- 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.
Category / Foer, Jonathan Safran
Solomon & Foer Sitting in a Tree
“I’m not interesting,” Jonathan Safran Foer announced when I asked him to come out of his palatial home and breathe some oxygen. “People assume that because I’m a writer, I’m naturally interesting. They couldn’t be more wrong. I’m a sad piece of driftwood and the biggest disappointment since Steve Perry left Journey.”
Of course, I tried to cajole poor Foer with some of the trademark wit I used in my one-page Q&As. I asked Foer if he considered stabbing himself because of his youth and his wealth, pointing out the slam-dunk posterity advantages of an early Sylvia Plath-like literary death. I asked Foer if he ever thought about throwing himself in an oven just to see what life might have been like for his grandfather, had not the mystery woman saved him. Casual jokes to make Foer smile. But Foer was adamant about his cipher status.
“I just watched Behind the Music last night,” he said. “I spent all day in bed, trying to work myself up to write. In desperation, I turned on the tube. When I saw Daryl Hall reveal how hard it was for him to write ‘Maneater,’ how he too had spent years working up the courage to be a great artist. I…I wish I could offer you something a little more….” He stopped midsentence and stared at my decolletage.
“Manly?” I ventured.
“No, something fierce and more representative of the Caucasian race,” he said by way of desperation. “Something along the lines of Daryl Hall. Have you been dating?”
“No,” I said. “Most people are afraid to talk with me because I’m such a bitch.”
I looked at his wiry physique and I saw a beautiful 28 year old boy rather than a writer. I saw a few of my own neuroses in Foer and wondered how he might feel against me in bed. Would he read me Nabokov? Could I be his Humbert Humbert?
My friends had warned me of Fatal Attraction types, but there was something of the easy conquest represented in the 150 e-mail messages he sent me every hour. I did everything in my power to resist his attraction, even comparing him to Liberace. But I realized that I could not resist the man who had penned Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
PEN Announces Important Subsidies to the Rich
Starving writers let loose a collective cry of anguish as PEN awarded extra cash to those who didn’t need it. Two year scholarships at $35,000/year have been granted to rich literary darling Jonathan Safran Foer, Will Heinrich and Monique Truong. Also rolling in the dough is poet laurete Robert Pinsky, who has reportedly been planning an east wing extension to his house. Other awards were given to Anthony Swofford for Jarhead, playwrights Lanford Wilson and Lynn Nottage, and children’s author Deborah Wiles.