Someone smart and well-read could develop this idea into a full-fledged essay, but I don't have the time or the mental stamina for that, so I'll just offer my thesis and maybe someone will run with it: I just finished the new David Sedaris book Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls: Essays Etc. and while I loved the essays -- typical Sedaris . . . forays to the dentist, the taxidermist, the British countryside the airport, and the bar car of a train -- I did not love (and mainly skipped) the "etc." which are short fictional pieces in which he wrote in the voices of a woman, a father, and a sixteen year old girl with a fake British accent; this brings me to my thesis: there are certain writers who I will only read their non-fiction, though they may have written novels and fiction; David Sedaris is one of these writers -- I only want him to be himself -- and it is the same with Chuck Klosterman -- I read his non-fiction fanatically but I haven't read any of his novels, not one word . . . I just want him to be Chuck Klosterman . . . it's the same with another favorite of mine, Geoff Dyer -- I'd love to read more by him, but I won't even open his four novels . . . and then there are authors who I will only read their fiction and could care less about their life and actual voice: Elmore Leonard, James Michener, Umberto Eco, etc. and then there are those rare authors who are masters of both forms: George Orwell, Mark Twain, and James Ellroy immediately come to mind . . . and though I often contemplate writing a great sci-fi novel, I think that I am a member of the first category, and probably can only muster the Voice of Dave with any consistency and energy.
Note that Dave humbly asserts that he lacks only the time and mental stamina required for a task requiring someone smart and well-read.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, I like Tom Wolfe's non-fiction and Bonfire of the Vanities so I'd add his name to the list of switch hitters with the caveat that his later fiction isn't great.
mickey mantle wrote a book entitled, 'my favorite summer' in 1991. he's my favorite switch-hitting author.
ReplyDeletebut would you read a novel by "the commerce comet"?
ReplyDeletetom wolfe is a great addition to that list, thanks. perhaps you'd like to write the dissertation and thank me in the credits.
David Sedaris is one of my favorite switch-hitting authors, as are Oscar Wilde, Truman Capote, and WH Auden. Oh, and Dave.
ReplyDeleteI usually come here to take Dave's ego down a peg or two, by necessity, but not today. While I enjoy Dave's sentences and personal anecdotes, I really appreciate his fictional works. I've only read a series of science fiction articles and the funnier halves of three screenplays, but it's good stuff, and I think it works better if you know Dave and have read his other stuff. It's because he's weird. His bizarre stories and segments don't come off as contrived because you know by now that he is a freak. He honestly believes hot air moves up and to the right. He thinks that he killed multiple authors by reading their books. His ignorance about women, even now, trickles into the surreal. He's a weirdo. When we co-wrote scripts, my stuff needed punch-up, his needed removal of some of the weirdest and creepiest parts. He needs punch-down. He honestly should give a novel a shot. I'd read it, and I haven't read a novel since the Clinton years. Like most of these authors he mentions, you'd hear Dave in the strange assortment of his fictional characters, but that would be just fine because to me Dave is some bizarre character straight out of fiction. It's why we remain great friends even though we really don't understand each other at all. It's fascinating, and the word needs more fascinating authors.
ReplyDeletedave should write a serialized novel, posted at gheorghe: the blog. cross-media cross-promotion.
ReplyDeleteDave should come over and remove all the artillery fungus spores from my cars.
ReplyDeleteartillery fungus! that sounds badass. we've just got some garden-variety creeper and rot.
ReplyDeleteYou do not want artillery fungus.
ReplyDeleteDave, nice reply.
ReplyDelete