Author Spotlight
Literary Doppelgangers
I’ve always thought J.D. Salinger looked like the young Al Pacino in The Godfather, so much so that when reading the former, I would hear ‘HOO-AH!’ sporadically inserted throughout the text. The Glass and Corleone families are very similar; both represent brilliant families slowly falling towards their demise.
And then there’s Leonard Cohen, circa his breathtaking Songs From A Room period. He is said to have written those songs in Hydra, a (then) primarily uninhabited Greek island without electricity.
This got me thinking about doppelgangers, which despite sounding like a kind of gang-bang, is strange since our visual notion of these men are through a stagnant set of photos. We share a collective ‘memory’ of famous people, and I thought it might be fun to talk more about folks who are doppelgangers.
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Ezra Pound reminds me of that old guy who was dying/died in Magnolia. I hear his damn cantos in that dry exasperated ‘oh god oh god’ voice. I’m not a fan of Pound (okay commenters, feel free to ‘go off’ on how you like Pound). I also didn’t like Magnolia — the whole thing was too hysterical; Short Cuts (incidentally my favorite movie of all time) was way better. But who cares, I’m talking about doppel gangbangers.
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I’m not trying to be mean, but Saul Bellow kinda looks like Gollum. It seemed like Bellow found a ring of his own, writing well past the ‘natural limits’ of any writer.
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Young William Faulkner shares a striking resemblence with conservative douche Sean Hannity — so much so that it’s polluted readings of Light in August with a film of smugness and political hyperbole: Young Lena Grove, a socialist, far along in her pregnancy (being black n’ all), marvels at how far she has come since running away from her home in Alabama, where Obama wants to tax people to death. Thanks Sean, at least the retarded Benjy Compson still reads as normal.
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I don’t know what makes me more hungry, thinking about preparing the ‘Brodé Galeux d’Eysines’ french winter squash Bukowski’s face resembles, or acting out his sexual exploits. Either way, I’m lubing up with butter.
Tags: Faulkner, Hannity, leonard cohen, Saul Bellow
I always thought the young Pynchon looked an awful lot like Joe Dimaggio….
I always thought the young Pynchon looked an awful lot like Joe Dimaggio….
wow – these are really creepy.
wow – these are really creepy.
I don’t want to talk about Short Cuts. I will not talk about Short Cuts.
ah, nice one. i actually considered using pynchon but couldn’t make any link.
what’s the matter? you like or no like?
I don’t want to talk about Short Cuts. I will not talk about Short Cuts.
ah, nice one. i actually considered using pynchon but couldn’t make any link.
what’s the matter? you like or no like?
I liked the raining frogs in Magnolia and Aimee Mann and I screwed three of the same guys when we both lived in Boston. I like to pretend it’s sort of like I screwed her. Osmosis? Nah, that’s not the word. But you know, karmic time warp penis vagina stuff.
These are really funny, Jimmy.
no like. andi mcdowell is a terrible actress.
no like. andi mcdowell is a terrible actress.
the young hemingway on the back of my collected stories looks awfully like leo di caprio. reading through the nick adams sketches i keep waiting for nick’s ‘mentally impaired’ younger brother to show up and ask him to go swimming with him in the big two-headed river.
the young hemingway on the back of my collected stories looks awfully like leo di caprio. reading through the nick adams sketches i keep waiting for nick’s ‘mentally impaired’ younger brother to show up and ask him to go swimming with him in the big two-headed river.
Sheesh. This is great.
Sheesh. This is great.
Here’s another:
Salman Rushdie and Matt Groening.
Here’s another:
Salman Rushdie and Matt Groening.
i look like denzel washington if denzel washington and wesley snipes had a son with a really big dick. put that shit up.
i look like denzel washington if denzel washington and wesley snipes had a son with a really big dick. put that shit up.
Andi McDowell can’t act? Have you not seen her find work in Groundhog Day? The way she talked about French poetry or the way she threw snowballs or the way she tried flicking cards into the hat. Andi M is just as good as Ellen Barkin or Rosie in my book. I’m sad that this is even an issue. I also like her new ads, although I fly by them via DVR.
