What is the strangest feedback your work has elicited?

I've just come back from my 'reader research panel', i.e., the people who read all of my work and provide feedback. One of them, usually the most useful reader I've got, came out of left field with this mouthful:

"yes, i liked this. transferring big and relevant ideas from earth to an interstellar canvas. very nice. i got the analogy you were making about post-colonial Africa and the burgeoning globalistation trend through the eighties (wtf! that's not in there, I swear, or it's unintentional), and the deregulation and capital migration that continued into the nineties. I also understood the societal projections based on economic inequality, societal complexity and the said fragility of the system and the likely consequences of excessively available credit in a wealthy developed society. i like how you made allusions to the GFC, very nice (fair cop, there's some truth there). and you nicely contrasted this with a developing nation, which, whilst painted as a pseudo-idyllic eco-agrarian paradise, is a deeply challenged burgeoning technocractic regional power with personal liberty issues and deep social and economic problems (accurate). i also like how two of the characters explore many of these issues of comparative sociology and economic theory under the guise of lessons. they offset each other well. the points about the free market and regulation were succinctly argued, as was the ethical implications of unrestrained corporate activity. the thing that shat me up the wall (sic) was 'why on earth did you make the little girl a Keynesian? she should be a neo-schumpeterian' (no apparent reason)"

other than this, she's normally quite good at feedback

Has anyone else gotten a major dump of wtf-erry as feedback?

Can't decide if you got subtly trolled.

What a great troll.

Now I know exactly what to post if I ever have to give feedback to something.

i'm hoping it wasn't a troll. i'm going with the theory she read way too much into it. the thing about post-colonial africa is slightly loopy interpretation. the thing about keynesianism is pure wtfery, though, since i never identified the character's economic views.

For Fall D.Ark Tyrant, "So you have a cannibal shadow controlling albino eating and killing futuristic medieval knights, a kid with an arm destroying giant vaginas full of teeth, a little girl who really likes to watch a vampire drink a person dry, AND Nephilim? Welcome to the mind fuck, people."

Viandas has one really depraved fangirl, who seems to like professing her desire to "Molestraep" the hero. Squicked me right out.

A note of explanation: My series is about societies of anthropomorphic Petting-Zoo People, and features a female squirrel as the main character and a vixen as her best friend.

An extremely funny and awesome elderly lady in my college Creative Writing class had this to say when I brought in one of my chapters:

"Well, I hate squirrels! ... I hope in the next chapter the fox eats the squirrel. But other than that, it seems pretty good..."

One of my acquaintances said that my story "was hostile to empowered women" because it includes a pair of lesbians who happen to be villains and the protagonist is a single mother. That was kinda left-field.

Lots of people told me Stuck at the Galleria read like a movie when I first wrote it. I fully embraced this, and in retrospect I think that my acceptance of that did wonders for the second episode and what I've written of the third.

Oh, and at one point I was told it was like "Diary Of A Wimpy Kid on adrenaline". I loved that response.

Running my novel ideas by 4chan's /lit/, I got this gem:

"You're a crook and your family's going to find out."

I reviewed a girl's fanfic, that had mary sue problems (she was completely polite and nice though. She just couldn't grasp the concept)

She then reviewed my mary sue parody, said that I made fun of her crazy names, but used even CRAZIER names (that were completely canon, this is Harry Potter after all) and that my mary sue was way more sue-ish.

So...yeah.

This review in response to my story. I... don't really know what to make of it:

"Well, on a personal note, and on something I've been thinking a lot about lately, is that you need a bit more humor. Then again, I say that to everybody, no matter what, because if I'm not laughing, I'm sad. Try watching George Lopez for some good jokes. (Ex, "You're gonna be so grounded, coffee will look at you and say, 'Day-um'!'")

On other notes, again basic grammar and spelling. One really noticeable error I recall from thirty seconds ago, but nothing you need to lose sleep over.

Err... Like the plot development, and how you stayed relatively true to the game so far. I just wishI knew about all that Sonic-crap. What's the flute doing with sonic, and where and what is that place Sonic is always talking about? Never read any comics, so that could be it."

On the other hand, it seems pretty reasonable. Perhaps I could add some humorous elements to my story. But then, there's this last bit...

"Still, like it so far, and Tatl is definitely gonna blow him off. ;)"

It's just... what could I've possibly written that could be interpreted in this particular fashion?

edited 1st Dec '10 6:30:02 PM by Komodin

i had this surreal story about a man that dreams he is drowning in his own blood

a friend of mine naturaly concluded it was about the defects in the communist ideology

Damn, your friend sounds like a freak. An interesting freak, mind you. Are they hot?

There is no rational response to the thought process that turns 'drowning in own blood' into 'failure of communism', but the person who does that can't possibly be boring

I dunno - the ghastly, dehumanising loss of individuality and sense of isolation associated with falling into a sea of endless, uniform red, for a start.

The theory has legs. Very unsteady legs, but legs nevertheless.

edited 6th Dec '10 8:18:49 PM by Iaculus

when I posted the plot behind the epic mind fuck that was Fall D.Ark Tyrant, it actually got MORE confusing for someone.

It involves time travel, clones, instrumentality, the universe not letting the mentor die so as not to cause a paradox, oh, and Nathan finds out that his hellish childhood was caused by himself traveling back in time, altering Nathan's memories, and then Seth Arkh commits suicide by similarly traveling back in time, fusing with Nathan, thus allowing for the creation of the hero's superpowered evil side. It was on this very site. One troper said:

That...I don't...wuh? Huh? Wait...what? I read that story, now it makes even less sense than usual!