Joyce Carol Oates might not be a household name to those who know of Elon Musk, but her dressing down of the world’s richest man has folks talking. Taking to Elon Musk’s social media platform, X, Joyce Carol Oates questioned the trillionaire’s lack of culture, and his responses were an attempt to prove that he’s more than Grok’s human vessel.

Over the weekend (November 8), Joyce Carol Oates, a highly decorated author, pondered why Musk never seems to share posts about his interests or his family, essentially saying he was uncultured. Musk fired back and spent the weekend trying to prove he actually does more than promote Grok, X’s built-in AI program, and sharing his favorite movies, but with minimal commentary.

From X:

So curious that such a wealthy man never posts anything that indicates that he enjoys or is even aware of what virtually everyone appreciates— scenes from nature, pet dog or cat, praise for a movie, music, a book (but doubt that he reads); pride in a friend’s or relative’s accomplishment; condolences for someone who has died; pleasure in sports, acclaim for a favorite team; references to history. In fact he seems totally uneducated , uncultured. The poorest persons on Twitter may have access to more beauty & meaning in life than the “most wealthy person in the world.”

Musk, taking note of X users noticing that Oates essentially embarrassed him, went to his usual bit by using humor and oddly written responses to appear to fight back. Others on the platform also noticed that Musk seemingly was rattled by Oates’ assertion, and began replying to X posts about lauded films, writing “great movie” in the threads.

Oates is known for her best-selling works, Blonde and We Were The Mulvaneys, along with being awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2010.

Check out the chatter from X below.

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