Nick Hornby adapts _Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius_ for film = NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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I thank/damn Mr. Daddino for calling this to my attention. *whimper*

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Say what you will about the purpose of the article, this is a beautiful phrase: dithering over whether to jilt his live-in girlfriend.

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Is the world ready for that much smugness?

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:20 (twenty-one years ago)

If it stars Tom Cruise I think the world would explode.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 19:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Over the past 10 years, Hornby has become something of a one-man factory of British cool.
Until recently he was the trenchant yet gleeful rock critic for the New Yorker. Two of his novels -- "About a Boy" and "High Fidelity" -- have become well-received films. The latter, filmed in Chicago, essentially serves as the video biography for commitment-phobic indie-rockers.
He's writing a screenplay with Emma Thompson.
He's pals with Dave Eggers.

And last year "The Hipster Handbook" pegged him as a mandatory read for the young and in-the-know.

If there was ever a time I was prouder of not being cool.

If it stars Tom Cruise I think the world would explode.

ARRRRRGH, no. God, imagine the appropriate soundtrack and then the resultant combination to kill at several miles distance.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Just cast Cruise and let's get it over with. Civilization is not fit to exist.

― Elvis Telecom (Chris Barrus), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

It simply doesn't bear thinking about, in fact, I'm blanking the entire thing from my mind. I now think that this thread is about puppies.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Puppies with the EVIL faces of Eggars and Hornby which therefore need STOMPING.

Er.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Look the benefits are possibly quite wonderful. This might be the moment where the Eggers/Hornby world of hipster types "jumps the shark". And if Cruise is cast, surely this particular aspect of the world would cease.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I hope it stars Sean Astin.

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Estela to thread.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:24 (twenty-one years ago)

And if Cruise is cast, surely this particular aspect of the world would cease.

Leaving nothing behind but the stank scent of Badly Drawn Boy CDs.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:25 (twenty-one years ago)

With Jonathan Lipnicki as Toph.

― jaymc (jaymc), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

I like how they have casually ignored the craply received film of "Fever Pitch" in the summary of how he is cool.

(oh, and Mark C to thread also)

― ailsa (ailsa), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Badly Drawn Boy is so two films ago, Ned. He's no longer ~~smug and annoying~~hip enough for this project.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

This is true, but it's easy to imagine him lingering, like bad cheese.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I like labrador puppies, but collie puppies can be annoying.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Or like Dave Eggers.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 19:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Man Reading Pynchon On Bus Takes Pains To Make Cover Visible

PHILADELPHIA — According to riders on the eastbound C bus, John Bolen, 23, made a conscious effort Monday to make the cover of Thomas Pynchon's The Crying Of Lot 49 visible to all on board. "Instead of resting the book on his lap or on the seat in front of him, he was holding it up in this really awkward, uncomfortable- looking way," rider Caryn Little said. "Then, every so often, he'd glance around to see if anyone was noticing what he was reading." Bolen vehemently denied the Pynchon-flaunting charges, insisting that "the light was bad" on the bus.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

If I get a puppy I'm going to call it MacSweeney. Then i'm going to smash it's face off with a spade.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:36 (twenty-one years ago)

dammit its

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:38 (twenty-one years ago)

You're just all jealous because Hornby is young, hip, and beautiful.

― the icebox (nordicskilla), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

with impeccable taste in music

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

you people mystify me sometimes.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:39 (twenty-one years ago)

What's so mystifying about puppies?

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:40 (twenty-one years ago)

considering that HWOSG and About a Boy cover similar territory this doesn't surprise me at all, but I didn't know Hornby wrote screenplays.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't understand the mcsweeney's hate, but I live in the bay area and the result of Mcsweeney's/HOSG has been a great tutoring center in the Mission for schoolkids as well as a volunteer network of in-classroom help for an educational system that is FUCKED. God forbid someone have a successful book, start a revolutionary publishing company, and put then put most of the money back into the community!

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Anthony, this was just talked about over on ILM in reverse, I forget which thread, but in the same way that horrible bastards can create fantastic albums/books/movies/etc., really nice and successful and generous people can create utter fucking crap.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:45 (twenty-one years ago)

His book is crap, though. I mean, I'm sure he's a lovely guy but it doesn't make his writing any better. I mean, an awful lot of celebrities have put tons of money into really good charitable work but that doesn't suddenly give them papal dispensation from being smug and/or boring.

xpost with Ned, what he said.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes but his book's still self-indulgent claptrap.
(x-post Ned OTM)

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

Key word here is indulgent...

― ModJ (ModJ), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, look at my thread about my coworkers. Most of those people were perfectly nice and pleasant and gave change to homeless men etc etc. That didn't prevent them from being wholly incompetant asshats on the job though.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

i am alone on ILX for finding it rather touching.

― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

I liked the book, mind. I've not read You Shall Know Our Velocity

― ModJ (ModJ), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

http://chocolate.ratemypuppy.com/datastore/42/e4/b/42e40bbe33de9b67ac0e1ba1fb3e9038.jpg

― ModJ (ModJ), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't think anyone questions Eggers' decency. I don't even question his writing, necessarily. However he's certainly helped contribute to the annoying subculture of latte-sipping, Morning Becomes Eclectic/Zero 7-listening, Sedaris-reading fuckwits.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:49 (twenty-one years ago)

It could be worse, Hornby could be adapting something by David Foster Wallace.

Starring Tom Cruise.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I recall Mr. Telecom saying he hurled HWSG across the room when his own breaking point was reached and I sympathize. My sense of it from what I could stomach it was a Chicken Soup for the Soul for people who felt they were above that.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Aw, puppy.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:51 (twenty-one years ago)

And Matt wants to KILL IT.

― ModJ (ModJ), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Yay death!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Damn right death. And after that I'm going hunting for Zadie Smith.

― Matt (Matt), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

However he's certainly helped contribute to the annoying subculture of latte-sipping, Morning Becomes Eclectic/Zero 7-listening, Sedaris-reading fuckwits.

Or, even worse, the ever predictable backlash.

― bnw (bnw), Monday, 19 January 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

You are always fighting the good fight for emo. You're like Han Solo in Elvis Costello frames.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 19:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Backlashes against the above are predictable yet absolutely deserved.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:06 (twenty-one years ago)

That doesn't make them any less whiny and boring.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:07 (twenty-one years ago)

Can something be a backlash if you never liked it to start with?

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I refer you all to the last thread on Hornby, but for now let's just consider what Ned does consider to be the pinnacle of literature.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Also, I have the script for this at home. Hehe.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

let's just consider what Ned does consider to be the pinnacle of literature

Woohoo! I love the one scene where Charlie Brown says "Augh!"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

No Ned.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

OK CAN SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW DISLIKING A SHITTY BOOK IS TANTAMOUNT TO "WHINY AND BORING BACKLASH"??? THANK YOU FOR DISASSEMBLING EVERY CRITICAL WORK EVER!!!

I'm sorry, I'm just tired of A) the "these guys are actually nice people" defense--so are most people in the world B) the lazy one-liner defenses calling people out for being anti-whatevertheseworksstandforculturally.

That book is exactly what Ned said it is. It is a movie-of-the-week warbling written by someone who is acting like he is above Lifetime/ABC Afterschool Specials/Wonderful World of Disney. It is, in my opinion, horrifically boring and frustrating to read because of the writer's style. There is also, unfortunately or not, a cultural stigma attached to said stylistic values. Stereotyping generalization whatever, it's still there.

I don't see anyone defending against this point of view--I mean, why is the book NOT this?

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 20:14 (twenty-one years ago)

This is why I hate threads about Eggers or Hornby, I don't know why I read them. They're worse than any other writer cos no one wants to debate the actual merits of either, just cultural value back and forth namecalling. This thread will be the vortex of evil I tell you.

― Allyzay, Monday, 19 January 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Just cast Cruise and let's get it over with. Civilization is not fit to exist.
Could be worse. They could cast Mickey Rourke as the Ghost of Don Henley.

― Lord Custos Omicron (Lord Custos Omicron), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Ally, I'd be happy to discuss Hornby on merit or otherwise. Shall we take it off board?

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm a whiny ponce apparently. God forbid I should hate shitty things.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:18 (twenty-one years ago)

God forbid I should hate shitty things.

Quite. I would rather read Tolkien than Hornby or Eggars shockah! Next it is shown that I don't want to eat at Pizza Hut.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually kinda like Hornby's column in The Believer. It's about books that he's reading. I hate his music writing. I liked High Fidelity the book. I didn't like how the movie tried to put me off the Beta Band forever, a band that i used to really like. About A Boy the movie made me cringe and cringe and cringe. Especially that staggering ending. It still gives me the chills. I have no time for Dave Eggars. I buy McSweeney's with an eye toward future ebay sales. I never read them. There, I'm done. Now I never have to talk about either one of these dudes again.

― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Are there actually any "hipster" books that live up to the hype? I know this belongs on that other thread but what the hell.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:23 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, yes, that's why it's whiny and boring, it was all kneejerk "ew, Eggers!" or "ew, Hornby!".

It is a movie-of-the-week warbling written by someone who is acting like he is above Lifetime/ABC Afterschool Specials/Wonderful World of Disney.

