Very few people wonder these days why J.P. Weichel and his ex-wife are divorced, ever since Weichel was charged with criminal libel for posts he put on Craigslist accusing his ex of sleeping with her divorce lawyer and beating their child. In fact, sometimes, talking shit about your ex says a lot more about you (and your maturity level) than it does about whatever he or she did to you.
Of course, if youre in the habit of mining the wreck that is your personal life for your work, its fairly difficult to never talk about an ex. Is it particularly mature to make fun of an ex because of his name or because he didnt know better than to try to face fuck you or because he kept standing you up? Probably not. On the other hand, I was writing those stories for what they said about me, and my relationships, and my own idiocy — and, because, now, theyre funny to me. Theyre not intended to be mean-spirited, or floated out there as revenge or even to put me in a positive light. I puked on a guy named Ralph, I lacked the common sense to stay out of a sexual situation with an inexperienced and inattentive guy, I allowed someone to stand me up more than once. Dont you see, its all about me!
The real problem, though, is that, like too many writers — in addition to having a strange sense of humor and way too much time to think about my failed relationships — Im also an incredible narcissist... which is apparently how I turned a post about someone slagging on his ex into a post about me doing the exact opposite thing.
