"A Rejection is a Rejection is a Rejection"

[sartorias]

Via jazzfish, Gertrude Stein gets a rejection letter.

Speaking of whom, I loved the version of Gertrude Stein in Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. I don't usually much care for Allen, and Owen Wilson can be a little much, but I loved the Paris of the twenties in this paean.

Comments

[asakiyume]

Wow, what a conceited jerk the editor was!

You know, I get how the editor must have felt--there are things I've read that feel ridiculously pretentious or incomprehensible--but the nerve of thinking one's own reaction is the be-all and end-all! And then, even if you have a right to think that (because you're the editor and you get to make the decision), the nerve to be such a public jerk. Save your mockery (if you must) for jokes in private.

About Midnight in Paris, Was Owen Wilson the lead in that film? I wasn't a fan of the movie, though the setting was lovely. He was such whiner, and while we were supposed to feel sorry for him, creative soul that he was, paired up with his shark of a girlfriend, I was just frustrated with him for being with her in the first place.

[sartorias]

This has got to be included somewhere among "mean rejections received by the greats."

Yeah--Owen Wilson was a cipher, and his girlfriend and family were scarcely one dimension, but I really loved Woody Allen's homages to the greats of the twenties. His Gertrude Stein was so wonderful.

Adding: oh yes, I bet you anything Gertrude Stein got a great laugh out of that rejection letter.

[cmcmck]

I've seen that letter before.

Ouch!

[steepholm]

She liked - or hated - it enough to keep it.

[sartorias]

I bet anything she found it a crackup. After all, she was a successful, highly regarded writer living in Paris among people who admired her. I can see her framing it and putting it on a wall, then going right back to sending the ms out again.

[malkingrey]

It's clear that the editor had read enough of the work to parody it (pretty effectively, too), and had taken the time to write a personalized rejection rather than slipping in the standard "does not meet our needs at the present time."

As rejections go, it's pretty flattering. I'm not surprised that Stein saved it.

[sartorias]

Flattering and pretty funny. I bet anything she loved it. It was hardly going to make a dent in her career.

[beth_shulman]

I will always and forever quote her "Don't be such a defeatist!" line from the movie. I love that line. The 20s setting was fantastic.

[sartorias]

Yes!

[fiveandfour]

I couldn't help but laugh at that letter and really hope Gertrude did, too.

Despite the fact that Woody Allen seems to repeatedly use the same characters that I don't really like (but in different settings) (and with different names, so we don't get confused and think these characters are at all the same as the ones we've seen in prior Woody Allen movies, I suppose), I did enjoy Midnight in Paris. I'm a sucker for the 1920s and for time travel, so it was kind of a given I'd be watching it sooner or later.

When it comes to Gertrude Stein, I have a hard time getting the comments Hemingway made about her in A Moveable Feast out of my head. It's so unfair to her - it's like when you hear gossip about someone that you don't want to hear in the first place, don't think it's worth the fuss of even talking about and believe it only reflects poorly on the gossiper, but still can't help but have it color your reactions when you see the gossipee. It was nice to get another, and much more positive, image into my brain to help drain away

[sartorias]

Yes! I never believed his stuff--he was so torqued into distortion about women. I really, really loved the Gertrude Stein we got in that movie. She, I could believe in. And yes, I firmly believe she would get a kick out of that clever-but-mean-and-definitely-shortsighted rejection.