Year / 2006
Yo, Henry, I’M the Reluctant Blogger
It’s fantastic that former Sun-Times book editor Henry Kisor has taken up blogging. But in a transparent effort to attract my attention, to upstage the careful online presence that I’ve built up over the years, he’s named his blog “The Reluctant Blogger.”
You can fire a gun all you want, Harry, but I am O.G. I was THE FIRST litblogger named Reluctant.
Plus, I can fire a pistol standing up!
New Gray Lady Corrections Policy: No Free Will?
New York Times Corrections: “The article also referred incorrectly to how Mr. Fagles learned Latin and Greek. He did not teach himself while in college; he was taught in courses.”
Has it not occurred to our intrepid team of fact checkers that sometimes the profs are so soporific that one must teach one’s self a few things? Or does the student teach himself nothing?
I realize this is probably a question of semantics and perhaps this is just a case where the Times and I will have to disagree. But I suspect someone at the Times is feeling a bit walked on.
Five Comedies
I’ll take a page from the Black Market Kidneys playbook and unapologetically pilfer the Gray Lady’s idea. Here are five comedies I would take to a desert island:
1. Our Hospitality: I’ve had countless arguments with film geeks over whether this great Buster Keaton film can be constituted as a classic. And it really boils down to this: your heart either pumps along to the four ventricles behind this film or it doesn’t. Sherlock, Jr. is certainly Keaton’s technical masterpiece. The General is the Keaton’s photographic masterpiece. But, if I had to pick among the three great Keaton films, it would be this one. If only for the great sequence in which Keaton is trying to keep inside the house to avoid being shot and the dog that follows Keaton across the country.
2. After Hours: This is Scorsese’s comedy masterpiece, a woefully misunderstood film that is nothing less than a Candide-like dissection of America, where connecting with others is hindered by people who are ensnared by their own cultural fixations and violence is sometimes the only way out. Is Griffin Dunne really the normal one? Or does his yuppie contentment trigger the madness around him? I’ve never tired of this film, which can be viewed as a deranged laugh riot or a scathing allegory.
3. O Lucky Man! And while we’re on the subject of Candide, I’d be remiss if I didn’t dig up Lindsay Anderson’s great three-hour epic. I’m not certain if O Lucky Man! qualifies completely as a comedy, but it certainly has many funny and fucked up moments. I’ve yet to meet a single American who has loved this film as much as I have, but I’d certainly count this in the top five.
4. The Rules of the Game: Of course, if you’re on a desert island and you’re on a fish and pineapple diet, Renoir’s indictment of the upper class, showing the utter folly of hubris and manners, is mandatory repeat viewing. That way, in the event that you do get rescued, you can remind yourself how not to be self-indulgent.
5. Monkey Business (1931): This is certainly a funny film featuring the criminally underrated Zeppo Marx. But the reason it’s on this list is for educational purposes. There are valuable lessons here on how to sneak aboard an ocean liner. And such a skill set might come in handy, should you manage to escape the island. (I should note that if there was a sixth choice, the fantastic 1952 film Monkey Business directed by Howard Hawks, entirely unrelated, would most certainly be on here.)
Roundup
- I can’t believe that I’m in the position of defending both Sam Tanenhaus and Franklin Foer for this review, but since Mr. Hogan has taken them both to task, I should note that, in all fairness to Foer, he probably turned in his review of the Woodward book well before Rummy resigned. Of course, with Tanenhaus timing this review to appear after last week’s elections, presumably with the assumption that the Republicans would win, demonstrates how untimely delay can sometimes be a book review editor’s folly.
- The Washington Post‘s Bob Thompson talks with Philip Roth as the third Library of America volume of Roth’s complete works hits bookstores.
- Just how low has Duran Duran sunk? So low that they’re collaborating with Justin Timberlake.
- Where most people can laugh off (and possibly be honored) after being given the South Park treatment, Richard Dawkins is highly dismayed.
- The Beat unearths a telling indicator re: Lost Girls.
- Rumors of the fountain pen’s death have been greatly exaggerated.
- I’ve been highly dubious of Jerome Weeks’ book/daddy, seeing as how the man was such a cry baby about litbloggers. But any guy who cites Buster Keaton can’t be too bad.
- Bookworld asks whether blogs sell books.
- Largehearted Boy observes that this week marks the release of the great Joanna Newsom’s new album. And he says that it’s become his favorite album of the year.
- Instead of reading the rambling nonsense (apparently, a “review” of Lisey’s Story) that appeared in this week’s NYTBR, King fans might want to check out this King interview, in which he discusses what frightens him.
- The Simpsons Movie trailer. Yawn. Watching The Simpsons intermittently over the past several years has been a bit like watching a once robust American Cream Draft limp around the racetrack, when it really needs to be shot and put out of its misery.
- Jenny D in the New York T.
- Will Self on trying to procure song rights. (via Splinters)
- The New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association is trying to sex things up. They’ve opted for a new title for their trade show. But it isn’t Indie Booksellers Unite for Good Merlot. It isn’t Booksellers for a Better Tomorrow. It isn’t the Indie Booksellers Plot for World Domination Conference. Instead, it’s the pedestrian “The Booksellers Sales Conference,” which sounds about as inviting as eight hours of watching Powerpoint presentations. Come on, NAIBA! You can do better!
- You’ve got to love the EU. They just outlawed television product placement.
- Ron Silliman on “Howl.”
- This may very well be a first: Norman Mailer has confessed a weakness!
- Time‘s Richard Lacayo talks with Gore Vidal. His response to gay marriage: “Since heterosexual marriage is such a disaster, why on earth would anybody want to imitate it?”
- An Immanuel Kant mystery? WTF?
- The Scotsman‘s Stuart Kelly compares Irish literary stratagems with Scottish ones.
- Anthony Lane on Casino Royale.
- Bella Stander reports on Ralph Steadman.
- Robert Fulford explains why you should be reading the Times Literary Supplement. (via Kitabkhana)
- Frank Kermode on William Empson.
- The Time Traveler Show features a 1974 conversation with Asimov.
- Richard Pachter: “It’s not enough to write a great book. Authors are now expected to play an active role in book marketing and promotion. In this brave new world of always-on media, scribes are expected to pursue or make themselves available to every potential reader.” Come on, Pachter. Do you really want to raise Updike’s blood pressure?
- RIP Ellen Willis.
- Editor Misael Tamayo Hernandez has been found dead after running several corruption stories.
- Some of this year’s NaNoWriMo participants include David Thayer and James Tata. No work online, but I wish them luck.
- Glenn Greenwald calls the Washington Post out for failing to note Bush’s little white Rummy lie.
- Ed Park uncovers some interesting papers.
- Done Waiting examines the interesting case of Kyle Sowashes.
- One thing you may not get from print media, particularly those who are more interested in being cultural gatekeepers: helpfulness and cooperation.
- Long Pauses discovers Fassbinder.
- HD-DVD: the future of advertising?
- Hitch on Borat.
- Flak Magazine introduces Flak Radio.
- Another Deng-Eggers interview.
- Re: Lost: I concur with Amy’s Robot.
- How many writers write. (via The Publishing Spot)