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PowellsBooks.Blog
Authors, readers, critics, media − and booksellers.

Guests

Wading In

by Jonathan Dee, March 15, 2010 11:34 AM
"Guest blogger" wouldn't feel like such strange designation if I had ever done this before; but reader, you are currently hurtling toward the end of the first sentence I have ever blogged. I will try to enjoy myself and not give in to feelings of fraudulence. Don't get me wrong, I can and do waste time on the Internet with the best of them, but in some respects I am an embarrassingly analog guy. I am not on Facebook. I write whole books on yellow legal pads. I do not own a cell phone.

Who am I? I am the author of five novels, the most recent of which is titled The Privileges. It is about a family. Because the young patriarch of this family ends up a hedge-fund billionaire, the book has gotten some attention as a novel about the lifestyles of the obscenely rich, which it sort of is, but mostly not. Money does not make this guy who he is — who he is makes him money.

I have grown a little sensitive about the cell-phone thing, actually. The great Jonathan Richman has a new song called "You Can Have A Cell Phone That's OK But Not For Me," and while it may not be another "Roadrunner," he is, as ever, on to something. For better or worse, I just don't live a life where people need to get ahold of me right away. But then, about a year ago, there was a front-page story in the New York Times headlined something like, "So Who Are Those People Who Still Don't Have Cell Phones?" The answer, it turns out, is smug, obnoxious, holier-than-thou hipster technophobes; and I realized that if I did not want it assumed that I belonged to or in any way endorsed this subculture, I had better get a cell phone pronto. I still don't have one, though. But that is laziness, not Luddism.

Anyway, while I am not exactly touring in support of The Privileges at the moment, I will be hitting the road on Tuesday and Wednesday for a reading in Gettysburg, PA, the Cradle of Liberty. That's not what it's actually called, but I have decided to get into the blogging spirit by approximating references I can't quite remember, instead of stopping to look them up.

Here is what I am not going to do: I am not going to go to a restaurant, take pictures of my food, download them, and call that a blog. That is beyond the pale. The Internet is such a bazaar of self-indulgences that I don't know why that particular one should bug me so much. But it really does.




Books mentioned in this post

Palladio

Jonathan Dee

Privileges

Jonathan Dee
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2 Responses to "Wading In"

Miss Gretchen March 15, 2010 at 04:44 PM
P.S. Just read your article "Right-Wing Flame War!" in the Times. Golly! You know all about blogs. . .certain kinds of blogs. No wonder you are treading lightly! I've read this blog for many years now and I don't think it will get as explosive as what you reported on. Just don't criticize the series LOST and it should be OK.

Miss Gretchen March 15, 2010 at 01:29 PM
Thank you for that great Jonathan Richman song Mr. Dee! It's a nice bookend to "Pablo Picasso was never called. . ." (would PP have had a cell phone? Probably on it day and night like Russell Simmons [who I once stood next to ordering a smoothie, talking to a fan, and on the cell, all at once] I imagine.) For the next few days, erase the word "blog" from your mind. Write a few paragraphs a day sharing something about your writing, your mini-tour, your teaching, your students, or your book that the people who read Powell's Books Blog -- dedicated readers -- might be interested to know. Hey, perhaps we might be moved to buy your book! Even better! There really are blogs out there where people do not discuss their lunch. (If the only novel I had ever read was The Da Vinci Code, and I concluded that I don't like novels, what would you say?) Also, I can tell you that before the internet my letters to friends were filled with way more misstatements of fact when I relied upon my brain than now, when I can instantly use a search engine to double-check myself (as I've done three times in these paragraphs.) I read the daily New York Times for one kind of news article and Harper's ;-) for another. Blogs are not the be-all and end-all of written expression. They serve their purpose. A pretzel is not a good lunch, but it is a good snack. There, I've discussed lunch (as well as used an emoticon and too many exclamation points!) Happy?

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