The Daily Rumpus
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From Stephen Elliott
Sometimes I think about money. But what about money? Last night I went wheat pasting in Williamsburg. I was with two girls in their twenties. I said I hoped they weren’t still hanging posters on construction sites with homemade glue when they were in their late thirties.
(I’m interviewing people I meet as I tour across the country) Padma Viswanathan moved to Fayetteville in the summer of 2006. Before Fayetteveille she lived in Tuscon where she did an MFA in creative writing and before that she lived in San Francisco with my ex-girlfriend.
For the next couple of months I’m on book tour for my memoir, The Adderall Diaries. It occurred to me to start interviewing some of the people I meet. I’m hoping not to interview the most interesting or eccentric people.
It’s noon and I’m leaving Columbus. Last night’s reading was kind of a hybrid. I was invited to read at OSU by Michelle Herman but it was unpaid, so it was kind of like a house party, but more like a University reading.
...moreI’m back on book tour and I have many things on my mind. The unfortunate thing might be that you publish a book and you learn certain things and then years later you publish another book, and by then everything has changed.
...moreI’m in a backyard in Las Vegas, a week into this book tour, the morning after my third home reading. I’m still collecting data, but in the three homes every crowd has been different. Last night there were some people who came because of the write-up in the Las Vegas Weekly.
...moreLast night was my second home reading, in Austin, Texas. There were close to 30 people. Amanda Eyre Ward brought brisket. I read at the front of the living room, near the kitchen. Doug Dorst opened for me and Book People, the local bookstore, sold books.
...moreYesterday was my first house reading, in Lincoln, Nebraska. It was organized by Gunter Voelker, who read The Adderall Diaries through the lending library. The event was in Clawfoot House, which is really just his friend Ember’s apartment. She hosts bands that come through town and they play shows in her living room.
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“Why are you doing these interviews?”
Wendi – Writer
We first met at a party at Lauren’s house. Pat brought you. I think you were in sixth grade, I was in seventh, he was in eighth. You were looking around the room, like your head was spinning, trying to take it all in, and there really wasn’t much to take in, just bowls of potato chips, nothing on TV.
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I put myself in the group home. I was in the therapist office with my mom and I said, “I give up. I’m not going to try anymore,” meaning getting along with my mom, and he suggested the group home. To me it was a terrific idea.
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Jenni – Patient Account Representative
I treat people the way I’m treated, with the same respect. I’m not worried about your feelings.
...moreI followed some links this morning that brought me to this, Why I Write For Free, which is kind of an indictment of this, by Benjamin Kunkel, which is kind of an indictment of reading and writing for free online.
...moreIn 2005 I began interviewing people I grew up with and transcribing the interviews, creating a kind of memoir but in other people’s words. What’s most interesting turns out not so much to be the things we remember differently as the things we remember the same.
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In 2005 I began interviewing people I grew up with and transcribing the interviews, creating a kind of memoir but in other people’s words.
I left home at thirteen and spent a year on the streets, more or less, and four years in group homes. Because of that my social network was significantly wider than average. In 2005 I began interviewing people I grew up with and transcribing the interviews, creating a kind of memoir but in other people’s words.
...moreIf you subscribed to The Daily Rumpus, this is the email you would have received this morning:
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HOW TO MARKET YOUR LIFE
It turns out there’s four table legs when it comes to getting people out to an event.
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I spent the weekend in New York at Book Expo America and throwing a big fat party with McSweeney’s and SMITHMAG. The party was amazing, over 500 people, inspired performances.
But I want to say something about Book Expo.
Literature is not dying.
...moreIn 2005 I began interviewing people I grew up with. Because I left home at thirteen and spent four years in group homes, my social network was significantly wider than most people of that age. What’s most interesting about these interviews turns out not so much to be the things we remember differently as the things we remember the same.
...moreIn 2005 I began interviewing people I grew up with. Because I left home at thirteen and spent four years in group homes, my social network was significantly wider than most people of that age. What’s most interesting about these interviews turns out not so much to be the things we remember differently as the things we remember the same.
...moreYesterday I pitched a television show. It was kind of accidental, like a lot of my life, like how I ended up in San Francisco. At the time I was just wandering around the country, fresh out of an engagement and out of cash.
...moreDan – Assistant Restaurant Manger
My earliest memories of you are on the bus, third grade. That’s where you stood out, gaining laughs through insulting others. I was the recipient of those insults. I can clearly remember you singing: Oh Dan don’t wear no socks/I saw him when he took them off/He through them in the sky/Now the birds refuse to fly.
...moreJohn – X-Ray Technician
It was like third or fourth grade when we first met. It was you, me, your sister, and my brother. We were all into comics. Later, you and I would rob the comic store. We weren’t the only ones to rob the comic store.
...moreIn 2005 I began interviewing people I grew up with. Because I left home at thirteen and spent four years in group homes, my social network was significantly wider than most people of that age. What’s most interesting about these interviews turns out not so much to be the things we remember differently as the things we remember the same.
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I was trying to distill Austin, Texas and this giant music festival into nuggets of wisdom. Isn’t that what writing is, making sense of our experience? But how do you make sense of a good time?
It occurred to me this morning, because the hottest party in Austin is the Fader/Levi’s party (that’s not really true, it depends on your measurements, it’s complicated), but it reminded me that the people making money in 1849 weren’t digging for gold, they were making pants.
...moreI just finished “The Unfinished,” D.T. Max’ fantastic posthumous profile of David Foster Wallace. The article was so sad, but also profound. “His goal,” Max writes, “had been to show readers how to live a fulfilled and meaningful life.” It was also Wallace’s goal to lead that kind of life.
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