In a brutal takedown of Sean Penn’s new novel Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, Huffington Post critic Claire Fallon generously shared enough excruciating excerpts from the book to convince anyone that they don’t need to read it.
One Penn passage in particular—a poem—caught Twitter’s attention. People immediately dragged the actor-turned-penman for his lyrical take on the #MeToo movement.
anyone who ever gave sean penn a compliment is complicit in this and should be in prison https://t.co/U60lPEeYkA pic.twitter.com/Uwth6HGxGx
— Ashley Feinberg (@ashleyfeinberg) March 27, 2018
It took some time for it to sink in that the poem was real.
It took 3 full read-throughs to sink in that this is actually true and not some kind of parody or joke. This is utterly surreal.
— The Pumpkin Dipshit (@ParSpec) March 27, 2018
I can't wrap my head around the excerpts and the cartoonish word choice and then along comes the Me Too poem…
— Leafs Free In 2020 (@mlse) March 27, 2018
But once the shock and denial cleared, people commenced with some literary criticism.
— Colin Harvey Rowe (@colinhrowe) March 27, 2018
i wish he would penn less
— ganonline (@gerudoku) March 27, 2018
Hello, police? I’d like to report a crime against……..everything….like just all of this is criminal
— Jenny Perton (@anijen21) March 27, 2018
This is very bad, and he should feel bad.
— Invasive Species Appreciator (@mboyle78) March 27, 2018
If Penn is capable of this poem, Twitter thought, what else is he capable of?
https://twitter.com/brainylainie/status/978723949197643776
Fortunately, one person on Twitter came forward with an anecdote—the perfect antidote to Penn’s poetic license.
This, in it's truth and presentation, was 500x more poetic than what Penn put to paper.
— Marc Morris (@setaside2) March 27, 2018
Penn once won an Oscar, had a brief stint with journalism, and has been accused of abusing Madonna, his ex-wife. He’s now making rounds on talk shows and smoking cigarettes to promote Bob Honey Who Just Do Stuff, as writers do.