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Post by sturgeon on Jun 17, 2024 8:27:41 GMT
A paraplegic's quest to make a quick buck.
Elias starts by escorting rich families to Disneyland so they can cut the line thanks to his disability pass, then creates a website for romantic matches with people with disabilities. Each time he is financially successful, but remains ethically naive.
The most interesting dramatic element of this cap was the exploration of Elias's feelings about his disability, and the implicit condemnation of the American medical/welfare system. But Elias himself hopelessly lacks self-awareness, and doesn't seem to learn or grow. He cheats the system for ten years, his hubris brings him down, then without too much difficulty he finds another way. So what? I'm not sure what message or feeling or metaphor we're meant to be left with at the end: I was left wanting something more meaningful.
I vote No.
Some errors I spotted:
- "Mom" and "Dad" should be capitalised when they're being used as names
- "Beinvenidos" should be "Bienvenidos"
- “Excuse me, ‘mam,” should end in a full stop, and lose the apostrophe (or move it: "ma'am")
- "Vamanos" should be "Vamonos"
- Catch-22 should be capitalised
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Post by bulldust on Jun 18, 2024 14:19:08 GMT
Moo moo moo moo moo, bitches!
Bessie and I frequently debate over the morality of scamming. As avid fans of “Topcat” and “The A-Team” (Face is a master scammer), the Bulldog and Bessie have discussed the finer points of the scam. Bessie is hard set against any scamming, even those that appear victimless because there is always a victim. This cap seems to prove Bessie right.
The protagonist, Elias, in this cap ends up making a buck off scamming Disney by exploiting his disability. The problem is, that others get the same idea. Except some of these others don’t even have a disability. This infuriates Elias.
So, the crux of this cap seems to be greed and amorality. It’s not about the suffering of Elias, the injustice of his situation, and how he rises above it. On the contrary, it focuses on how he overcomes it by becoming as scummy as those around him.
Even his therapist is a ho (which is probably why Rockefeller loved this cap).
Let’s face it, this is not a feel-good cap.
While the Bullman agrees with the fishy one that there was no personal growth in this cap, it has merit. Like Rocks, it captured the Bullmeister’s attention. Not everyone learns from their experiences. These days, moral ambiguity is the status quo. So, the Bull votes ‘yes’.
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Post by otto on Jun 19, 2024 16:55:58 GMT
Deep in the back wilds of El Segundo, where the mean streets thin at the border of town, a rust-crusted sign sways in the warm breeze above the entrance to a body shop, some say a chop shop, that itself fronts multiple acres of ancient and abused cars, trucks, and vans. The sign reads Grand Theft Otto.
A man sprints from the office door, running for his own car as if his life depended on it, which it does. He speeds off in a cloud of dust as a huge bear (but a well-dressed bear) of a man stands and shakes his fist at him.
“Get out of here you lousy process server! Otto shows up in court when Otto wants to!”
He goes back inside and sits in front of the rattling desk fan, opens up the official-looking envelope to see what the State of California had in mind to ruin his day. Receiving stolen property? Ag assault? Grave robbing? No, wait, the grave robbing thing is in November. He pulls out the papers with his big, fat fingers.
“Hey, wait a minute – this ain’t no summons. This is CAP! Hold on, was that guy LaFloor? I ain’t seen him in a while. Man, the boss is getting sneaky.”
Otto reads.
"Holy smokes, do I love a good grift. If you ain’t hustling you ain’t trying, am I right? This here’s the story of Elías, who gets himself in a pickle and discovers the joy of the con after a brutal accident, which is what you get for trying to do an honest day’s work. Write that down, kids. Elías realizes he can rent out his disability status after he falls ass-backwards into money from a rich lady in line at a carefully unnamed rodent-themed amusement park. Something similar actually happened, by the way, it made the news last April.
“The cap moves along briskly, in the style of Carver or Hemingway, which is good company. And I like it, I like the nihilism of it, the refusal to go with a happier, lesson-learned ending. Life ain’t always that way. The set piece with the escort rang a bit false, I would suggest the VC give Maria a different speech pattern than “exposition,” and no hooker sees a boner as an opportunity to jump on. It’s work. It would be like if one of you straights got a desk full of files at 4:30, or something, I don’t know, I look like a straight to youze?
“This cap ain’t perfect, but it’s different than anything I’ve read lately and I appreciate the straightforward style. Now contradictory-like to what some people think, getting voted up to the suite doesn’t always equal touching the monkey. Still gotta get past the boss. But I say yes, lets put this in proximity to that sweet fur and see what happens.
“Good job, VC. Edit better next time, though.”
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