’d “made it” yet (“hit the big time”?), I think this is the definitive YES. I wonder if they’d ask you to guest lecture, if you were to enroll?
Is there a way that we could audit it online????
That is amazing!!!! Very validating I hope. Also, I just finished furiously happy and it’s my favorite book now. I didn’t want it to end. More books, please!!!
Serendipity!! So cool
And I’m over here all, “The HELL is a motosexual???”
I want to take a class on the Bloggess. I can totally pass with an A. Congratulations professor Jenny you know you’ve made it when they teach a class on you
I thought the expression was metrosexual. Then again, I could be mistaken.
Well, that is awesome!
CONGRATS, Jenny!” I am not afraid. I was born to do this.” Joan of Arc
So Cool, Jenny! I have yet to be published, but I’m working on it… slowly…
The very idea of majoring in Jenny makes my heart sing! I think all three of you should take the class. How cool (and intimidating) would that be?
Guest speaker.
I wish I lived there. I’d audit that.
One: I hope they had permission to have a class and make money off of you, BUT Two: You might make money off of them with new people buying your book and becoming fans!
That said, it would be funny as heck to audit the class, and hopefully correct any misconceptions, lol!
Two thumbs up!
“Warning: this course is for a mature audience….”
Hahaha!!
Good one.
This is the best revenge ever! Thank you for letting us hear your voice (and for creating a safe space for the rest of us to speak)!!!!
I love it!
I’ve been working with people who KNOW blogging and they tell me I have to solve a problem with each piece. I have to write to SEO. Etc.
And I say. But I just want to share for sharing’s sake. Like the Bloggess. She just gives us something good to read. Whether to laugh, cry, love or think.
And they tell me the Bloggess is one in a million and it was a fluke. And it can’t be done. It has to follow a formula.
And here you are saying letting your freak flag fly is just fine.
Sometimes we just have to believe in something… thank you for reminding me.
I want to both take this class and teach it. Either way it would be a blast.
You should audit it! That’s ridiculously cool! You are a college class. Knock knock Mother#$-&er will become the class slogan.
You should audit it! That’s ridiculously cool! You are a college class. Knock knock Mother#$-&er will become the class slogan.
That is phenomenal!! I definitely agree you should be an honorary doctor!! 😀 This is the best thing I’ve read today, maybe I need to take a class haha
And now I want to take this class. That is so awesome!
Okay so it’s been a while since I read the book, but I don’t remember gender being significant at all. What did I miss?
……and…….BOOM…….drop the mic…..
This is better than any kind of revenge or vengeance because just your existence as a writer is making that class possible. Lol those guys didn’t know SHIT
And the professor’s name made me giggle.
Maybe you can offer to edit their description for them heh
META: What if the professor is reading these comments right now?
Well now I want to go back to school.
I wish they offered this course online I would totally take it.
You should get to take the course for free.
My hope is that you enjoy the F*ck out of this moment. A top-shelf celebration and sacrifice to the Muse is called for. What will your offering of thanks look like?
I respectfully submit that I was someone of whom my Mother always said I’d “never get anywhere with my smart mouth” and was v sad that she didn’t live to hold the check of delightful munnies I’d been paid for this same thing because I’d of snapped a photo of her holding it up. -Ain’t a bug ma’am, it’s a feature.
Can I grade Kornasky on some excessive use of the comma while applauding her good taste?
Suggest enrolling as “Miss D. Barker”
That’s friggin awesome! You should have your taxidermied pals audit the class with you 😉
DOOD. IF anyone is ever teaching a class on me, I’m taking it. I hope I fail, too. It’ll be hilarious.
If they can’t get their font size, line spacing, and an errant return together in the first line of a course description, I’m not sure if they have the rest of their s*!t together either.
Congratulations Jenny!
Wooo, how exciting! You know you should just anonymously audit the class in disguise and ask a bunch of annoying questions that you KNOW they won’t be able to answer and then you can just be all BUT HERE IS WHAT SHE MEANT BY THIS and NOW IF YOU HAD ACTUALLY READ CHAPTER 10 and LET’S TALK ABOUT CURTAINS.
Maybe “Book based on her Blog, or Blog based on her Book? Because they lack an editor? Charge them an exorbitant speaking fee or equivalent doctorate. Dealers choice.
This makes me smile.
