Wackbag Book Club- April 2014- Time for Time Travel

[Creasy Bear]

I'm reading I, Fatty.

This may just be one of the funniest things I've ever seen, read, or experienced in my entire life.

Thank you to @LiddyRules for recommending this book(where the fuck did you find this masterpiece?)... and thanks to @whiskeyguy, my dear fellow sot, for *ahem* making said read available.

I was reading it on the plane as I was flying out to West Dakota here, and I was making a spectacle of myself I was laughing so hard. I was actually making the girl who was sitting next to me read passages out of it, and we were laughing together. Seriously... she was getting pissed at me because the whole row of seats was shaking because I was laughing so hard... and pretty soon she was joining in the lolzing.

The author of this book is me! Or at least it should be me. It's the kind of writing I aspire to. It's MY writing style! My writing style perfected.

The book reads like if my Here's to Swimmin' thread had been written by a competent, practiced, professional writer... instead of just a lazy drunk who got lucky in life.

I'm still reading the book. It's taking me forever, because I'm actually going back and rereading entire passages... to study the style.

It's that good. Do yourself a favor... read this book.

 

[LiddyRules]

I'm reading I, Fatty.

This may just be one of the funniest things I've ever seen, read, or experienced in my entire life.

Thank you to @LiddyRules for recommending this book(where the fuck did you find this masterpiece?)... and thanks to @whiskeyguy, my dear fellow sot, for *ahem* making said read available.

I was reading it on the plane as I was flying out to West Dakota here, and I was making a spectacle of myself I was laughing so hard. I was actually making the girl who was sitting next to me read passages out of it, and we were laughing together. Seriously... she was getting pissed at me because the whole row of seats was shaking because I was laughing so hard... and pretty soon she was joining in the lolzing.

The author of this book is me! Or at least it should be me. It's the kind of writing I aspire to. It's MY writing style! My writing style perfected.

The book reads like if my Here's to Swimmin' thread had been written by a competent, practiced, professional writer... instead of just a lazy drunk who got lucky in life.

I'm still reading the book. It's taking me forever, because I'm actually going back and rereading entire passages... to study the style.

It's that good. Do yourself a favor... read this book.

It's by Jerry Stahl, a writer for Alf who became addicted to heroin. I read his memoir Permanent Midnight (made into a movie with Ben Stiller) and wanted to check out his other offerings.

 

[Creasy Bear]

It's by Jerry Stahl, a writer for Alf who became addicted to heroin. I read his memoir Permanent Midnight (made into a movie with Ben Stiller) and wanted to check out his other offerings.

@BIV once encouraged me to write. In my Swimmin' thread he told me I should write... not exclusively about my own dumb self... as I'm wont to do, but, he said I should take my own sense of humor, and my own writing style and situations from my own life experiences, and just apply them to a fictional story.

I couldn't really see it... because I'm a dunderhead.

But now I see what's possible. This Jerry Stahl is a mess... and a great writer. He found a real character, and a fellow mess, and he just used him to make like... like a literary puppet show.

He uses his own experience as a drunken, drugged up buffoon, and he applies it to Fatty Arbuckle in a fictional way... and he makes him perform like a puppet. It's fictional... but in no way over the top or unrealistic. It's fucking spot on.

I can do that. I want to do that.

Instead of my own life... I want to narrate, in the third person, the fictional story of a puppet of my own.

And I'm going to get around to doing it sometime soon... after I polish off this bottle of rum maybe.

 

[DrewDown]

Well, shit. Let's just read I, Fatty. I love a good loff.

 

[Jacuzzi Billy]

I'm intrigued. I change my vote too.

 

[BIV]

@BIV once encouraged me to write. In my Swimmin' thread he told me I should write... not exclusively about my own dumb self... as I'm wont to do, but, he said I should take my own sense of humor, and my own writing style and situations from my own life experiences, and just apply them to a fictional story.

I couldn't really see it... because I'm a dunderhead.

But now I see what's possible. This Jerry Stahl is a mess... and a great writer. He found a real character, and a fellow mess, and he just used him to make like... like a literary puppet show.

