Dear Mr. Bageant,
You don't know me, but my dad just emailed me a link to one of your articles, "Thank Heaven for 7-Eleven", and I have to say: this is probably the most scathing, satirical, have no mercy on anyone pieces of writing I've read and let me tell you, it's beautiful.
My mom and stepdad think that I'm just another seventeen-year-old rebellious, atheistic teenager who doesn't know what she's talking about or what she wants, but really, after reading this article, the hypocrisy and bullshit that permeates our society really has been reaffirmed and put out there once again. Actually, what you've said has been called out, over and over again, but no one seems to be able to break away from their rose-colored glasses and materialistic values to really care about what we've turned this country, and ourselves, into. But I don't have to tell you any of this, obviously, because after I read that, I was in some definite awe. I really admire your honesty and ability to just write because I know that I just don't see enough of that contemporary genius beyond the sixties.
I read in your short bio that you're going to have a book published soon, and I'm really happy about that because I really think that you have a great writing style that draws the reader in with its comical, sarcastic honesty. I love writing, and I can only hope to come somewhere within the same radius of the intelligence and truth and sarcasm that just radiates from the very words of the piece. And wow, I just can't get over your vocabulary! Truly a great piece of work, and it's too bad that people like my mother and stepfather can't step outside of themselves and really recognize great pieces of writing that put the truth out there.
I just really thought that you should know how much I enjoyed reading this, and if you have time or whatever, I'd love for you to write back!
Thanks again for the laughs and the disturbed feeling that still stays with me,
Marianne
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Marianne,
My wife Barb and I would snatch you up and adopt you tomorrow if we could find you!
You are the kind of young person who sees through the shit and, honestly speaking, I get emails from enough young people like you that I feel secure in the knowledge that the system may just well have a fight on its hands with you young seers in the future. I suspect that you are well on your way to becoming an artist yourself. I dunno, you just seem that way. When I was 17 I had the same battles with my parents too ... and ya know what? They never did get it. But so what?
Rage on little sister.
Solidarity,
Uncle Joe
