Month / March 2005
The Harriet Klausner Mythos
Booksquare suggests that Amazon reviewer Harriet Klausner (profiled in today’s Wall Street Journal by Joanne Kaufman) isn’t exactly a discovery of such stunning new finds as Tess Gerritsen, pointing out that Gerritsen’s career kick-started several years before.
However, I’m curious why the Wall Street Journal didn’t make an effort to verify Klausner’s extraordinary claims. Kaufman only describes Klausner’s voice as “more than a few dips of helium,” but makes no reference to the geography of her home or Ms. Klausner’s appearance. I’m wondering if Kaufman even spoke with Ms. Klausner in person. After all, if Klausner has read over 8,000 books and reviewed them in a mere five years, wouldn’t it be worth a trip to Atlanta to observe just how she does it?
AM Roundup
- Carrie Fisher will write a book revealing several secrets behind the Star Wars trilogy. Among some of the telling details: Mark Hamill was a midget who received two leg implants to increase his height, costume designer John Mollo modeled Chewbacca after a shag carpet he had the misfortune to walk on during a bad acid trip, and crew members were ordered to rub George Lucas’ feet and call him “Joseph Campbell II” before setting up each shot.
- John Lescroart has donated $50,000 to the UC Davis graduate writing program. Lescroart remarked this was better than wasting it on a hair transplant.
- An academic conference (and, as a reader has noted, not the first of its kind) for the Harry Potter books has been established. Events include “Getting Stoned at Hogwarts — The Gorgon Threat in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets,” “Whodunnit? The case against Remus Lupin,” and “How statistics and computer-based visualisations contribute to our understanding of Harry Potter.” Too bad that nobody came up with a seminar called “Beyond Harry Potter: What do we read do when J.W. Rowling stops writing?” (And if Potter isn’t bad enough, consider the Smiths.)
- It’s not much of a shocker, but it never hurts to be reminded how much Amazon knows about you.
- The Age chronicles the elastic nature of Kris Hemensley’s career.
- Mein Kampf has been selling like hotcakes in Turkey.
- A new book, Shakespeare Goes to Paris, suggests that the Bard might be getting a cold reception in France.
- The inevitable litmus test has been applied to JSF’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Even Laura Miller has been left cold.
Obligatory Book Thing Pimp
This site doesn’t have a New Yorker cartoonist, but so as not to leave the Old Hag flailing in the dust, we should point out that if you have a few extra kopecks and you’re capable of siphoning off your beer money for one evening, you can do no worse than support the Book Thing in Baltimore.
An Introduction
If you’re coming here from the New York Times article, welcome. This website is a dedication to the life of Edward Champion (1974-1998), who was unexpectedly beheaded by a samurai while giving a motivation speech in Chico, California. Champion was one of the most brilliant writers this nation ever had. His grocery lists were wittier than Oscar Wilde. He once wrote a note telling his friends to meet him at the pub that was exhaustively picked over by grad students. John Updike has said of the man, “Edward Champion: too many thoghts, not enough time, nipples as ripe as water chestnuts.”
And yet Champion’s work is often overlooked by the likes of J.T. Leroy, who is, strangely enough, still living.
So I set up this blog to pay tribute to Champion’s legacy. To me, Champion represents both the summit and the nadir of American letters. Some of the posts here are exhumed from Champion’s notebooks. Others are reinventions of ideas he had.
We hope that you’ll stick around for our continuing tribute.