"Cat Person" by Kristen Roupenian

[Toby Frost]

"Cat Person" by Kristen Roupenian appeared in the New Yorker a few weeks ago and seems to have had a lot of viral success. It is about a brief relationship ("romance" seems too strong) between a woman and a man who both seem to own cats, and the shabby and bitter end of it all.

The story has been very successful and the author has (allegedly - I'm suspicious of such stories) been offered a book deal off the back of it. Clearly it strikes a chord with a lot of people. Having read the story, I must admit that I'm somewhat nonplussed, although stories about relationships aren't usually very interesting to me. While it wasn't bad, it didn't seem to contain any great truths, except that some people are sad and that texting is rubbish.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else has read it and what they made of it, especially since at points it seems to be moving towards a horror story, which it never quite becomes.

It can be found here: “Cat Person” It contains some detailed and rather wretched sex, so caveat lector.

 

[The Big Peat]

I read it and enjoyed it; I enjoy thinking about it even more.

I thought it was very good at skewering the way people seek definition through other people and the mistakes they make as a result; the way validation from someone else lights up our life for a bright moment; the everyday acts of petty cowardice and deception we commit.

I also thought it did a great job of skewering a type of man who has a desire to be dominant and a frail ego, and the odd extremes of callousness and neediness they show as a result.

I can't comment on how well it skewered some of the feminine issues but given the huge mediastorm of women going "Yes, This", I'm going to guess it was just as successful there too.

edit: p.s. I think we can trust the reports of her having sold the UK rights to Jonathan Cape. The rumours of seven figure sums in bidding wars in the US might deserve a pinch of salt, but a straight up report of a sale seems trustworthy to me.

 

[Nick B]

I read it and to be quite honest, I'm not sure what it was saying. It seems to be lauded by many women as being some truth. But who is the worse person in the story? I don't know.

 

[The Big Peat]

I read it and to be quite honest, I'm not sure what it was saying. It seems to be lauded by many women as being some truth. But who is the worse person in the story? I don't know.

I don't think its about either being a bad person (nor do I believe either is really bad). Its about there being different expectations of how things play out in dating for different genders.

 

[Nick B]

I agree, but don't really get the reactions to it. To be fair I've really only seen women's reactions, it would be good to see more men's reactions. It's clearly written to provoke, but I'm not sure what, or who, the author is wanting to react, or how.

 

[Alexa]

What a sad story !

It's quite strange we didn't have any cats in that house or at least some traces of their presence.

A thirty-four year guy, really ? His behaviour says otherwise. Maybe this is the provocation you were talking about.

 

[Toby Frost]

I agree that it seems to be about something, but it's hard to say what, exactly. She comes across as cowardly in her hope that he just goes away, and too willing to build up fantasy stories based on nothing much at all. He seems needy and bitter, regarding her lack of need for him as an insult. Perhaps ironically, they both need to get out more!

I found the writing to be good, but the pacing rather odd. The (apparent) lack of real cats seems to push it slightly into crazy-stalker territory, which it doesn't really do, and the sex scene just seems - well, excessive. I'm not sure if there is a moral beyond either "All men are bastards waiting to happen" or just the sense of recognition - "I knew someone like that". Anyway, I hope (probably in vain) that it persuades people out there not to feel that they have to continually text each other All The Damn Time.

edit: p.s. I think we can trust the reports of her having sold the UK rights to Jonathan Cape. The rumours of seven figure sums in bidding wars in the US might deserve a pinch of salt, but a straight up report of a sale seems trustworthy to me.

Yes, I think you're right about this.

 

[Vertigo]

I confess I didn't like it. I found the dialog and internal thoughts clumsy at best, though to be fair that might have been deliberate to emphasise the protagonists emotional clumsiness. But worse than that I found the entire story tedious, banal and boring. By half way through I didn't like either of them (both seemed utterly self-centred) and really didn't care what was going to happen to either of them. So I didn't even finish it, which I think is possibly a first for me with a short story; I just didn't care enough to continue reading.

 

[HareBrain]

It felt realistic, but I've no idea why this went viral -- surely it doesn't say anything that a thousand other stories and novels have? Two people embark on a dumb relationship out of neediness and unrealistic expectations, and in the end, the man, when drunk, turns into an arse because he's has his ego bruised. I really had to push myself past the first couple of hundred words, which lacked any hook at all.

