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I’ve noticed a strange thing

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Presentation on theme: "I’ve noticed a strange thing"— Presentation transcript:

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

2 Hello, I’m Joseph Skibell
9/17/2018

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. 9/17/2018

4 This is that picture: 9/17/2018

5 “Why, your professor looks just like …
9/17/2018

6 …Hugh Grant,” the mother said.
9/17/2018

7 It’s a flattering comparison, I suppose,
but in truth, it’s nothing I haven’t heard many times before. 9/17/2018

8 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

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. 9/17/2018

10 Tony Earley, for instance, the author of Jim the Boy …
9/17/2018

11 …looks just like… …Anthony Edwards from ER. 9/17/2018

12 Earley could win an Anthony Edwards Look-Alike Contest.
9/17/2018

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. 9/17/2018

14 There are more examples: Am I the only one who noticed that short-story writer Nathan Englander…
…looks a lot like … 9/17/2018

15 …Roger Daltry? 9/17/2018

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. 9/17/2018

17 There’s a kind of Separated-At-Birth syndrome at play here, I think.
9/17/2018

18 Michael Ondaatje… …does sort of look like …
9/17/2018

19 …Peter Ustinov. 9/17/2018

20 And, as Tom Wolfe points out in his Electric Acid Kool-Aid Test, Ken Kesey did look a bit like…
9/17/2018

21 …Paul Newman. 9/17/2018

22 Put glasses on J.K. Rowling…
9/17/2018

23 …and she resembles … …John Lennon!
9/17/2018

24 It doesn’t even have to be a real person.
9/17/2018

25 Jonathan Franzen … 9/17/2018

26 … looks like Clark Kent. 9/17/2018

27 The philosopher Ken Wilber …
9/17/2018

28 … like Mr. Clean. 9/17/2018

29 Some writers look like other writers.
9/17/2018

30 The playwright Naomi Wallace …
. …looks like the playwright Sam Shepard. 9/17/2018

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. 9/17/2018

32 As a movie star, Sam Shepard looks more or less like Sam Shepard the writer.
9/17/2018

33 The same is true for Wallace Shawn.
Actor Writer 9/17/2018

34 Leonard Cohen the poet/novelist resembles Leonard Cohen the singer/songwriter.
author photo album cover 9/17/2018

35 Although Cohen also looks like Israeli novelist Amos Oz:
(Or is it the other way around?) 9/17/2018

36 You can’t tell me their success as actors or singers doesn’t help to sell their literary work.
9/17/2018

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. 9/17/2018 (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 … 9/17/2018

39 … in films like About A Boy, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and of course, Four Weddings and a Funeral.
9/17/2018

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. 9/17/2018


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