Kristen Roupenian, reflecting upon her experience after her short story in The New Yorker, “Cat Person,” went viral, describes it this way: The word I keep reaching for, even though it seems melodramatic, is annihilating. To be faced with all those people thinking and talking about me was like standing alone, at the center of a stadium, while thousands of people screamed at me at the top of their lungs. Not for me, at me. I guess some people might find this exhilarating. I did not.
