Month: September 2007

Sure, this New York Times article (via Bookslut) shows that Knopf has passed on a lot of authors over the years — Borges, Orwell, Kerouac, Sartre, Nabokov — but does it really prove anything, much less that these rejections were blunders? I mean, hindsight is a wonderful thing, and history is littered with bestselling and award-winning novels that originally nobody wanted to publish. But just as often, if not more frequently, it’s full of the opposite. And just because a book finds massive success with one publisher, that’s no guarantee it would have found the same success with another, or at another time.

You see the same thing with movies. Did you know Doris Day reportedly turned down the role of Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate? Or that Nick Nolte turned down Indiana Jones? Heck, there’s a whole site full of these things! But does anyone honestly believe those would have been the same movies with different stars attached? Why should books be so different?

Linkpharm:

When I first read the headline to this story, I thought it said “Schools named for J.K. Rowling.”

And, I mean, I know her books were popular and everything, but it seems a little early to be naming buildings after her, doesn’t it?

According to IMDB, there’s a biopic of Edgar Allen Poe in the works:

A chronicle of the legendary American writer’s life, from his famous works and bouts with madness and depression, to his mysterious death in 1849.

Know who’s writing and directing it? Sylvester Stallone.

Apparently, he’s a long-time fan:

:I was introduced to Poe by accident. I was basically broke and freezing in New York in January of 1970 and decided to seek some shelter and heat in the New York Public Library, which is a citadel of extraordinary books. I struck up a conversation with a guard, who said I should go to the basement and check out the archives. I did, and seeing the actual writings of Poe really caught my imagination, because the way he would write would be to split the page down the middle and glue it in one long strip so he could get more words on the page. Everything about him was unique, so I thought he represented the heart and soul of what it’s like to be a struggling artist who is ahead of his time.

I think Stallone gets a bad reputation — even if it’s a reputation owed, admittedly, to a long string of terrible movies. I think he’s an intelligent guy and a decent, if not exactly versatile, actor. But he wouldn’t have been the first person I’d have thought of to write and direct the life story of Edgar Allen Poe.

Here’s hoping he surprises everybody.

Wasn’t it just last Friday? We ought to have three-day weekends (and four-day work weeks) more often!

Anyway, you know how this works:

  1. “Baldassarre Galuppi” by Kris Delmhorst
    There’s something in that music, lord, it must be answered to
  2. “Twenty One” by the Cranberries
    I don’t think it’s going to happen anymore
  3. “Tryin’ To Get To Heaven” by Bob Dylan
    You find out you can always lose a little more
  4. “Commissioning a Symphony in C” by Cake
    They are forgetting just to breathe
  5. “Down to This” by Soul Coughing
    You get the ankles and I’ll get the wrists
  6. “Get Me Out of Detroit” by Otis Gibb
    They couldn’t find anything on me
  7. “Crucify” by Tori Amos, guessed Eric
    Nothing I do is good enough for you
  8. “The Garden of Allah” by Don Henley, guessed by Betty
    It was a pretty big year for fashion, a lousy year for rock and roll
  9. “Swandive” by Ani DiFranco, guessed by marisa
    There’s got to be more than this boat I’m in
  10. “Picture Book” by the Kinks
    You sat in the sun on a hot afternoon

Or you can pretend you do. Watch what everybody else does, or check out what happened last week. You’ll catch on eventually, I’m sure of it. Good luck!