"The Ecstasy of Influence," by Jonathan Lethem, has just been posted online and must be read by you on the nonce lest it be quits between us, Shanaynay. It's an utterly breathtaking essay, yet I was left wondering if it might've been prompted by this minor revelation in Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree:
"And then, at the beginning of The Fortress of Solitude, I came across the following, describing a street ball game: 'A shot... which cleared the gates on the opposite side of the street was a home run. Henry seemed to be able to do this at will, and the fact that he didn't each time was mysterious.' Compare that to this, from Seymour: An Introduction: 'A home run was scored only when the ball sailed just high and hard enough to strike the wall of the building on the opposite street... Seymour scored a home run nearly every time he was up. When other boys on the block scored one, it was generally regarded as a fluke... but Seymour's failures to get home runs looked like flukes.' Weird, huh? (And that's all it is, by the way - there's nothing sinister going on here. Lethem's book is probably over a hundred thousand words long, and bears no resemblance to anything Salinger wrote, aside from this one tiny echo.)"
Interestingly, Salinger turns up in Lethem's piece near the end. How it figures in, though, is part of the fun. Carve a half-hour out of your day and give it a read.
Jeremy, thank you. That was amazing. I didn't see it coming, but dear lord, then it makes even more sense. I keep leaving As She Climbed across the Table for you to borrow.
Posted by: Dre | February 01, 2007 at 02:42 AM
My Harper's subscription just started and this was the first issue I got. I almost didn't want to read the list of sources, hoping I'd stumble upon them one day by accident. The only ones I immediately recognized were some of the Lessig and the “E Unibus Pluram" stuff, which I've read a good kajillion times already.
Posted by: Laugharn | February 01, 2007 at 04:50 PM
E Unibus was the stuff that tipped me, but I must admit I fell for it, it just felt familiar. And I've had variations on this conversation before, especially when talking about Girl Talk/Paul Schrader on Tarantino, etc.
Posted by: Dre | February 01, 2007 at 10:53 PM
Speaking of, I'm not sure if you have it or want it, but here's an on-air mix Girl Talk did that I got from Pinch: http://www.laugharn.net/audio/wpts.mp3
Posted by: Laugharn | February 01, 2007 at 11:00 PM
Do want, didn't have.
Posted by: Dre | February 02, 2007 at 01:22 AM
http://riffmarket.blogspot.com/2007/02/not-about-internet.html
Nick Sylvester posts some Girl Talk re: this article.
Posted by: Laugharn | February 07, 2007 at 07:12 PM