Let me know when he puts his thoughts into about 300 pages. I trust him to make sure it all comes out of the mouth of a cynical selfish old jerk, so we can be left to draw our own conclusions and shit... you follow? #philiproth
Roth gives jerking off a bad name, and that's pretty fucking hard to do. American Pastoral was tedious and phony. He also wrote a book in which a man turns into a breast. A book in which a man turns into a breast.
A book in which a man turns into a breast. #philiproth
@lukeoneil47: C'mon, that scene in Portnoy's Complaint when the teenaged namesake protagonist rapes a piece of liver on his way to a bar mitzvah lesson? Solid gold. No one wrote more evocatively about jerking off than Roth.
Evidence in quote:
"Oh shove it in me, Big Boy," cried the cored apple that I banged silly on that picnic. "Big Boy, Big Boy, oh give me all you've got," begged the empty milk bottle that I kept hidden in our storage bin in the basement, to drive wild after school with my vaselined upright. "Come, Big Boy, come" screamed the maddened piece of liver that, in my own insanity, I bought one afternoon at the butcher shop and, believe it or not, violated behind a billboard on the way to a bar mitzvah lesson."
@lukeoneil47: Evocative of the mixture of guilt and ecstasy that many people experience when they masturbate. I apologize for stating the obvious, but you asked for it. #philiproth
@snugbug: On the contrary my good man and or woman, I was raised Irish Catholic in Massachusetts. I know a little something about repressing shit. #philiproth
I've read Portnoy's Complaint more times than I can count on the fingers of one hand, but slogging through The Plot Against America has been like rolling a boulder uphill. Positively a Sisyphus chore. I've started and abandoned it at least six times. Forget "two weeks"; at this point I aspire to finish it before I kick the bucket.
PS: This might be my favorite "Quote of the Day" so far. I love talented smarties who say faux-dumb/provocative stuff just to get a rise out of people. I used to think Karl Lagerfeld was the undisputed champion of this game, but I'm tipping my hat to Mr. Roth as I type this.. #philiproth
What shameless elitism. He's setting up an arbitrary barrier-to-entry in front of people who want to access "literature." You could make up an infinite number of similar plausible-sounding but ultimately ridiculously pretentious rules about reading.
EG: You aren't really reading a novel if:
1. You don't listen to 15 minutes of Mozart beforehand.
2. You don't stop every few minutes to look a window and contemplate.
3. After reading you don't perform a meditative cranberry juice douche.
I really admire Tina, but her squinting and trying to move her facial muscles in the DB video of her conversation with Roth is disconcerting. And are they drinking water? Beast Bar, my ass. It's a great idea, but next time I want to see some booze. #philiproth
@Baroness: I think she is a bit sweet on him. But truly Roth's novels for the most part are great and Roth is great and it was just fun to hear him talk and just be a great old writer...which is great. #philiproth
@Wendy_Kroy: I'm a little over halfway through IJ. It's open at arm's length on the side table right now, taunting me. I think calling it a "book" or "novel" is a vast understatement. #philiproth
If I keep going at the current rate I will have not read 26 Philip Roth novels this year, which means he'd better start cranking a few more out. #philiproth
Sorry Phil, but it sounds like you want Americans to read the way people eat at McDonalds: in big bites, just to cram it down.
Some of us like to chew and taste our food, thank you very much.
All of my most favorite books have taken WAY longer than two weeks to read. Tristram Shandy and Sam Butler's "Hudibras" come to mind off the top of the dome. #philiproth
lukeoneil47 promoted this comment
Edited by westvillagegirl (exiled in chicago) at 10/26/09 5:03 PM
westvillagegirl (exiled in chicago) was starred
westvillagegirl (exiled in chicago) was unstarred
@westvillagegirl (exiled in chicago): I just read W+P for the first time. Took me about 3 months. I had to read a few other things for work in between, but it was my sole pleasure reading every night before bed/ on subway/ at gym etc.
Anyway, turns I didn't actually read it after all according to this arbitrary standard. #philiproth
@lukeoneil47: Yeah, I read W&P in college. Even ignoring pretty much all my other reading, it took me a good month and half. Maybe Philip is talking about his (overrated in my opinion) short little tomes? #philiproth
Dickens' and Dostoevsky's novels were serialized in magazines at the time they were written. Readers would have had to wait months, or even over a year to finish them. So, what the hell does that say, then? #philiproth
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10/26/09
A book in which a man turns into a breast. #philiproth
10/26/09
Evidence in quote:
"Oh shove it in me, Big Boy," cried the cored apple that I banged silly on that picnic. "Big Boy, Big Boy, oh give me all you've got," begged the empty milk bottle that I kept hidden in our storage bin in the basement, to drive wild after school with my vaselined upright. "Come, Big Boy, come" screamed the maddened piece of liver that, in my own insanity, I bought one afternoon at the butcher shop and, believe it or not, violated behind a billboard on the way to a bar mitzvah lesson."
10/26/09
#philiproth
10/27/09
10/27/09
I suppose that's a thing of the past by now huh? Quaint almost.
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PS: This might be my favorite "Quote of the Day" so far. I love talented smarties who say faux-dumb/provocative stuff just to get a rise out of people. I used to think Karl Lagerfeld was the undisputed champion of this game, but I'm tipping my hat to Mr. Roth as I type this.. #philiproth
10/26/09
EG: You aren't really reading a novel if:
1. You don't listen to 15 minutes of Mozart beforehand.
2. You don't stop every few minutes to look a window and contemplate.
3. After reading you don't perform a meditative cranberry juice douche.
etc... #philiproth
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
10/26/09
Some of us like to chew and taste our food, thank you very much.
All of my most favorite books have taken WAY longer than two weeks to read. Tristram Shandy and Sam Butler's "Hudibras" come to mind off the top of the dome. #philiproth
10/26/09
Actually, I'm so bad reading books, Chuck's books are the only ones I can finish. #philiproth
10/26/09
10/26/09
Anyway, turns I didn't actually read it after all according to this arbitrary standard. #philiproth
10/27/09
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