Dave Eggers: I owe my literary education to Sting

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1353957,00.html

Now I understand why his last novel was so crap.

― L.H.O.O.Q., Friday, 19 November 2004 12:20 (twenty years ago)

Why did you have to post this, mustachioed one? I am already under the weather, and reading that just about finished me off.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:04 (twenty years ago)

OHE JEUSSUS MUTHFUCKINFG FUCIK I

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:07 (twenty years ago)

PHIJEASRJIOPSGRJIOPGWE
POKJWGEJIOPGWPJIGWEJPOIGWJJJJJJJJJJJ

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:12 (twenty years ago)

MY NAME IS DAVE EGGERS AND THE SKY IS BLUE

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:12 (twenty years ago)

Hahahaha

I like how somebody just sorta says all that needs saying about themselves.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:38 (twenty years ago)

Leeve Dave alone u haterz he is my faverite writer (exsept for me lol) he is reely grate u r all just jellus haterz Dave roolz.

― Nick Hornby (noodle vague), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:49 (twenty years ago)

this originally ran in spin

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago)

don't be haters! dave is an inspiration like the butterfly!

― Wayne Coyne (James Blount), Friday, 19 November 2004 20:56 (twenty years ago)

i'm glad i basically have no idea who dave eggers is because this essay stunk

― amateur!!st, Friday, 19 November 2004 21:27 (twenty years ago)

making fun of somebody for admitting he liked sting when he was in junior high is a pretty cheap shot!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:28 (twenty years ago)

As someone who owned Ten Summoner's Tales in 8th grade, I'm more mocking the unenlightening obviousness of it all (plus the audacity to report about the minute details of his life with bemusement and presumed value).

this originally ran in spin

I thought you'd be the last person to want to point that out, Yancey.

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:30 (twenty years ago)

Isn't he sort of poking fun, re: presumed value.

― danh (danh), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:36 (twenty years ago)

he's sort of doing a lot of things

― miccio (miccio), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:38 (twenty years ago)

yeah, but "audacity" then?

― danh (danh), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:40 (twenty years ago)

i'm under contractual obligations to, anthony

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:41 (twenty years ago)

yance are you working at spin or just freelancing? i noticed you reviewed the dfa comp (yes my corny indie fuck ass felt it necessary to read the review of cr,cr reissue).

― cinniblount (James Blount), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:45 (twenty years ago)

freelancing, but three pieces in two months, which is cool. day job is at emus1c.

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:48 (twenty years ago)

the pavement review was good! the mf doom feature was very, very good (alex p can be godlike).

― Yanc3y (ystrickler), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps this story will bring some cheer. Miles Davis tells a story in his autobiography about the time Darryl Jones was in his band, but was also moonlighting with Sting. Miles analyzed the situation and realized that Darryl wasn't going to be able to do both gigs indefinitely. Miles didn't have the same kind of bread to pay him, so sooner or later Darryl was going to quit him. Miles being Miles, he kept this knowledge to himself. The day finally came when Darryl came and said "look Miles I can't make the tour." Miles triumphantly came right back at him with "Tell that to your new leader -Sting!"

Cheered me up, anyway.

― Ken L (Ken L), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:49 (twenty years ago)

Yanc3y, cool feller. :-) (xpost, I guess)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:50 (twenty years ago)

I just kind of stopped reading after a 'graph or two.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:51 (twenty years ago)

"Since the advent of rock'n'roll, most teenagers and dumb people have learned about sex through music."

That's a good lede. I would have cut the next line, though.

― Nemo (JND), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:53 (twenty years ago)

It's a pretty funny piece, I enjoyed it. Probably took him about 10 minutes to write, but what the heck..."John McEnroe, who is a woman" made me laugh.

― David Barker (dpjb), Friday, 19 November 2004 21:58 (twenty years ago)

So unbelievably lame. Was Dave Eggers ever any good? I have friends who loved that heartstagger genius book, but I've never been able to bring myself to read it, because every short thing I've read by him (including interviews of him by other people) has irked me deeply (if it's possible to be deeply irked).

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 20 November 2004 01:39 (twenty years ago)

That book is awful. I read the whole thing, somehow.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Saturday, 20 November 2004 01:43 (twenty years ago)

I salute your stamina. I got to about the first five pages.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 20 November 2004 01:44 (twenty years ago)

I did not like the Staggering Penis book but I did like the piece he wrote on Stuart Adamson of Big Country--also ran in Spin.

― shookout (shookout), Saturday, 20 November 2004 01:50 (twenty years ago)

Dave Eggers: I owe my literary style to Novel Writing For Dummies.

― noodle vague (noodle vague), Saturday, 20 November 2004 01:52 (twenty years ago)

I read Lolita cuz Nick Cave said it was good.

― Every country has their stupid (AaronHz), Saturday, 20 November 2004 01:56 (twenty years ago)

I think that Big Country piece is over on the Big Country thread.