Or it's about the despair of realizing your life is a Lifetime special (parents died, kid forced to take care of younger brother, coming of age, etc.), finding some value in this despite its hokeyness, and trying to get this value across while not succumbing to the Lifetimeishness of it all.

Would it have been a better book if it went along with the Lifetime tropes, or is it interesting because it's writhing like a fish?

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:24 (twenty-one years ago)

B) the lazy one-liner defenses calling people out for being anti-whatevertheseworksstandforculturally.

Ha, how much of this thread is one-liners attacking Eggers/Horby? 99%? But those are okay b/c you agree with them?

― emo-hans (bnw), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Would it have been a better book if it went along with the Lifetime tropes, or is it interesting because it's writhing like a fish?

Writhing? It was so boring and cold, and so lost in its tropes (ENDLESS fucking footnotes are what I remember most), that I grew contemptuous. I'm not going to give his writing a free pass because he dealt with a truly miserable situation, in the same way that I wouldn't because of his charitable work etc.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

I like Hornby possibly because he's unexceptional, but still manages to tell good stories. I suspect it's because being a writer like Hornby would be, for me (and me only in this example), the best I could ever hope to be.

You see, I am fully aware that while I can usually manage coherent arguments, write good letters, talk confidently to people and occasionally make a passable joke, I don't have the imagination or originality to be creative in the ways many of your favourite writers and, indeed, many of you are able to be creative. Perhaps that's why I am happy to let myself enjoy the unexceptional but assured style of Hornby and similar writers.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Incidentally I am currently reading The Fellowship of the Ring and although I am passably enjoying it for story reasons, the sheer whimsical banality of the prose regularly astonishes me. Which is why Ned's opinion on what makes good writing really counts for less than nothing - I simply can't fathom why he thinks as he did.

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

*shrugs* Which is fine.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, I'm not suggesting you give his writing a free pass because he went through rough times, I'm saying the way he wrote about them -- the coldness; the constant digressions, footnotes, and confabulations; just the general forms of indirection and avoidence he used -- were interesting manifestations of how he reacted to overwhelming events, and I certainly empathized with them.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:34 (twenty-one years ago)

I think there's a difference between criticizing a work you don't like (I think Eggers is pretty average and that Hornby is pretty boring) and attacking someone else's opinion (you don't like these works, so you're just being whiny and contrarian).

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:36 (twenty-one years ago)

We'll have to differ, Casuistry. I found the approach relentlessly unfascinating, the conceits of little interest and the overall impact nonexistent -- beyond, I hate to say it but I think Ally is absolutely right, 'movie-of-the-week warbling' dressed up to try and hide from that, like serving *what the chef thinks* is the world's best marinade over horsemeat hash. And when you consider this is nonfiction and that's the best that he can do, then while I can sympathize with him greatly for his situation, I can't feel anything for how he chose to express his grief. A weak parody of academic-style writing isn't going to catch my attention, I've dealt with enough unintentionally funny examples of that already.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:42 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not a parody of academic writing at all. If it's a parody of anything it's of the memoir genre. Have you read the book?

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:43 (twenty-one years ago)

"Lost in its tropes" sounds more like a parody of academic writing.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Were you even at the same gig I was at!?!?!

― El Diablo Robotico (Nicole), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't care if anyone doesn't like Eggers or Hornby or whatever; I'm saying this thread is as tedious as a thread called "Celine Dion, 'inspired singer'?!?!?!".

― Casuistry (Chris P), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I didn't finish the book, Nemo, I was that annoyed with it (and I'm hardly going to go back to it at this point). My own sense of it was a parody of academic writing primarily because of the footnotes, an approach I'm all too familiar with and can think overused at points -- but I don't think I've seen it so relentlessly highlighted in an attempt (I assume?) at some sort of ironic statement on what footnotes are and had it fall so flat. If you read it more as a parody of memoirs, fair enough.

"Lost in its tropes" sounds more like a parody of academic writing.

Oh, I AM wounded. Are you going to attack Casuistry for using the word 'tropes' as well? Be fair.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:48 (twenty-one years ago)

We're going after Dickens next.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Very well, I attack you, too, Casuistry.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I always took it like Eggers was sort of painting in a different medium, like doing frescos when everyone else does oil portraits. Eggers writes in miserably navel-gazing emotion where other writers have a more predictable structure and style that we know how to react to. I'm putting this rather inelegantly (and I have NO background in lit crit), and I'm not saying AHWOSG is a Great Book, or even a good book, but I kinda enjoyed how much it made me squirm. It was a good summertime read.