He uses his own experience as a drunken, drugged up buffoon, and he applies it to Fatty Arbuckle in a fictional way... and he makes him perform like a puppet. It's fictional... but in no way over the top or unrealistic. It's fucking spot on.

I can do that. I want to do that.

Instead of my own life... I want to narrate, in the third person, the fictional story of a puppet of my own.

And I'm going to get around to doing it sometime soon... after I polish off this bottle of rum maybe.

This could be the bestest thing that ever came out of Wackbag.
Then again, the result of the attention could get some of us sued.

Fuck it. Tell me a tale, THP.

 

[Creasy Bear]

This could be the bestest thing that ever came out of Wackbag.
Then again, the result of the attention could get some of us sued.

Fuck it. Tell me a tale, THP.

Hold on... still workin' on this bottle of rum.

 

[Kugzilla]

So what are we reading?

 

[whiskeyguy]

So what are we reading?

Seems to be Inherent Vice. I'll probably start tonight.

 

[Kugzilla]

I have them all loaded. Just need to figure out wanting to read something

 

[Psychopath]

If I read I'll let you know. I have too much stuff on my plate right now.

 

[whiskeyguy]

I'm about 8% in. At first I didn't like the writing style, but it's starting to grow on me. I still have no idea where this novel is going (since I try to read as little as possible about them before starting).

 

[Jacuzzi Billy]

Got Miami Vice today.

 

[whiskeyguy]

That asterisk next to Post Office on the top of the page scared me (as most asterisks do)... I thought I was reading the wrong book but realized it was just showing me which book I voted for.

I don't function too well when I'm hungover.

 

[Jacuzzi Billy]

That asterisk next to Post Office on the top of the page scared me (as most asterisks do)... I thought I was reading the wrong book but realized it was just showing me which book I voted for.

I don't function too well when I'm hungover.

You are a smart fella.*



*sometimes

 

[DrewDown]

I've started Inherent Vice and I'm enjoying it. For those of you who aren't sure about the first chapter, it starts rolling quickly in chapter 2.

I keep thinking of Doc as Brother Wease.

Apparently it's a movie now, coming out in December. Joaquin Phoenix stars as Doc. Josh Brolin is Bigfoot Bjornsen.

 

[Tetro]

@LiddyRules, you cool with us starting Inherent Vice? If so, I'll begin tomorrow.

 

[LiddyRules]

@LiddyRules, you cool with us starting Inherent Vice? If so, I'll begin tomorrow.

I'm cool with whatever, homes.

 

[whiskeyguy]

Ok, so I may be talking to myself on this one. 40% in and I'll have more time to read this weekend. It kind of got off to a rough start for me... the dialogue is hard to follow and the constant references to the hippy lifestyle can be a little obnoxious. However at 40% in I'm starting to really get into the story, and the chaotic writing style kind of works now.

 

[DrewDown]

Ok, so I may be talking to myself on this one. 40% in and I'll have more time to read this weekend. It kind of got off to a rough start for me... the dialogue is hard to follow and the constant references to the hippy lifestyle can be a little obnoxious. However at 40% in I'm starting to really get into the story, and the chaotic writing style kind of works now.

Completely agree with this assessment. Sauncho both bugs me and makes me laugh. Honestly, I was just sitting here reading it and wondering if I'm the only one working on this book. Glad to hear there are others.

 

[whiskeyguy]

Completely agree with this assessment. Sauncho both bugs me and makes me laugh. Honestly, I was just sitting here reading it and wondering if I'm the only one working on this book. Glad to hear there are others.

Yeah I'm still on it... just didn't have much time to read during the first half of this month.

 

[DrewDown]

Yeah I'm still on it... just didn't have much time to read during the first half of this month.

Same here. You're farther than I am. He's still bumbling around collecting info on the Golden Fang.

 

[whiskeyguy]

Finally finished. Overall I liked the novel. I really enjoyed some of the characters... they were a little cliche but it seems like the book had fun with that so it worked. The plot was decent, but too disjointed. Maybe it would have worked if I read longer in one sitting, but it seemed to be all over the place and at some points I had a difficult time following it. There also wasn't exactly much of a resolution.