In defense of TMI

A friend and former colleague of mine wrote, an awesomely convincing parody of Gilbert's writing. Commenters called the parody "alarming" and "jaw droppingly brilliant" and "the best thing on the Internet today." And I agreed and still do. The likeness was stunning but also saddening. If someone like Gilbert could be impersonated so easily, what does that mean for the rest of the writers out there. And while the parody stresses the flaws, the run-ons and the deluge of details, characteristic of Gilbert's writing. It forgets what makes Gilbert's writing so refreshing; she can do what writers are so often told to do: "close the door and write." Someone who worried about sounding vain, desperate, weak, or condescending, could never have written Gilbert's first book or her second.