antoine wilson
Some years ago, Jonathan Franzen made a terrible author video. I watched it many times and laughed. The more I watched it, though, the more it made sense to me as the ideal act of authorly rebellion…and the more I found myself sympathizing with Franzen’s concerns.
Finally, today, I recorded my cover version. Here it is in all its glory:
“Jonathan Franzen on Author Videos” (cover version) from Antoine Wilson on Vimeo.
Here’s the original Franzen version.
To balance the scales, here’s a much better Franzen video on comic writers (re Gogol: “He was a chilly motherfucker.”):
3 Responses to Worst Performance by an Author (cover version)
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panorama city (available now)
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"THIS IS A BOOK YOU WILL HOLD IN YOUR HEAD ALL DAY LONG, A BOOK YOU WILL LOOK FORWARD TO WHEN YOU GET HOME FROM WORK, A BOOK YOU WILL STILL BE SAVORING AS YOU DRIFT INTO SLEEP. IT IS FILLED WITH JOY AND WONDER, AND A SORT OF GOODNESS YOU HAD STOPPED BELIEVING MIGHT BE EVEN POSSIBLE."
- PETER CAREY
antoine wilson * ** ***
* not my surfboard
** not my dog
*** not my apartment
the interloper
"As assured and sumptuously written as any first novel I’ve encountered....This is writing at its very best."
- T.C. Boyle
This is just fantastic!
It’s hard to imagine anything eclipsing ‘how to write a novel.’ But by god I think you’ve done it.
I watched both of the videos at the same time, while flossing. Mostly I didn’t even watch the videos, but just read the ads on the big think one: “How to stop an affair,” or something.