Review for Loser
Enjoyable story. The style reminded me slightly of Terry Pratchett at times (especially the thing about how it balances out when people are not actually referring to Matt as “loser” but thinking he is one anyway), which is a good thing coming from me.
What I liked best is the cynicism you used when explaining what Matt and Marcus´ friendship/ symbiosis is based on and pointing out the reason why Luanne was nice to people in grade school. I could just die for those little caustic remarks.
What I did not get was why Marcus went to therapy - you would think that the geeks needed therapy after having met Marcus - and the whole “BLEEP!cking”. (I mean I know what it stands for but what is it doing here?) Maybe you can explain that to me?
From a linguistic point of view, I guess that should be “to de-loseR him” because Luanne is trying to get Matt into stop being a loser and not trying to “find” or “retrieve” him which would be what “de-lose” should logically mean. One can probably argue about that one, though, because it´s a made up word. Sorry, I´m fascinated with linguistics.
I found it funny (thus, found putting it into the humor section appropriate) and to my taste the repetitions made it even more entertaining.
Author's response
Actually, I never did get into why Luanne was nice to everyone, but I meant to imply that Marcus's meanie behavior advanced to the point where someone blessedly took a hand.
The "bleep!cking" part is probably a holdover from when I had to submit this in class.
It's okay do say "de-lose," using "lose" as a verb (Plus it sounds so very much like "delouse"). If I used "loser" as a noun I'd have to add something else, like "deloserify." Your logic makes sense, though. If you want to get into linguistics, the real made-up words in here are "grubbish," "nerdly" and "loserly."