Authors often appear in their own works of fiction as thinly veiled surrogates — Kilgore Trout is widely believed to be Kurt Vonnegut’s alter ego, and Hunter S. Thompson is barely distinguishable from Raoul Duke — but occasionally authors also infiltrate their own stories as characters named for themselves. Whether purely narcissistic or a tool of artistic commentary, the author-as-character literary technique lends an element of surrealism to the reading experience and draws attention to both the act of narration and the act of creation — as well as their shared unreliability. Check out these novels in which the author appears as himself (or at least a fictionalized version thereof) and see for yourself.
[Editor's note: Flavorwire is counting down our most popular features of 2010. This post comes in at position number 5. It was originally published October 12, 2010.] When it comes to writers’ fashion choices, most people know better than to judge a book by its cover. Although most authors are more closely associated with recluse-chic than aesthetic edge, there are those few who have become almost as recognizable for their stylistic sensibilities as for their literary skills. We’ve already explored the glamorous lives of fictional characters, but after the jump, check out ten great authors with equally distinctive personal styles.
As with all popular detective stories — whether published or televised, self-serious or haplessly stoned — Bored to Death’s success rides on the charm of its central hero. Although the ever-bumbling Jonathan Ames (the character, not the author) lacks the stern masculinity of the fictional icons he emulates, he nonetheless embodies his forebears’ creative complexity — albeit with more neuroses and postmodern angst. With the premiere of Bored to Death’s second season newly behind us, here’s a chronology of past fictional detectives worth following in the future.
“Today I’ve made a major decision: I am never going to die. Others will die around me. They will be nullified. Nothing of their personality will remain. The light switch will be turned off.”
It got us thinking about our own favorite beginnings, both recent and classic. Below are some favorites from our bookshelf. Feel free to add your own picks in the comments section.
Best commentary on “post-blackness” considering Obama wasn’t even president when the book was written:
“You would think they’d be used to me by now. I mean don’t they know that after fourteen hundred years the charade of blackness is over? That we blacks, the once eternally hip, the people who were as right now as Greenwich Mean Time, are, as of today, as yesterday as stone tools, the velocipede, and the paper straw all rolled into one? The Negro is now officially human. Everyone, even the British, says so.”
Katie Roiphe’s recent essay in the New York Times entitled “The Naked and the Conflicted” calls out contemporary authors for being prude snugglers, and praises mid-century males for being pervy sex fiends. The article, complete with handy graphs, decries the current generation of literary greats as too obsessed with irony and ambivalence to let its characters (or themselves, she hints somewhat heavily) enjoy sex or their own virility. Citing David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Ames, Jonathan Franzen, and Michael Chabon, among others, she writes:
The younger writers are so self-conscious, so steeped in a certain kind of liberal education, that their characters can’t condone even their own sexual impulses; they are, in short, too cool for sex. Even the mildest display of male aggression is a sign of being overly hopeful, overly earnest or politically untoward. For a character to feel himself, even fleetingly, a conquering hero is somehow passé.
Analyze Words is a new and super useful tool for determining other people’s personalities via their posts on Twitter. Developed by James W. Pennebaker, a University of Texas Professor of Psychology, along with his daughter Teal, Roger Booth and Chris Wilson, the program analyzes tweets based on not the “content words” but rather the “style words” — like articles and prepositions — to determine the mental state of the author.
Basically this means that you can plug in anyone’s Twitter handle — including your own — and watch it ranked in Emotional Style, Social Style and Thinking Style. We’ve been playing with this for hours. After the jump, check out some of our favorite tweet analyses of famous people.
Our friends over at Cornerstone are offering one Flavorpill reader in L.A. (tonight), Chicago (9/14), and New York (9/16) a pair of passes to an exclusive preview of HBO’s new noirotic comedy, Bored To Death. The show, which is executive produced and written by Jonathan Ames, follows an alcoholic Brooklyn writer named Jonathan Ames who becomes a private detective in the wake of a painful break-up. Jason Schwartzman plays Ames; Zach Galifianakis is his sidekick, a comic book illustrator named Ray; and Ted Danson is George, Ames’ high society magazine editor boss.
The show’s theme song (which you can stream here) was written by Schwartzman and Ames, and is performed by Coconut Records.
Watch the teaser trailer after the jump and leave us a comment with your city and personal vice for a chance to get on the guest list. Note: We’ll be live tweeting the premiere on September 20 at 9:30 p.m. and offering you the chance to win prizes for your own P.I. skills. Read More »
You’ve gotten the official Flavorpill recommendation; now meet the man behind The Double Life Is Twice As Good, a collection of fiction and nonfiction that covers territory ranging from corduroy appreciation to female ejaculation and everything in between. We are referring, of course, to Jonathan Ames, a New York writer, performance artist and occasional amateur boxer whose fierce and hilarious writing has made him a cult superstar over the past decade. Now, with two of his novels adapted for the big screen and an upcoming HBO series based on his short story “Bored to Death,” Ames seems poised to make the leap to more mainstream superstardom. Read More »
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by Paul Beatty
