The folks at Yankee Potroast are back — and this time, they’re skewering Harry Potter, including “The New Harry Potter Book, As Dictated By My Boss, Brian Schmutto” and “Harry Potter and the Magic of Puberty.”
Year / 2005
Summarizing Traister
If you decide not to read this dumb and ridiculous Rebecca Traister article, here’s a summary:
First midlife crisis at 31. Where do I begin? Ah, yes, memory lane. Blame a book. Piggy! Name too funny for character, dismiss book. I was diligent and smart. Because I could outsmart Quakers without reading the book! I was better than them and now I’m a writer! In your face, ex-schoolmates! Can’t really break down “sooey” in phonetics, but what the hell, I need a transition point. Overintellectualization of book I barely remember. Never really liked this book, so I’ll go off the deep end here. Rape! Murder! Mother England! Guess the book sucks and junior high was foolish. Still better than you.
Pero, Piense en Los Niños!
Our Rocky Mountain pal and colleague has the scoop on the campaign to divest Denver’s libraries of racy fotonovelas. After having removed 6,000 of these “tawdry” books, a full review of the libraries’ 2.5 million circulation is now being considered, leaving some wags to opine that “indecency” might be more of an elastic term than explicitly stated, perhaps used as a euphemism for purging the catalog of, shall we say, less Anglo-friendly titles.
Where She Stops, Nobody Knows!
- Video game developer Vivendi Universal, in search of a Tom Clancy-style name, has signed a deal to develop games based on Ludlum’s thrillers. Ludlum’s death in 2001 will no doubt ensure creative flexibility (or what’s known in the field as “pillaging in front of a gravestone”).
- When you run out of television remakes to film, there’s always cheesy 1970s science fiction. The Cell director Tarsem Singh is on tap to remake Westworld. The Governator was originally on board to play the android played by Yul Brynner, but he’s a bit busy. A pity, given that he seems to play machines, whether cinematic or political, quite well.
- Jim Crace’s The Devil’s Larder has been turned into theatre. Dominic Cavendish says there’s not much to chew on.
- Christopher Sorrentino’s Trance gets a review in the Mercury News. Sorrentino is accused of being “more impressed with his own voice than the humanity of his characters.”
- I report this only because Mr. Esposito tortured me by showing me his seven volume Rising Up set the other night. As noted last week by Bookdwarf, this weekend’s NYTBR featured an appearance by the Vollster. He takes on the new Nietzsche bio at length.
- Newsday chronicles some of the ways that publishers are trying to generate new interest in titles. Many publishers are distributing the first two chapters of a novel. But one teacher by the name of Jackie Spitz remarks, “I only took it because I felt sorry for the people handing it out.” Our heart is all a-trembling over Ms. Spitz’s noble munificence. In fact, as I write these words, I am sobbing into an issue of FHM that I found in my next door neighbor’s trash, watching my tears stream down some beautiful lady bent into an unfortunate position that resembles modular furniture. But I’m also wondering why niche markets and such projects as Vidlit and the LBC aren’t mentioned in the article. When will publishers realize that randomly giving chapters away to ad hoc educators isn’t nearly as effective as targeting people who actually read?
- Time asks Bret Easton Ellis how “true” Lunar Park is. Apparently, Jay McInerery wasn’t thrilled by his “cameo appearance” as a cokehead buddy.
- A new book of criticism studying Irvine Welsh’s work is out. But the International Herald Tribune asks if Welsh deserves to be compared with other authors.
- Is the great rock’n’roll novel at death’s door?
- The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana: an anti-Proust novel?
- The Boston Globe examines literary hoaxing.
- Riverhead editor Sean McDonald talks with Mr. Sarvas.
- And E.L. Doctorow takes Bush to task, suggesting that Bush does not know what grieving is.
In Other Words, R.A. Montgomery Has a Great Case For a Lawsuit
Variety: “Ben Affleck is in talks to create and write ‘Resistance,’ a potential drama series about a second American Revolution that he’ll exec produce with Live Planet partner Sean Bailey….’Resistance,’ to be produced by Touchstone and Live Planet, will be set in the not-so-distant future, imagining a United States that’s been divided into separate countries following a pair of catastrophic terror attacks”
(Choose Your Own Adventure) Escape by R.A. Montgomery: “By the year 2035, the United States has been split into three hostile provinces — Dorado, Rebellium, and Turtalia. You are a spy working for the Turtalian democracy and you must escape from the hostile Dorado.”