Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity': Classic or Dud

hmmm... that's exactly what the guys down at my favourite record shop said too. The ones who are exactly like the characters in High Fidelity.

I've noticed that everyone I know personally who hated that book are the ones that are most similar to the characters.

I say CLASSIC because I don't know any better.

Yes, I am a music obsessive. No, I do not think this is a lifestyle worth celebrating in a novel and a film.

Is thirty-something self-hatred really such an attractive spectacle?

I really enjoyed the movie. It has John Cusack. I quite fancy him.

Considering the crap lingering around both the literary and film worlds, that "lifestyle" is hardly the most unworthy subject.

"High Fidelity" (book) = k-sux0r. (I haven't seen the film) A sad Q/Mojo classick-pantheonists fantasy of working in a used rekord store. I've done the real thing, and can safely say that this book is TOTALLY full of shit. Any real record shop which operated thusly would go bust AND DESERVE TO in less than 2 months. Our biggest sellers? Whitesnake, Pink Floyd & Guns & Roses. I hated/hate Whitesnake, but what am I supposed to do, turn customers away, besides, what gives me the right to choose what people listen to? The characters were wankers too. John Cusack is a highly unlikely choice for that role, in that he's actually, like, good looking. They should have picked up somebody in an anorak from the end of a railway station platform and given him the role. In all the time I worked there, neither me nor the guy I worked with copped once, though we talked about frank zappa a lot (groan...) After I left, I got married. Go figure. Will that do, Venga? ;)

xoxo

Yes, Norman, that will do nicely. ;-)

Surely we can discuss the quality of a novel apart from its relevance to music and music culture? :)

It was a decent book, I think, for what it was -- populist mid-list fiction, competently executed, reasonable amount of funny bits, reasonable amount of semi-keen observation.

Plus the apartment in the movie was right down the street from mine, which can only be a good thing.

it was a good movie, apart from the mistake with evil dead 3 being referred to as evil dead two...amateurs.

Has anyone ever seen the film Vinyl? Now there's a spectacle of 30- something self-hatred if there ever was one. Recommended, if only for the guy who memorizes the running order of every K-Tel compilation...

I've noticed that everyone I know personally who hated that book are the ones that are most similar to the characters.

That's right Alex. At least I'm honest enough to recognize that I'm similar to the characters, but I loved both the novel and the film. Why "bouder son plaisir"? It's the same thing with "Velvet Goldmine", which I do not especially like, but at least it's fun to have a film on the subject, even if it's a bit shite. Hornby might be an arse, I dont care. Whatever self-importance he may imagine this book gives him as an author and social observer does not make the novel less enjoyable, albeit less brilliant than he believes it is. Maybe I'm just too much of a sucker. Now, Douglas Coupland...

Douglas Coupland is easily the worst person who ever lived.

Hmm, I only know Douglas Coupland through 'Polaroids from the Dead' and nothing about who he is, but there seemed to be two or three stories in there that I enjoyed. Anyone mind clarifying why Douglas Coupland is the worst person to ever lived?

I dunno about "worst person who ever lived," but he's certainly sitting somewhere close to the top of the crap pile...

Copeland is responsible for "Generation X" (the book, obviously) the bible that gave baby-boomer cultural critics their "insight" into my generation. Feh.

...because he [Copeland] sold an entire generation's check-out and inability to deal economically/socially, created an annoyingly cynical lexicon of terms that surface every now and then, equated irony with lifestyle, has the same plot structure in nearly all of his novels (character in crisis, character goes home, character returns)... 'Life after God' is the peak of this neurosis, only everyone goes fetal. Gimme a break... Hornby - possibly guilty of the same, only his protagonists are not as paralyzed...

I dunno, I quite liked Coupland's sleeve notes in 'Good Humor' and 'Girlfriend in a Coma' was... readable.

Hornby is a footy loving, smug, tedious tosser.

Not read the book, or at least not that I can remember. But the film is shit, it's only good for record/poster/stupid WRONG mistakes about music spotting (and I can't remember the latter, just that it happened to be peppered with them, I think there were some really stupid comparisons made too). It is quite fun, though: hooray! Ladybug Transistor! Hurrah! Shipping News! Spongehead!

Aside from its overly sappy plotline, it happens to be sexist, too. The only girl in it who is supposed to know about music has to ask if the music she's listening to is Stereolab. She blatantly knows nothing. Idiot girl.

Anyway, American Psycho is a much more accurate representation of a music obsessive.

...and sloppy cos she asks (circa 99) 'is this the new Stereolab?' when it's from 'Refried Ectoplasm'... Ahem - some attention to detail???

I found the first 100 pages of the book quite tightly and well written, and then it was just all over the place and crap. And, as I think Tom once said, it has bugger all to do with records, that's just how it was marketed. The film is alright, but it does make you hate John Cusack's character for a long time, which isn't good. The best bit: Him not falling for the music critic at the end just because he had the same taste. (I think Western Homes disagreed - really hoping he's not going to read this now, actually!)

And apparently I'm quite like Dick as well, which I don't mind, as he seemed quite sweet to me. (Er, anyone care to tell me if I'm deluded?)

Random tidbit: The original script had Mouse on Mars substitutded for Sterolab in that key scene. I have a friend who works for Disney & had the chance to read it before the movie came out. Wonder which track they would have used?

I liked the book a lot & the movie a little. I do think there is some insight there re relationships in particular, though nothing "universal." The music stuff was just okay.

o thats a given. would have been the first cut off the new cd.

Anyway, American Psycho is a much more accurate representation of a music obsessive.

Jesus, I hope I never meet the music obsessives you know, then.

you coupland dissers are all pigfuckers...girlfriend in a coma is the greatest get off yr ass and do something novel written since...helter skelter.

I liked Generation X and Life After God, which are all I've read by him. He isn't the greatest writer ever but I don't think that's really reason to despise him.

I despise Hornby. The film was better than the book. Why? Because it had scant trace of Hornby.

Josh -- you can safely stop there. :) Actually, Microserfs was decent as well.

Coupland's like Salinger: a lot of unsubtle solipsistic over-emoting that really connects when you're younger, but seems embarrassing and hate-able later in life. I don't, however, think this is much reason to despise an author. In fact, the older I get, the more I think it's absolutely vital that someone write fairly good novels with an emotional tug for that particular stage of life -- those are the books that get teenagers into literature, the same way a lot of not-hugely-brilliant bands are what turn people on to music.

Unsubtle solipsistic over-emoting ... hmm, this brings us back to Girlfriend in a Coma. Coupland is the solo Morrissey of the literary world.

Hmph. I think you underrate Salinger.

No, I really like Salinger, and don't mean to imply that he's somehow juvenile. I think all of the Glass family material -- everything but Catcher in the Rye, I guess -- is pretty brilliant. I'm only saying that the themes and tropes of his stuff -- and Coupland's -- are pretty strongly tied up in the sort of thinking that a person usually gets heavily involved in between ages 15 and 25, more or less, and that this leads a lot of people who've passed that age range to start looking on them as simplistic or marginal. My argument's that we should actually appreciate writers who manage to tap into that period of thought, in that that's when people can really be attracted to thinking about literature -- we shouldn't merely dismiss those particular authors when we're past that particular set of concerns.

I'd say the same of Tom Robbins and a certain amount of Vonnegut, as well.

Are all independent record store employees so pretentious?