Hate Mail Dramatic Reading Project #1
Written by Edward ChampionPosted on August 16, 2009
Filed Under Dramatic Readings, Hate Mail
Last week, I learned that somebody really hated my guts. This person never actually told me why. So I sent this person an email with my phone number, inviting the person to give me a call and make amends through civil discourse. I received a most extraordinary response from this individual — one that has quite pleasantly inspired me to start a new audio series. The following clip represents my dramatic reading of this individual’s hate mail to me, read in a melodramatic, quasi-Shakespearean style.
I hope to start reading more of people’s hate mail. And if you like, I will be happy to read any specific hate mail that you’ve received. (If you do send me hate mail for potential dramatic readings, I only ask that you redact the names of the individuals.) And if there is enough demand, I may even start reading some of the really stupid emails I’ve sent over the years to various people.
Click any of the below links to listen.
Hate Mail Dramatic Reading Project #1 (Download MP3)
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Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. The famed writers behind
Alice Fantastic by Maggie Estep. This wild and highly enjoyable narrative involves two sisters (presumably, the third one was still being rented out by Chekhov), a hippie ex-junkie mother who lives with seventeen dogs, a murder, gambling, and libidinous Hollywood actresses who live in Woodstock. But this is the wonderful Maggie Estep we're talking here. And what seems at first like a quirky yarn becomes something unexpectedly moving about connectivity. What I love about Estep's work is the way that she'll juxtapose an extremely astute observation (now that you mention it, why do cab drivers always have somebody to talk with on the phone past midnight?) with an often outrageous story development.
Generosity by Richard Powers. It doesn't come out until September 29th, but Richard Powers's latest will have anyone committed to books reconsidering their literary fervor. I foresee some animosity from the vanilla critics hostile to idea-driven novels, but book bloggers, YouTube chroniclers, and MFAs would do well to plunge into this chance-taking narrative, which introduces vital questions about what the reader's relationship is with media, scientific dissection, and "creative nonfiction." Are we rats fleeing to happy cities? Or can we find the humanism within the purported plague?
Pieces for the Left Hand by J. Robert Lennon. Lennon is one of the most underrated fiction writers working today. Much as On the Night Plain proved that Lennon had a lot more in the toolbox than heartfelt (and often very funny) suburban satire, this slim but fascinating volume juxtaposes 100 small-town anecdotes -- arranged by category -- in a manner that reads, at times, like Nicholson Baker's passions for minutiae and, at other times, Stewart O'Nan's concern for psychological detail. The result is fiction that makes us wonder about whether one person's subjective view of particulars can entirely be trusted. This book never found a publisher in 2005. But thankfully, Graywolf has released it in the United States, along with Lennon's latest novel, The Castle.
Wonderful World by Javier Calvo. This wonderfully raucous volume has been completely ignored by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. But it's probably one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had this year. Calvo cavalierly mashes up multiple genres and manages to mix up familial subtext with larger-than-life, almost cartoonish characters. (Indeed, one might argue that one mobster's penis is a character of its own in this sprawling novel.). This is not an easy thing to pull off, but Calvo makes it work. And it's helped immeasurably by Mara Faye Lethem's idiom-specific translation. (
The Means of Reproduction, Michelle Goldberg This thoughtful book tackles the complicated (and little discussed) subject of reproductive rights from numerous angles, which includes a number of unpleasant but necessary ones. The upshot is that there isn't a quick fix solution for declining birth rates and fundamentalist abuses. Just about every political faction has contributed to the friction. But you'll want to read this book anyway to refamiliarize yourself with the topic, but also to understand just what's occurred during the past several decades to get us where we are today. (
The “sent from my iPhone” punchline is glorious.
This series must continue. Fantastic.
I would’ve had more respect for him if it was sent from his blackberry.
I feel like writing you hate mail just so you’ll read it like this – fantastic!
The delivery is glorious, but it’s the punchline that really sells it. Bravo! Bravo!
Agree “Sent from my iPhone” makes the whole thing.
Honestly, Ed, I didn’t really *feel* the line “Sent from my iPhone.” I don’t believe you captured the intent of its writer. There is subtext in that line, and you should dig deeper in your next reading. Just some constructive criticism.
Loved your ‘reading’ of hate mail received! Your
over -the -top rendition effectively revealed the
inane quality of the message sent you by that individual. I look forward to future readings. If I get any hate mail, I will certainly send it to you for vocal dramatization. I think that what you’re doing acts as an exorcism. Begone bad spirits!
Love,
Aunt Laura
[...] hate mail dramatic reading project? Need more be [...]
haha
I’ll admit, I kind of have a crush on your voice from your Bat Segundo interviews… I’m a little scared now, though. I need to go back and listen to the soothing one with the director of Paperback Dreams now, phew…
Entertaining piece, though! I’m looking for to be frightened more in the future!
This made me laugh out loud. Thanks.
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