Booklicious: Six Degrees of Shakespeare, Hemingway, and Never Gonna Be You

August 23, 2011

| 2 comments]

While I was in L.A. last week (at last! an explanation for the lack of posts!), I encountered a guy who, if he knew of this illustration's existence, would undoubtedly describe himself as an soon-to-be branch of this tangle of illustrious greats. When I -— aided by several whiskey sours — openly laughed at his description of the screenplay he's working on — "yah, he's a rich and privileged guy who knows everyone in Hollywood, but he keeps fucking up, but he's actually, like, really talented and brilliant, and you know, it's semi-autobiographical and really interesting" — he sneered, "Haven't you heard of Fitzgerald? It's like that." Yes, I'm quite certain you are the literary heir to one of the 20th century's biggest luminaries. Shame on me for snickering. (Waiter, I'm gonna need my next whiskey to be a double, thanks.) Seeing he had not swayed me, he compared his unrepped, unproduced scribblings to that other bastion of modern writing – Entourage. "It's like Entourage, and everyone watches Entourage. I think everyone will relate to this character." Goodness, how could people fail to relate to what you describe as a "privileged but fucked-up character" who went to an Ivy League school and landed his entertainment-industry job thanks to his entertainment-industry-veteran parents? I know that's exactly the kind of person I am rooting for in these economic times. I am totally setting my DVR for that shit. 

(Oh, and you ignorant tosser — before you bring up Fitzgerald, make sure you actually know what he thought of writing for Hollywood. As a writer of screenplays, he described himself as "an old whore.")

You can read more about the engrossing graphic here (you should, it's very interesting), and you can purchase a print of it here for $20. Yes, really!

2 comments

Dani said... @ August 24, 2011 at 6:54 PM

So glad you're back! I missed your posts last week. I love your blog. I hope you had a great trip to L.A.

Evangeline said... @ August 24, 2011 at 8:37 PM

Thanks, Dani! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. I did have a good trip - I had some fab quality time with old friends and ate far too much good food.

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