I think the sex scene was useful, though. It showed how unsuited they were (as such situations tend to do in real life).

 

[The Big Peat]

I found the writing to be good, but the pacing rather odd. The (apparent) lack of real cats seems to push it slightly into crazy-stalker territory, which it doesn't really do, and the sex scene just seems - well, excessive. I'm not sure if there is a moral beyond either "All men are bastards waiting to happen" or just the sense of recognition - "I knew someone like that". Anyway, I hope (probably in vain) that it persuades people out there not to feel that they have to continually text each other All The Damn Time.

Be nice and respectful towards each other? Don't base your happiness around other people's opinion of you? Don't deceive yourself about yourself/others? Women fear rape and murder and men fear ridicule? Even the best situations can go bad in a moment?

I dunno. I feel like there's a lot of possible morals to this story and the open-endedness of it is a big part of it why it went viral. Lots of different people have seen lots of different things in it, particularly as it can be seen as being right in the heart of the culture wars. I am an insecure person; I immediately clicked with their insecure people and that's what I saw most in it. Other people see an affirming message for women, others a dig at men, others a dig at online dating, etc.etc.

To me, the story is almost a Rorschach test.

 

[tinkerdan]

I'm not so sure about that::

I don't think its about either being a bad person (nor do I believe either is really bad). Its about there being different expectations of how things play out in dating for different genders.

::however I might admit that something in the writing might make it a struggle for some people.

However 'pouring his tongue down her throat' was where I lost any perceived affection for him. Not just because it was a bad kiss--it was wrong for a first kiss and maybe that shows my age.

Buying drinks for her after he found out she was underage--sorry, red flag.

Getting her drunk, knowing she was underage, and then deciding not to drive her straight home and end the date--wrapped it up for me.

I will grant that because of the way the POV was written with such obsession over her overthinking and imagining such a wide range of 'realistic' options about the character of this persons she doesn't really know, it's easy for the reader to miss all of those red flags and even possibly be oblivious to all of her own bad decisions despite the warnings in her own internal dialogue's misgivings.

However: that last bit of those texts at the end should make it clear that he is not a nice person.(At least the author doesn't want you at that point to have any doubts.)

By the end of the article, for me, rather than relating to these people I felt the whole story was an absurd over the top yet passable cautionary tale for anyone prone to form such quick relationships based solely on phone or texting.

All I can think is that the date should have ended way before that kiss or at least at that exact point.

They go to a movie that she doesn't feel is appropriate for a first date. ( She works at a theatre so there should be no excuse that she was not aware of that before they arrived and watched it.) However we are not told this until after the fact. The order of events might make it hard to catch that she didn't go to the movie to watch the movie. But if you go back up and see her description and her confusion or frustration over certain things it becomes evident.

We don't know their ages and the wide disparity between them until after the bar scene.(When we discover she's 20)
We don't know his age long until after.

And in between that I'm baffled and confused about why she would even consider going to his place except lack of judgement because she's drunk and he should have taken her home.

Over all I think this story is a success because it does provoke a reaction in the readers.

Note:: Possibly each time one of us reads it now it will increase the number of reads this has before the end of 2017.

 

[HareBrain]

To me, the story is almost a Rorschach test.

I've revised my opinion of it overnight, and was pleased to see this now. I don't think it's a particularly good piece of fiction, partly for the same reason that it's an excellent basis for discussion. It's the first half of a case study (the "case", without the "study", which the readers provide). It's just the facts of this particular relationship, without any of the usual sense that you get in fiction, that the character or author are trying to make much sense of it.

If there's any "lesson" I take from it, it's this: if your desire for someone is subservient to -- and even dependent on -- them desiring you, run away.

It's quite strange we didn't have any cats in that house or at least some traces of their presence.

I assume it's called "Cat People" because the two characters resemble the widely held view of cats, in that they cohabit with others only for what they can get out of the arrangement.

 

[The Big Peat]

I assume it's called "Cat People" because the two characters resemble the widely held view of cats, in that they cohabit with others only for what they can get out of the arrangement.

That and the fact they bond over their cats, except for the bit where it seems like he was lying about having one.