Andi McDowell can’t act? Have you not seen her find work in Groundhog Day? The way she talked about French poetry or the way she threw snowballs or the way she tried flicking cards into the hat. Andi M is just as good as Ellen Barkin or Rosie in my book. I’m sad that this is even an issue. I also like her new ads, although I fly by them via DVR.
F.
Find is supposed to be Fine. This will bother me for the remainder of the day and into the night as I attempt to write something very funny and dark and odd in a little story so Darby can tell me he’s going to pass on it.
F.
Find is supposed to be Fine. This will bother me for the remainder of the day and into the night as I attempt to write something very funny and dark and odd in a little story so Darby can tell me he’s going to pass on it.
HOLY SHIT! The Faulkner – Hannity thing is scary as fuck. If Faulkner sounded like Hannity I’m really never going to read As I Lay Dying.
HOLY SHIT! The Faulkner – Hannity thing is scary as fuck. If Faulkner sounded like Hannity I’m really never going to read As I Lay Dying.
I’ve been told that I look like a young Willa Cather. It’s odd because we both write a lot about frontier life.
I’ve been told that I look like a young Willa Cather. It’s odd because we both write a lot about frontier life.
David is funny. Because Jimmy is funny.I look like the love child of Elizabeth Bishop’s Brazilian girlfriend after she killed herself and an East German discus thrower circa 1972 (that is because I normall wear unitards and spin in circles with my arms at shoulder height.)
Cool re the discus, pr. I threw the shot put freshman year of college. I was always terrified I was going to hit someone and kill them if they were within 20 feet of me. The other shot putter was a guy (at a Div III college) who later played Defensive Line for years in the NFL. He threw it around 50 feet. Alas, I suffered far too many groin pulls and tired of sitting around 9 hours at tiny Ohio colleges on Saturdays I called it quits. I never broke 22 feet which would have put me nearly within 50 feet of Randy Barnes’ record.
Cool re the discus, pr. I threw the shot put freshman year of college. I was always terrified I was going to hit someone and kill them if they were within 20 feet of me. The other shot putter was a guy (at a Div III college) who later played Defensive Line for years in the NFL. He threw it around 50 feet. Alas, I suffered far too many groin pulls and tired of sitting around 9 hours at tiny Ohio colleges on Saturdays I called it quits. I never broke 22 feet which would have put me nearly within 50 feet of Randy Barnes’ record.
Impressive stuff David. I actually never threw discuss, but i have these east german women burned into my brain from watching the Olympics as a young child .They terrified me. That said, I do normally wear unitards and spin in circles with my arms at shoulder hieght.
I never got down the spin move. That was the least of my problems as a shot putter. Just too concerned about maiming an errant soul. If I hadn’t been such a schmo, I’d have tried the discus too. But then I probably wouldn’t be writing this.
I never got down the spin move. That was the least of my problems as a shot putter. Just too concerned about maiming an errant soul. If I hadn’t been such a schmo, I’d have tried the discus too. But then I probably wouldn’t be writing this.
haha-that was nice you didn’t want to hurt anyone. you are a good person.
Well, thank you for saying that. In the interest of full disclosure, I was partially worried about lawsuits stemming from such an incident. I knew the school would be the moneybags but I’d be implicated as well. That’s probably why I went to law school, thoughts like that.
Well, thank you for saying that. In the interest of full disclosure, I was partially worried about lawsuits stemming from such an incident. I knew the school would be the moneybags but I’d be implicated as well. That’s probably why I went to law school, thoughts like that.
No like, and I agree with Daniel.
No like, and I agree with Daniel.
relax bros
relax bros
[…] Asher, over at Literary Kicks, linked to Jimmy Chen’s post on literary doppelgangers, but seemed disappointed by Jimmy’s not having mentioned Douglas Coupland/Norm […]