It’s a free country. People can do whatever they want within the law, and even some things not within the law…I personally was on Facebook for two weeks as part of a piece of journalism I was writing — it seemed sort of dumb to me. Twitter is unspeakably irritating. Twitter stands for everything I oppose…it’s hard to cite facts or create an argument in 140 characters…it’s like if Kafka had decided to make a video semaphoring The Metamorphosis. Or it’s like writing a novel without the letter ‘P’…It’s the ultimate irresponsible medium.
People I care about are readers…particularly serious readers and writers, these are my people. And we do not like to yak about ourselves.
First, the Oprah Winfrey book club was too plebeian, now Twitter is irresponsible. I wonder what Franzen thinks of A Void by Georges Perec, which does not contain the letter ‘E’.
Audience member: Who are your biggest influences?
Michael Chabon: I’d have to say my good friend Jonathan Franzen. I thought his novel The Corrections needed none.
Jonathan Franzen: Well in turn, I’d have to say my biggest influence is…Albert Camus.
Chabon: You were supposed to say me! I blurbed you!
Franzen: Yeah, and it looks real sweet on my dust jacket. How do you like me now?
(via housingworksbookstore)
![thedailywhat:
So This Happened of the Day: At a Serpentine Gallery launch party for his recently-released novel Freedom, Jonathan Franzen had his glasses stolen by a couple of punks who sought a $100k ransom for their safe return.
From The Book Seller:
Around 8pm, two men, claiming to work for Puffin, gatecrashed the party at the Serpentine Gallery and approached Franzen. One snatched his glasses and escaped, before the other handed the stunned author a ransom note and also fled into Kensington Gardens.
The note read: “$100,000 - Your glasses are yours again!” and left a Hotmail address.
One of the perps was apprehended by police a short time later, and the glasses were returned to Franzen who decided not to press charges “as he sees it all as a harmless prank.”
Who steals a person’s glasses? Honestly.
[tbs.]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9trlf7ybI1qzpwi0o1_400.jpg)
So This Happened of the Day: At a Serpentine Gallery launch party for his recently-released novel Freedom, Jonathan Franzen had his glasses stolen by a couple of punks who sought a $100k ransom for their safe return.
From The Book Seller:
Around 8pm, two men, claiming to work for Puffin, gatecrashed the party at the Serpentine Gallery and approached Franzen. One snatched his glasses and escaped, before the other handed the stunned author a ransom note and also fled into Kensington Gardens.
The note read: “$100,000 - Your glasses are yours again!” and left a Hotmail address.
One of the perps was apprehended by police a short time later, and the glasses were returned to Franzen who decided not to press charges “as he sees it all as a harmless prank.”
Who steals a person’s glasses? Honestly.
[tbs.]
(Source: thedailywhat)
Marry me, bookavore!
SUBJECT OF RESOLUTION: The relative statuses of mainstream, literary, and genre fiction
SUBMITTED TO: The reading public and publishing industry
SUBMITTED BY: A reader
THIS READER,
ALARMED BY an increasingly vitriolic set of discussions regarding different types of fiction and how they are…
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