I've thought about it and the only books I ever read because of rock and roll that weren't about rock and roll were by William S Burroughs. The Stranger was something they made us read in school. Lolita we read on our own. In fairness to Sting, we didn't really know how to pronounce Nabokov either. Or Pnin, for that matter.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 02:31 (twenty years ago)

Yeah his whole stream-of-conciosness-neuroses style is really grating.

― djdee2005 (djdee2005), Saturday, 20 November 2004 02:37 (twenty years ago)

Jim DeRogatis could teach this guy a thing or two...

― Disco Nihilist (mjt), Saturday, 20 November 2004 05:43 (twenty years ago)

I liked the book but this essay is for shit.
Enjoying Pale Fire, tho.

― Forksclovetofu (Forksclovetofu), Saturday, 20 November 2004 06:29 (twenty years ago)

Pale Fire is the shiznit.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 10:10 (twenty years ago)

I just read the article...I don't get what everyone is so upset about. It seems pretty innocuous to me.

― shookout (shookout), Saturday, 20 November 2004 17:35 (twenty years ago)

So you agree with his point?

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 17:37 (twenty years ago)

And what is that point, anyway? That it's "funny" to use tennis players' names for no particular reason? (That whole "who is a woman" shtick is totally Dave Barry, circa 1988, except Dave Barry used to be funny and I'm thinking that maybe Dave Eggers has never been.) Or his other point, that "gee, kids can learn things from pop music," which, omg, art can teach you things!

Seriously, this is a dumb essay. My respect for Eggers was already compromised, but it's been dropped several degrees. (I will say that I've read he treats his writer friends very well, and I respect what he's done in building a publishing niche for himself. More power to him. I just don't want to read him.)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 20 November 2004 17:44 (twenty years ago)

"I won't insult you by citing the exact study - you probably know the one I'm talking about. It was done in America. It was an excellent study. One of the very best."

What was this all about? I felt as if Eggers really expected me to laugh at this. I didn't. Or at anything else in it.

― Affectian (Affectian), Saturday, 20 November 2004 17:52 (twenty years ago)

(I will say that I've read he treats his writer friends very well, and I respect what he's done in building a publishing niche for himself. More power to him. I just don't want to read him.)

For completely different reasons but with much the same impact, you have described how I feel about Superchunk. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Saturday, 20 November 2004 17:59 (twenty years ago)

What was this all about?

the school of high mannerism, i guess

― amateur!!st, Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:33 (twenty years ago)

xpost

yeah superchunk liner notes were never that great

― amateur!!st, Saturday, 20 November 2004 18:33 (twenty years ago)

I don't know if it's more a testament to my poor skills as a reader or the Eggman's as a humorist, but I skimmed the thing twice and I thought it was serious ! Then, when I finally paid attention to the other posts and realized it was supposed to be a put-on, I went back and read it and it still wasn't funny.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 19:35 (twenty years ago)

i don't think it's a put on. he seems to think that this phenomenon--seeking out literary references in pop songs--is one of those great unacknowledged/embarrassing things of which we do not speak, and his speaking about it will provide some kind of catharsis. the problem is that most everyone has probably done this, and maybe acknowledged it a few times--it's just not that exciting, is all.

also he obviously means to lighten the tone with half-serious personal anecdotes and weird drolleries. however he gets the whole thing very wrong, like you have all t he right ingredients for a cake and it comes out as some kind of tar.

― amateur!!st, Saturday, 20 November 2004 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, that's what bugged me in the first place. Isn't it alo an unspoken secret that musicians (present company excluded) are notoriously unreliable sources of recommendations for reading material, usually tending to mysticism and self-empowerment books rather than stuff that's actually well-written?

My favorite "lesson" from pop music is the list of the great discoverers and inventors in "Stop the Love You Save"

Isaac said he kissed you
Beneath the apple tree
When Benjy held your hand he felt
Electricy

When Alexander called you
He said he rang your chimes
Christopher discovered
You're way ahead of your time.

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 20:07 (twenty years ago)

Electricity! Is there a rock song that can teach me to spell, or more accurately, to type?

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 20:13 (twenty years ago)

Lou Reed turned me on to Edgar Allan Poe.

― Dave Eggers (shookout), Saturday, 20 November 2004 20:29 (twenty years ago)

It's a great honor, sir. And what about Delmore Schwartz or James Joyce or even Leopold von Sacher-Masoch? Did the great man also lead you down those literary byways?

― Ken L (Ken L), Saturday, 20 November 2004 20:45 (twenty years ago)

Momus turned me on to Japanese porn.

(not really)

(but i wish he had)

― gypsy mothra (gypsy mothra), Saturday, 20 November 2004 21:26 (twenty years ago)

Bjork's Favorite Book (zipped PDF)

― Every country has their stupid (AaronHz), Sunday, 21 November 2004 00:31 (twenty years ago)

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