Yes, I have been reading biographical Oscar Wilde all day. What of it?

[margaritap]

I know we all like books or whatever, but with a very few exceptions (and I'm so sick of hearing about Dave Eggers!) we really don't care about writers at all. I want a return to the age of the literary celebrity. I want to see famous authours as personalities, to see them portrayed like we see musicians portrayed, rife with wit and feeling and

Comments

[martropolitan]

Well, I sorta think literary celebrities still exist - it's just that (you mentioned Dave Eggers) nobody cares about the author-as-celebrity, as opposed to the story, except awful society people, vapid hipsters and those "in the industry," and those people and their situations are a lot easier to take when they're all dead and wearing retro fashions with the Fitzgeralds or whomever, but their modern equivalent is so gross. Kind of like indie bands, actually - they rarely become celebrities outside certain circles, not because people don't/wouldn't find their music appealing, but because people have no interest in travelling in those circles.

Book club yes!

[margaritap]

It seems to me that when you know about the person writing the story you have a much greater insight in to the story. I mean, think of all the interviews you've read with musicians, and how it changes the way you think of their music, how it gives you a better understanding of the art when you have a feeling for the personality of the person making the art.

I'm not suggesting caring about the author as celebrity at the expense of thinking of the author as an author; the two work together.

I think you have a good point that writing is really genreized, but I think that like in music there is a lot of very mainstream writing with very broad appeal that's very popular where we still don't really know anything at all about the author. Like,we see a sappy human intrest story about Sting so so so much more often than we would see the same story about the fairly equally popular Tom Wolfe.

I guess writers spend a lot of time at home. Maybe that's what I object to.

[martropolitan]

Well, yeah - I definitely think it's worthwhile to be interested in the author as a person, and I suppose being interested in the author as celebrity will promote that, but inevitably celebrity attracts the worst sorts. Genre celebrities are one thing, but mainstream writers like Tom Wolfe are "celebrated" by that certain kind of person too - literary groupies . . . socialites? That's where celebrity seems to come from in literature - people who come from the same socioeconomic or cultural background as depicted in an author's books, or "book people." Really, though, celebrities are almost always boring. That's why it's more interesting to talk about authors who should be celebrities but aren't.

You know what's the worst? People who make chefs into celebrities. DJs too, but worst is chefs. Tokyo is bad for that.

And yeah, it's also true that writer are a quiet breed and people only seem to want celebrities who are beautiful, criticising George Bush, or always drunk.

[martropolitan]

A lot of writers are beautiful, criticising George Bush, and especially always drunk.

And my whole point is that they should be celebrated by everyone, not just book people (or maybe that everyone should be a book person?)

[je_suis_amour]

the 19th is Liam's birthday!

[margaritap]

It'll have to be another day then!

[hjasper]

Okay, so you say and all this perhaps having forgotten that you threw away or lost that Readers' Digest condensed novel I gave you?

[boatdrinks]

Speaking of, Nikky, did I give this back to you? I found it in the backroom at Lucky and totally held on to it for dear life and maybe left it in my room.

[margaritap]

My condensed novel! Autographed by all four authors! I don't want it! But I do want to want it!