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I’ve noticed a strange thing
A literary theory By Joseph Skibell 9/17/2018
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Hello, I’m Joseph Skibell
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Recently a student of mine told me that her mother had logged onto our college’s website and had seen a picture of me there. 9/17/2018
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This is that picture: 9/17/2018
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“Why, your professor looks just like …
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…Hugh Grant,” the mother said.
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It’s a flattering comparison, I suppose,
but in truth, it’s nothing I haven’t heard many times before. 9/17/2018
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Of course, I’m sure no one ever says to Hugh Grant, “You know, Hugh, you look just like that writer Joseph Skibell.” 9/17/2018
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But that’s okay, because lately I’ve noticed a strange thing
But that’s okay, because lately I’ve noticed a strange thing. A lot of best-selling writers seem to resemble famous people from non-literary professions. 9/17/2018
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Tony Earley, for instance, the author of Jim the Boy …
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…looks just like… …Anthony Edwards from ER. 9/17/2018
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Earley could win an Anthony Edwards Look-Alike Contest.
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And my theory is that this gives the reader an extra little thrill, as though he or she were reading a novel by Dr. Mark Greene, Edward’s character on ER, scratched out between patients in the emergency room. 9/17/2018
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There are more examples: Am I the only one who noticed that short-story writer Nathan Englander…
…looks a lot like … 9/17/2018
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…Roger Daltry? 9/17/2018
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I can’t help wondering…
…if Englander’s readers experience a subliminal pleasure imaging they’re reading a book by the singer of the Who. 9/17/2018
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There’s a kind of Separated-At-Birth syndrome at play here, I think.
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Michael Ondaatje… …does sort of look like …
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…Peter Ustinov. 9/17/2018
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And, as Tom Wolfe points out in his Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test, Ken Kesey did look a bit like…
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…Paul Newman. 9/17/2018
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Put glasses on J.K. Rowling…
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…and she resembles … …John Lennon!
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It doesn’t even have to be a real person.
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Jonathan Franzen … 9/17/2018
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… looks like Clark Kent. 9/17/2018
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The philosopher Ken Wilber …
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… like Mr. Clean. 9/17/2018
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Some writers look like other writers.
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The playwright Naomi Wallace …
. …looks like the playwright Sam Shepard. 9/17/2018
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And there are some writers who don’t have to look like successful people from other professions, because they themselves have been successful in other professions. 9/17/2018
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As a movie star, Sam Shepard looks more or less like Sam Shepard the writer.
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The same is true for Wallace Shawn.
Actor Writer 9/17/2018
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Leonard Cohen the poet/novelist resembles Leonard Cohen the singer/songwriter.
author photo album cover 9/17/2018
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Although Cohen also looks like Israeli novelist Amos Oz:
(Or is it the other way around?) 9/17/2018
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You can’t tell me their success as actors or singers doesn’t help to sell their literary work.
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Or that the glamour of actors like Rupert Everett or Ethan Hawke doesn’t carry over from their films when they look for an audience for the novels they write. 9/17/2018 (Both these men are novelists.)
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So, all I’m saying is, as you browse through your bookstore, if you happen to pick up one of my novels, I hope, while you’re looking at the author’s photo, you’ll vaguely, almost imperceptibly, recall all the joy I’ve given you over the years … 9/17/2018
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… in films like About A Boy, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and of course, Four Weddings and a Funeral.
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A Blessing on the Moon and The English Disease by Joseph Skibell are published by Algonquin Books and are available at fine bookstores everywhere. 9/17/2018
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