juliet, naked

[bagheera_san]

It's the first week of summer term. Among other things I'm teaching two tutorial classes for Intro to English Lit, and the students have to read Nick Hornby's "Juliet, Naked" for the section on novels. At first I questioned this choice and I had to force myself to start reading it today, because the blurb only said that it was about middle aged

Comments

[aralias]

it's been a while since i read the book, but i remember the way that it portrayed fans MAKING ME SO GODDAMN ANGRY. i mean, there are bits that redeem it (largely the end), but for a guy who was originally a fan (see - fever pitch and high fidelity) nick hornby now strikes me as the kind of famous person who thinks fans are ridiculous for loving things a lot.

annie, the normal girlfriend, and tucker crowe, the normal person who happens to be famous, are the main characters and the fan is the weirdo who hangs around in the corner - and although it's a realistic portrayal in some ways i just found it so offensive as it's a bit like he used his knowledge just to help normal people feel more justified about thinking fans were weirdos.

[bagheera_san]

My surprise may make up a big part of my excitement about it. I just didn't expect to find online fandom in a popular mainstream novel - not for years, at least. It does present fans as funny people, that's true, and Duncan is definitely horrible... but then I don't identify with Duncan, I just recognise him (and the stalkerish kid who incites him to break into Julie's flat) as a type of fan who exists, and who makes me feel a lot like Annie feels about him. And for all that Annie is allegedly a "normal" person, she acts exactly like a fan (albeit a different type of fan) in the bit that I have read so far. Perhaps we all think we're Annie, but in reality we're Duncan? That'd be a bit bad, but I don't actually think it's true. Duncan, for me, is my stereotypical idea of a fanBOY, who mostly cares about being an expert and being right and having the biggest collection and all that stuff

[tasabian]

I can imagine Hornby being deeply invested in multiple music & sports fandoms!

It's very amusing to me that S.E. Hinton, who was assigned reading at my school, is a huge Supernatural fan & writes fan-fic & hangs about the set (for ogling purposes, I guess!)