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't think it's a particularly good piece of fiction, partly for the same reason that it's an excellent basis for discussion. It's the first half of a case study

Nicely put! I think this might be one of those cases where "It made you think" isn't necessarily a compliment, because the thinking you end up doing is to fill in the gaps that ought to have been filled. It may be that the story is a Rorshach test (or a distorting mirror), and that its popularity is indeed down to its vagueness. Personally, the main message I got from it was "I don't understand humans", but that's just me.

While it is vague, I think it successfully latches on to the sense of emptiness and insecurity that seems common these days (or at least is said to be), especially among people like Robert and Margot living in big cities. They seem intelligent but rather empty - it would feel weird, to me, to discover that either of them had strong, unironic beliefs about anything much.

 

[The Big Peat]

How many gaps should a story fill? If Sir Pterry got tons of mail for Small Gods from pagans saying its pro-them and Christians saying its pro-them, did he leave it too broad?

I think there's a place for stories where something happens and its up to the reader, or where the main character lacks the intellectual skills/introspectiveness to piece together the moral of the story for themselves. Or at least I hope there is.

 

[Toby Frost]

I don't think I could give a clear answer to that, but I don't think this story fills enough gaps. Or perhaps it just promises more than it delivers, both in terms of deep meaning and story (the hints that he is really weird, etc). I've got nothing against stories that are open to interpretation, but this feels too open - as Harebrain puts it, like the first half of a case study. Given the recent revelations about Weinstein and similar characters and the resulting public mood, the cynical part of me wonders if the real coup of this story is its timing.

 

[The Big Peat]

I don't think I could give a clear answer to that, but I don't think this story fills enough gaps. Or perhaps it just promises more than it delivers, both in terms of deep meaning and story (the hints that he is really weird, etc). I've got nothing against stories that are open to interpretation, but this feels too open - as Harebrain puts it, like the first half of a case study. Given the recent revelations about Weinstein and similar characters and the resulting public mood, the cynical part of me wonders if the real coup of this story is its timing.

Well no, I suppose there isn't a clear answer, and that what clear answer there is would be a rather subjective one. Still, I do think its a point worth making that a story leaving a lot of gaps open to interpretation is still capable of being a very good piece of fiction. Well. Depending what you want from fiction.

Also, to a certain extent, yes she's got lucky with her timing. Undoubtedly so. But judging from the reactions, I think it would be wrong to count that too highly and the coup of nailing how a lot of young people, particularly women, feel about dating, too low. There's no shortage of stories about being a woman in today's world out there. This one is the one that caught the attention.

And I think the hints of him being a full blown weirdo only to discover he's just a bit of a low-grade loser is very spot on. Taking it a more dramatic place would have made it far less resonant. Maybe a better story for some, but not imo.

 

[Nick B]

I agree that taking it to a more dramatic finish would have been worse, itay have just looked like feeding into the current Big Thing ie- men are bad.
Reading comments here and thinking more on it, the piece feels like it is about two vaguely pathetic people in today's vaguely weird world. She basically fantasises about this guy she doesn't know, then is repulsed by him (the body shaming of her revulsion at his fat stomach should not be dismissed) and hasn't got the wherewithal to just tell him its over, while he seems to be a sad, lonely guy with no real idea about social interaction and not a clue at all about how to act in any way intimately and is incredibly insecure.
As said before, neither character is sympathetic and neither are particularly nice people.

 

[Toby Frost]

I do think it has nailed the awfulness of dating in the modern era, or more accurately what the awfulness of the modern era does to dating. I think it could have been leaner - it could almost have just consisted of his texts, in a sort of weird poem - but that would have made it pretty different. And I agree that avoiding the crazy option was wise. The deception involving the cats does smack of real strangeness, but I am very bad at "getting" other people, so perhaps this seems less bizarre to others than it does to me.

 

[HareBrain]

into the current Big Thing ie- men are bad.

Is it being interpreted this way, in the wider world? As you then point out, neither character really comes across as less bad than the other.

I found it interesting that Margot seems much more interested in Robert's desire for her than her desire for him (or any aspect of him as a person). A female friend once told me that she had this approach to her own relationships, which is probably a big clue as to why they never worked out. I've no idea if this is widespread, but if it is, it's a sad facet of the same need for validation that prompts people to obsess over the number of "likes" they get on social media. If the story is about anything, to me it's about that need for validation, but it doesn't have anything to say about the possible roots of it.