― teeny (teeny), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I really enjoyed HWOSG. I did not find Eggers' style boring. I was not annoyed by the footnotes, although I do believe the shtick was done better by Foster Wallace. OTOH, I think that Tolkien is a wonderful plotter but a terrible prose stylist. Perhaps I'm the evil anti-Ned.

― J (Jay), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I do find Hornsby tedious, though.

― J (Jay), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Perhaps I'm the evil anti-Ned.

Eh, we can go yin-yang there if ya like.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:55 (twenty-one years ago)

HWOSG was completely underwhelming. It's moving for the first few pages and then nosedives into a series of whining and forced cleverness. I forced myself through the entirety of it just because from all the glowing recommendations I got for it I figured there had to be some redeeming quality.
It's got it's moments but it's just so trite and self-indulgent that it's not worth wading through all the shit.

I feel the same about Nick Hornby but to a slightly lesser degree. He just seems so obvious. It's like Goosebumps for 20 somethings.

I do find Davis Sedaris genuinely funny, though, so there you have it.

― stephen morris, Monday, 19 January 2004 20:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Nah--I'm pretty terrified of the prospect of HWOSG being made into a movie as well. Although I'm really an awful lot more concerned about the prospects of "The Shaggs" starring Tom Cruise.

― J (Jay), Monday, 19 January 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Can anybody actually imagine what a film of HWSG would look like? Shit, at least High Fidelity had sort of a plot arc. Frankly I'd rather watch America's Sweethearts over again than either of the Hornby films. Shit.

Cost of two tickets says this never actually gets made into a motion picture though, so I think we can sleep soundly at night.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 19 January 2004 20:59 (twenty-one years ago)

Sedaris is funny, it's just a lot of people that read him laugh at all the wrong parts. Like Wes Anderson movies.

― TOMBOT, Monday, 19 January 2004 21:01 (twenty-one years ago)

forced cleverness

I actually like this phrase because I think it can sum up (negatively) what Casuistry and Teeny were noting positively. An attempt to try something different should not automatically receive praise as being successful and neither should be immediately dismissed as gimmickry, for there is always the chance (and probably the guarantee, really) that for individual readers (or viewers or listeners or whatever) there will be a range of responses -- as seen here on this thread already, and we're just a small sampling. Once it does hit that individual level, then all bets are usually off.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Can anyone explain the appeal of Dave Eggers to me!?

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Monday, 19 January 2004 21:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, I would like to apologize for the snarky comment I made above.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 19 January 2004 21:46 (twenty-one years ago)

Fret not, I've had my moments aplenty here and elsewhere.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 21:50 (twenty-one years ago)

If the prologue annoyed you, Ned, be thankful that you didn't make it to the passage where Eggers chronicles his attempts to become part of the cast of "The Real World."

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 19 January 2004 21:57 (twenty-one years ago)

! I'll just kindly say that that probably would have done me in.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 19 January 2004 21:59 (twenty-one years ago)

To his credit he would have presumably been the most interesting member of any Real World cast, by default.

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 19 January 2004 22:00 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm still too busy recovering from that Tribune article to get into arguments w/people. Even if you like Hornby (and I do like AAB and HF the novels), that piece is awful awful awful.

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 19 January 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I mean, who on earth finds those stodgy New Yorker pieces "warm"?

― M Matos (M Matos), Monday, 19 January 2004 22:06 (twenty-one years ago)

"a handful of warm essays"

Now I feel queasy.

― Nemo (JND), Monday, 19 January 2004 22:15 (twenty-one years ago)

My adaptation pitch for AHWSG:

1. Dinosaurs
2. Robots
3. Christopher Walken
4. Jason Statham
5. Score by Daft Punk and Dr. Dre
6. Based on Dave Egger's bestseller of the same title!!!

― TOMBOT, Tuesday, 20 January 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

7. The small brother charcter is dropped and replaced by a wise-cracking sidekick, played by Cuba Gooding Junior.

― Matt (Matt), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 01:06 (twenty-one years ago)

When I see someone write a dull or improperly placed/timed joke or post on the internet and can sense the writer thinks its quite badass anyway, I immediately get the urge to call him out personally. I had a bit of a panic moment at the end of AHWOSG because it was like the same thing but happening in a soundproof, one-way-mirrored room and I couldn't ridicule Dave one-on-one or impress his friends and play them off against him like I would online or in real life. Basically, I'm not a very easily impressed/amused person when it comes to confrontational writing (probably because it's basically all I think about) and Eggers is like an overconfident, underskilled little colt to me. I don't care if he thinks he's fighting the good fight, because I doubt he'd ever do anything philanthropic without making sure to let you know on the internet.

― Le Coq (DarrenK), Tuesday, 20 January 2004 01:20 (twenty-one years ago)

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