1. I’ve noticed a strange thing
A literary theory
By Joseph Skibell
9/17/2018

2. Hello, I’m Joseph Skibell
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3. 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.
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4. This is that picture:
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5. “Why, your professor looks just like …
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6. …Hugh Grant,” the mother said.
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7. It’s a flattering comparison, I suppose,
but in truth, it’s nothing I haven’t heard many times before.
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8. Of course, I’m sure no one ever says to Hugh Grant, “You know, Hugh, you look just like that writer Joseph Skibell.”
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9. 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.
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10. Tony Earley, for instance, the author of Jim the Boy …
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11. …looks just like…
…Anthony Edwards from ER.
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12. Earley could win an Anthony Edwards Look-Alike Contest.
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13. 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.
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14. There are more examples: Am I the only one who noticed that short-story writer Nathan Englander…
…looks a lot like …
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15. …Roger Daltry?
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16. 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.
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17. There’s a kind of Separated-At-Birth syndrome at play here, I think.
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18. Michael Ondaatje… …does sort of look like …
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19. …Peter Ustinov.
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20. And, as Tom Wolfe points out in his Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test, Ken Kesey did look a bit like…
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21. …Paul Newman.
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22. Put glasses on J.K. Rowling…
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23. …and she resembles … …John Lennon!
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24. It doesn’t even have to be a real person.
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25. Jonathan Franzen …
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26. … looks like Clark Kent.
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27. The philosopher Ken Wilber …
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28. … like Mr. Clean.
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29. Some writers look like other writers.
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30. The playwright Naomi Wallace ….
…looks like the playwright Sam Shepard.
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31. 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.
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32. As a movie star, Sam Shepard looks more or less like Sam Shepard the writer.
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33. The same is true for Wallace Shawn.
Actor Writer
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34. Leonard Cohen the poet/novelist resembles Leonard Cohen the singer/songwriter.
author photo album cover
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35. Although Cohen also looks like Israeli novelist Amos Oz:
(Or is it the other way around?)
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36. You can’t tell me their success as actors or singers doesn’t help to sell their literary work.
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37. 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.
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(Both these men are novelists.)

38. 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 …
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39. … in films like About A Boy, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and of course, Four Weddings and a Funeral.
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40. A Blessing on the Moon and The English Disease by Joseph Skibell are published by Algonquin Books and are available at fine bookstores everywhere.
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