Not that you, Jenny, are a party person nor is anyone here (myself included) but comedian Brian regan did a very funny bit about how some people really love to boast about accomplishments at parties…and what it would be like to one up those people with an unreal achievement like walking on the moon…
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qBJ6yptGqm4&feature=youtu.be
Your “I walked on the moon” story can now be that you have a college class based on you and work… I mean… wow!!! Nobody can say that! Unless that person is Picasso or something..and he’s dead so that doesn’t count. What could anyone say??? Take that, parties! Jenny wins! Congrats on your success Jenny! You’ve earned all the praise and recognition imaginable 🙂 👏
Well, I hope you’re at least getting residuals on this.
You should contact the professor and offer to visit (or Skype) with her class! As a professor I’m telling you I would love it. So I can get the students to be in contact with an author of something we’re reading it’s absolutely amazing
Read Jenny Lawson for homework and call it education? Where the hell do I sign up? This is worth looking up Angelo State on Google Maps and moving across the country for. Too feminine? What does that even mean? Your writing makes me laugh and it makes me think, and the last time I checked I didn’t have any lady parts.
The first thing that came to my mind was all the different contestants on RuPaul’s Drag Race, including several winners; “That’s right, they used to laugh their asses off and throw shade about how tore back my look was back then… but just look at me NOW, AND EAT IT, BITCHES AW AW EAT IT BITCHES, YEAH UNH!” Or words to that effect. If I knew how to post a link, I would, just for effect.)
Also, I hope that this coming to you at a time when not only have you been Going Through It Hard, but so has Someone You Love More Than Fat Kids Love Cake; if this isn’t The Universe telling you BOTH that it DOES get better one day, in ways both great and small, I will eat a bug. An actual BUG.
Never hide your light under a bushel just because people can’t handle how fucking fabulous you are.
Congratulations, girl, really. And thank you for every word of encouragement you’ve ever written; you saved my life, and I love you.
Your Pal,
Storm the Klingon
I totally agree, only not! What I mean is that if I could change all the craziness and really horrific things in my childhood that would be great. The rest only got better from there.
I’ll give you an A.
You could be like Robert Heinlein: http://www.factfiend.com/ray-bradbury-told-interpretation-book-wrong/
I’m with Tater, I wish they had classes like this when I was in college. This is awesome Jenny!
The kind of strange, strange life that’s worth not giving up on, because you just never know when it’s going to surprise you with something worth hanging in for. Jenny 1, guys in English class 0.
This ties in with a thing I’ve been noticing lately…when I mention Jenny Lawson I almost never get asked “Who?” anymore.
You should take the class to freak the teacher out. Or, for sure, at least be a guest lecturer.
This is all kinds of awesome! They should get you as a guest speaker for one of the classes.
Gee Jenny, I wonder how many of those guys in the creative writing class that ridiculed the woman’s writing for being “too feminine” have published (self publishing doesn’t count!) SEVERAL books?
Jenny, it was so good to read your book (well actually listen. I prefer to hear it in your voice). As I was listening, watching the squirrels outside my window plotting my demise, I was struck with the fact that your world is similar to mine. I have bipolar disorder (meaning I twirl around on my axis at regular intervals) and appear to have had many similar experiences. In fact, my main thought was, she gets me! Our parenthetical writing styles are even similar. And when our experiences coincide (cat on the plane, dropping the keys in the trash, being nut-bombed by irate squirrels, arguing with a left-brain about the existence of water vapor fairies) its gives me comfort to know someone else gets it.
Mental illness does indeed lie. I’ve gone home from work early to get my kids in bed with me so that when the world ends they wouldn’t be alone. I’ve written suicide notes and thought about how my aunt, who committed suicide, must feel so much better than I was feeling.
Being medicated out of my big feelings, like anger, embarrassment and love has been, for me, a trade off that makes life for my family bearable. And it’s okay to know that living muted keeps me out of prison.
So hang in there. Keep up your brilliant writing. And know that while everyone has challenges, ours are, at least, invisible to the naked eye.
So, there’s that.
Kate
PS- Normally I work to keep my writing I-free. Guess I missed it on this one, didn’t I?
So what’s with “nationally famous” .Welove you in New Zealand too, you is INTERNATIONAL LY famous
Congratulations! So awesome!!
