TMFTML: “Dispatches from Dave E_____, Misunderstood American Living During the Era of Irony
Month / September 2005
Back to the Circlejerk
- Scott Esposito has initiated The Quarterly Conversation, a collection of reviews, thoughts and interviews that Mr. Esposito plans to serve up every quarter.
- A fifteen year old girl has received the Bungei Award, making her the youngest winner or this Japanese award for newcomers. Her identity has been kept secret, presumably to ward off the depraved hentai enthusiasts.
- The Globe and Mail chats with Doug Coupland. Now he seems to be getting inspiration from the likes of B.S. Johnson (or perhaps something substance-based): “You take the book, and you remove the pages and soak them in a Tupperware container and then you chew the pages one at a time. I always did it when I was watching TV.” Some folks call this snacking. Others might call it self-indulgent navel-gazing. Coupland calls it novel-writing.
- The New York Times, about as desperate for readers these days as a parched refugee waiting for FEMA, will add comics and other doodads to its Sunday magazine. Of course, since it involves Chris Ware, it can’t be completely discounted. But the real question is whether this means the end for Deborah Solomon and Randy Cohen?
- Most predictable literary news of the week: “Brando’s pulp fiction wallow goes overboard.” You don’t say?
- Pope John Paul II wrote a one-act play called “The Silversmith’s Shop.” Apparently, it will be staged in October. The play was written when the late Pope was known as the Bishop of Krakow and concludes that “Love is no adventure. It has its own specific burden.” Perhaps the late Pope’s rather adventureless approach to love might be one of the reasons he got into the Catholic racket.
- Richard Ford and Anne Rice on losing New Orleans.
- Orhan Pamuk faces a potential three years in jail for “publicly denigrating Turkish identity” — in other words, daring to tell the truth about the 1915 Armenian massacre.
- An update on Zoe Heller.
- Salman Rushdie has declared celebrity a curse. Offering proof, Mr. Rushdie pointed to a person following him with a small Rushdie effigy and several pins.
Old Bloglines Feed Converted
Thanks to the folks at Bloglines, who were kind enough to replace the old feed with the new feed. So for those of you who have subscribed to the old feed all along, wondering why there’s been all this silence (there hasn’t), that’s what happened. Anyway, didn’t mean to break the hiatus, but wanted to clarify the confusion.
We Can’t Be Funny Anymore We Can Be Funny, We Just Prefer to Stay Sane So We’re Taking a Break
The news is so fundamentally awful and depressing that we’ve now resorted to heavy drinking hanging with friends and disconnecting for a tad so that the profound rage, hopelessness and sorrow we feel doesn’t spread like a cancer into the depths of our soul — the way these incompetents in power want it to. We’ll be back on Tuesday.
[UPDATE: We walked thirty miles in 24 hours. If that doesn’t give you a sense of the crazed lengths we’ve gone to in order to remain calm, nothing will. Of course, wiser folks looking at our neuroses from the outside have been kind enough to put things into perspective. We speak for us (and them) in suggesting that you at least spend about twelve hours away from your television set (pointing out that recusal doesn’t necessarily translate into abdicating one’s responsibilities to stay informed!), doing something modest and without thought that reminds you of the world’s profound wonders. When in doubt, feed the ducks or flirt with someone.]