I Think I Am, But I am No Different Than the Dumb Masses
I feel like I haven't been reading very much lately, but I do think i have been thinking about fiction and writing, and it is seeping into my blogging. Here is another one, except not really about literature per se, but more about one of the rockstars of modern literature: Gabriel Garcia Marquez. (I am too lazy to figure out the accents, but I know where they belong.)
"Rockstar," you say?
You see, the New York Times contained an interesting article this morning about Garcia Marquez and the shiner he received from fellow author, Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa (whom I have never read). A photographer captured the black eye, received in the 70's as part of a thirty-year feud between the authors.
Aside from being a really cool photograph, the story behind it is completely titillating. I could not help myself, as soon as I saw the headline, from clicking to read the full article, and even more, to see the picture itself.
And that is when it hit me. This has nothing to do with Garcia Marquez's masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude. It has everything to do with me wanting to know the details behind his feud with another author, over a woman no less.
And really, how does that make me much different than these losers who want to know the grisly details of Anna Nicole Smith's life and death? My interest in the individual may stem from a different source (my love for his writing) than theirs (Wealth? Fame? Large Breasts? I cannot begin to imagine why one would be so interested in someone so completely void of holding interest for me.) But in the end, the lowest common denominator is that I wanted to see the black eye, and hear the lurid story of one author's life in much the same way that millions want to see Britney's shaved head.
Quite humbling, really.
Labels: Garcia Marquez, Literature, Musings
posted by Dogwood Girl @ 8:52 AM
10 comments
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10 Comments:
Whoa- don't be so hard on yourself- the huge difference is that you want to know the details (be they seamy and petty or otherwise)of an incredibly talented and deservedly lauded hard working master class writer. I think you've sort of earned that right if you appreciate someone like GGM in the first place.
Good god, you are fast on the draw. I just wrote this like ten minutes ago.
I know you are right, and of course I still feel superior to these people, but really? I just wanted to see the black eye and hear why he got it in the first place. It had little to do with his writing. It had nothing to do with his writing. :-)
That being said, did you look at the picture? Awesome picture. I love a guy with a shiner. Always have.
And see I just wanted to the shiner because I wanted to see once and for all what Marquez looked like. You know to see if he was hot or not-- since most authors, are not. And yeah, he looks Geraldo. Dissappointing. But just because he is Gabriel Garcia Marquez and he writes such beautiful stuff he is hot.
But yeah, we are all little voyers. That is why blogs are so much fun.
I thought bloggers were all narcissists? :)
Nat, I totally agree. He is hot purely on his writing.
Anonymous - I think you are right. Bloggers = narcissists. Blog Readers = voyeurs.
I think you can attribute the trainwreck-gawking at GGM or ANS to an overactive sense of "there but for the grace of God go I" - not necessarily a love of smut or gossip.
At least, that is my excuse.
Yeah, maybe Steph. But i think, Damn, fistfight over a woman? 30- year feud? I think i glamorize that in my mind - Great writer has 30 year feud with author friend, unrequited love relationship with friend's wife, annd shiner results. It just seems so. . . romantic and tumultuous.
Anna Nicole Smith? Sad and trashy. I don't CARE.
huge breasts..definitely
I dunno, unrequited love for someone else's wife seems a little sad and trashy to me.
Brian, leave it to you.
Steph - yes, in reality, lusting for someone else's wife is not so classy, but it makes for a romantic story.
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