That’s my alma mater! Yeah for ASU!!!
OMG such Karma. They’re teaching your writing, but your writing ‘wasn’t good enough’ when you were actually at the college? RIght. Because we ALL know your writing is amazing. Congratulations on the opportunity to flip your nose at them! And if you’re a better person than me, I hope you guest speak because we love you, and I wish they would learn how awesome you are and love you too. 🙂
Saw this above and TOTALLY agree… take this class and just show up on the first day. Wait to see how long it takes for someone to notice…
Interesting Crew Dog, but I think you mean to say Ray Bradbury, not Robert Heinlein. Though it’s also interesting how much beat down Heinlein now gets for his misogyny even though during the time he wrote he was actually breaking ground. I grew up reading his books and I cringe reading so much of it now. He also wrote a book on politics that was pretty good and might resonate today.
Grats Jenny, pretty damn cool they have a class of you!
Did they ask you if they could do a class about you? You should definitely consider showing up and being a guest speaker there. And telling the story about how you felt like an idiot while in college. Maybe sign some books. Best class ever.
Also I’m totally going to name my memoirs, “The Book Based on the Book.“
‘Too feminine’ and ‘esoteric’ is what I aspire to be when I write.
You have a book based on your book? Also, INTERnationally famous! (Sorry, grumpy pedantic Brit here). At least their choice of materials is awesome.
Also, generally when people put modifiers like ‘too’ in front of adjectives or adjectival nouns, it says much more about them, than you. Too feminine and esoteric suggests that your writing was feminine and esoteric, but they were afraid of their sexuality and a bit simplistic and boring. The clue is in the title – ‘Creative’ writing.
Hey west Texas girl! I graduated from ASU back in the day. (Although, if someone thought I meant Arizona State – I usually let them.) We never had classes this interesting when I was there! Good job.
Because you kept going! Yay!
You should enroll and submit some writing.
It reminds me of the story of when Dolly Parton entered a drag queen impersonator show as herself. It would be quite amazing.
😂🤣 that’s awesome
whoop!! Very nice…….claim to fame 🙂
Fuckin’ A !
I agree, you should go undercover and blog about it.
Badass!
You MUST take this class!!!! At least just show up randomly to “audit” the class…..and then yell out things like “She didn’t even mean that AT ALL!!! You just don’t get Jenny!!!” “I thought there would be more booze here!” and “Knock, knock motherfucker- LOOK WHO SHOWED UP!”
I would just want to point out the error in their class listing. “…the book based on her book..”? Um, book based on her blog? But that would be petty of me. Then again, sometimes I’m okay with petty.
I would love to hear your take if you decide to crash the course in a secret appearance.
I WANT TO TAKE THAT CLASS!!
I hope you rd eu e royalties or something!!
This is the greatest day of our lives
Is it possible to audit this class??
I’d like to audit this class right now. Please.
You have GOT to go in disguise. Like, with a trenchcoat, glasses, and moustache. Then in the middle of the class, make a dramatic reveal, then storm off for no reason, screaming, “Knock-Knock” motherfuckers!!!”
You have got to show up, but in disguise. Full trenchcoat, dark glasses, moustache, the works. Then in the middle of class, make a dramatic reveal, then run out screaming, “Knock-Knock, Motherfuckers!!!”
A for effort
This is so fantastic Jenny! Talk about getting validation!! Not that you need it but still!! It’s a wild ride this thing called Life! Congrats!!!
Holy crap! I graduated from ASU before you were born, and never considered darkening its doors again, but this makes me want to re-enroll . .. even though I now live in Comal County. When I was there, the university president tried to deny a senior journalism student his diploma. That was because said student, doing his internship at the local rag, had interviewed –whisper– two homo-sexuals in the Porter Henderson Library! (Shhhh!) The pres was outraged that 1. there were sexual deviants on campus, and 2. his school’s sterling reputation had been sullied for all to see, particularly his fellow Southern Baptists. His school was going straight to HAIL! He failed to keep the cub reporter from graduating. The reporter got a rip-roaring standing ovation all of the J students. So, you see, if the word “FUCK” was ever uttered within its hallowed halls at that time, I’m pretty sure the Admin building would have crumbled, or several someone’s would have been hospitalized for apoplexy. WTF? I wrote all of this and can’t post it because I don’t have a blog?