A story in 31 parts....

October 26, 2009 1:13 PM

Basketbawful's Livin' Large series, (chronicled here on the Blue,) has ended.

In case anyone else is interested, here are links to the full chapter list:

Part 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24. Also check out the official Livin' Large FAQ, Cast List, Flow Chart 1.0, Flow Chart 2.0 and Epilogues 1, 2 and 3.

posted by zarq to MetaFilter-related at 1:13 PM (16 comments total)

Normally I dislike these update-filter posts on general principle but I missed this before and it's pretty epic, so I will state that against my principles I thank you for the update.
posted by GuyZero at 2:35 PM on October 26

I'm not sayin' this is all made up, but I will say that I can spot a Mary Sue from miles away.
posted by muddgirl at 2:44 PM on October 26 [1 favorite]

OK, now I feel bad because it's pretty clear this guy had a tough freshman year. But I think there's a lot of exaggeration here and I'm wondering if "Matt" will ever find out and sue for defamation or something.
posted by muddgirl at 2:53 PM on October 26

OK, now I feel bad because it's pretty clear this guy had a tough freshman year. But I think there's a lot of exaggeration here and I'm wondering if "Matt" will ever find out and sue for defamation or something.

At the very end of the third epilogue, he speaks briefly about his attempts to get in touch with "Matt", both prior to and while the story was being posted.

I had a similar impression when I read the first few chapters. It wasn't until two or three of the people named in the story confirmed, clarified and/or corrected things he'd written in previous chapters that I began believing it was (at least somewhat) a true story. Also, one of the commenters on an entry tracked down a relatively recent Youtube video of "Big Matt" and outed him to the readers.
posted by zarq at 3:01 PM on October 26

Normally I dislike these update-filter posts on general principle but I missed this before and it's pretty epic, so I will state that against my principles I thank you for the update.

Heh. Thanks, and you're welcome. :)
posted by zarq at 3:09 PM on October 26

The only thing I want to know is whether or not you have any pictures of Jennifer and/or Shelly

What kind of impact, if any, did watching Mat's sexual exploits have on your future relations with women?

Did you end up screwing that girl's friend? The one that Mat ordered you to bang?

How noisy was the sex? Are we talking porn overdubs...gasping moans? Tell it in detail. Then describe how the ladies looked

So did you ever actually get laid in the time you lived with Mat?

judging by the q & a it would seem that this is mostly about people discussing other people's vastly more interesting college sexploits. I'll read a couple of chapters before I totally judge.
posted by Think_Long at 4:27 PM on October 26

I saw this post originally and stuck around checking the blog for updates until he finally finished it off recently. He has quite a memory for detail and a decent writer. I thought it was an interesting read and there was a lot of cringe inducing & facepalming stuff in there. There was also quite a bit of back and forth between him and his readers in the comments sections. You could file most of the story under innocence, ignorance, and the follies of youth.
posted by P.o.B. at 6:03 PM on October 26

FRICKIN FINALLY. I kept up with him for most of the posts but there was a massive time lag between the story sections and the epilogue, where it became more than a little evident that a) the author was still posting other material, and b) he was sitting on more than enough time to post the epilogues and was clearly just milking the traffic to his otherwise not very noteworthy blog.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:41 AM on October 27 [1 favorite]

And FWIW, by way of shameless self-plug, this guy's writing about his college experiences reminded me in a way (more his writing style, less the huge roommate and rampant sex) of some of the stories I've written from my college days, which can be found here. Like, for instance, the time I smuggled a snake on a trans-continental flight back to my sophomore year, and the ensuing insanity. No joke.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:47 AM on October 27

and now that I'm looking at those two comments next to each other, I should point out I don't really look to drive traffic to my completely un-noteworthy blog, I just thought people might enjoy some additional reading now that his series is over.
posted by allkindsoftime at 4:49 AM on October 27

If only it had been Dan Gadzuric.
posted by drezdn at 4:52 PM on October 27

While I am somewhat loathe to admit I am so interested in this story, am I the only one who feels like I can't find the ending? I see part 24, I see the epilogues, but part 24 ends this way:

          And that's when I decided I was done living with Mat...one way or another.

And Mat's epilogue comes here:

          After dropping the Shelly bomb on him, Mat and I never spoke face-to-face again.

What was the "Shelly bomb?" I'm not seeing it.

again i hate to admit i'm so wrapped up in this
posted by malapropist at 1:51 AM on October 28

Matt got a call from Mat's ex-girlfriend Shelly and a minor drama fest was had. Maybe one of the parts of this story isn't being linked properly.
posted by shii at 7:07 AM on October 28

For some strange reason there aren't any links to Part 25, which is the concluding chapter malapropist was looking for.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:40 AM on October 28

Aw hell. malapropist, I'm sorry. In an effort to save time, I lifted the links from his last post and checked them for consistency. Didn't occur to me to read through to make sure I had them all.
posted by zarq at 10:01 AM on October 28

I thought the writing was massively expository and self-indulgent, I think the guy sounds like a total self-absorbed asshole, and I think the entire thing is a joke, since over 2/3rds of the "content" has fuck-all to do with his Division 1-A athlete roommate.

But I still not only read all of these but the day the final one was posted, I looked up the original thread to post this exact thing there.

Sad, but true.
posted by paisley henosis at 12:24 PM on October 28