In the near future world of Super Sad True Love Story, books are called “media artifacts” and are regarded as too smelly to own.
When I ask Gary if he is really as pessimistic about the future of books as all that, he proclaims, “Over! So over! Oh my god.” When I point out that there will always be bookish types such as ourselves, he counters, “How many of us will remain? Will there be 3 million of us? Will there be 300,000 of us? Will there be 30,000 of us? How much will it take for me to sustain a living doing what I do best, well, doing the only thing I know how to do? Well, actually, I don’t even know how to read.”
... According to Shteyngart, the bookless future is going to be very “slutty,” which is what he likes about it. It’s going to be great, with see-through jeans, and he can’t wait.
August 3, 2010
"Don’t get the shorts in the picture!.... If that leaked to Europe, I wouldn’t get any sales there!"
Said Gary Shteyngart, author of "Super Sad True Love Story."
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5 comments:
Fiction is in decline, possibly terminal. But there's a tremendous appetite for history and biography.
Q: You’ve spent ten years on the Lower East Side, and it figures in all three of your novels. Now that you are living off the LES will the neighborhood still play a part in your fiction?
A: Absolutely. It’s still the only diverse neighborhood left in downtown Manhattan. The three H’s: Hasidic, Hispanic, and Hipster. Those are necessary to make an interesting story. It’s full of characters and the douchebag quotient is very low, relatively speaking, of course.
The douchebag quotient is very low? Somehow, I think not.
Knox: Whether the douchebag quotient is low on the LES depends on what you're measuring it against. Shteyngart is now living on the Upper West Side, and for sure, the douchebag quotient there is much, much higher.
And who is Gary Shteyngart and why should I listen to him?
"And who is Gary Shteyngart and why should I listen to him?"
Apparently, a very funny guy and gifted writer. I'll try and read this book if I can ever get off the damned internet.
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