FOT Forum
FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: J. Garbage on June 06, 2009, 05:08:05 PM
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...anyone read this thing? I'm assuming it's part of a novel and that's why it's totally unsatisfying as a story. I suspect it's some kind of allegory about the downfall of American liberalism or some such? White liberal nightmares? Grand Canyon?? I don't know, thought it sucked. Thanks for your time.
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I didn't read it, but I'd like to praise Jonathan Lethem's recent New Yorker story entitled "Ava's Apartment".
http://www.newyorker.com/fiction/features/2009/05/25/090525fi_fiction_lethem?currentPage=all
I read this story a few days after hearing Tom talk about Dogmo ... the Lethem story is a similar tribute to animals that make the world a better place.
Not to get all "Marley and Me" on y'all ... but anyway, it's a good story, you can print it out and read it for free ... I really liked it.
By the way, when did all the Johnathans and Johns become Jonathans and Jons?
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I didn't read it, but I'd like to praise Jonathan Lethem's recent New Yorker story entitled "Ava's Apartment".
Wait, you're praising a story you haven't read? What cheek!
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By the way, when did all the Johnathans and Johns become Jonathans and Jons?
Though Jons used to be Johns, Jonathans have always been Jonathans. "Johnathan" is a modern corruption.
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The Lethem story is awesome. I'm actually saving it for Tom, but it's way too soon.
And now I am about to name-drop a dog: I know the real Ava, who really is a three-legged pit bull.
As for Franzen, meh. I dug The Corrections when it came out, and was briefly swept up in the hype surrounding his Harper's article, but it becomes clearer and clearer that he's a pretentious douche, and that his only real agenda is returning to a 1956-65 that only existed in his imagination.
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"Jonathan" and "John" are different names. "Jon" is short for Jonathan. This is The Way. "John" is short for nothing.
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The Lethem story is awesome. I'm actually saving it for Tom, but it's way too soon.
And now I am about to name-drop a dog: I know the real Ava, who really is a three-legged pit bull.
As for Franzen, meh. I dug The Corrections when it came out, and was briefly swept up in the hype surrounding his Harper's article, but it becomes clearer and clearer that he's a pretentious douche, and that his only real agenda is returning to a 1956-65 that only existed in his imagination.
Yeah, I like The Corrections, but have you read How To Be Alone? Eww boy. I'll tell you how to be alone: adopt the personality of the man who wrote this book.
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Looks like you guys are having a Jonathon! :D
(This post is also an example of how to be alone)
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The Lethem story is awesome. I'm actually saving it for Tom, but it's way too soon.
And now I am about to name-drop a dog: I know the real Ava, who really is a three-legged pit bull.
Cool! So, that story also featured an "abandoned" but somewhat well-appointed apartment building that got turned into a defacto animal shelter/residence ... does that have any corollary in NYC reality? I know Beverly Hills has those ridiculous swanky dog hotels, but the concept of "Ava's apartment" was a little different from that ...
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The Lethem story is awesome. I'm actually saving it for Tom, but it's way too soon.
And now I am about to name-drop a dog: I know the real Ava, who really is a three-legged pit bull.
Cool! So, that story also featured an "abandoned" but somewhat well-appointed apartment building that got turned into a defacto animal shelter/residence ... does that have any corollary in NYC reality? I know Beverly Hills has those ridiculous swanky dog hotels, but the concept of "Ava's apartment" was a little different from that ...
The real dog is owned by a bookseller in NY, who has a home, and who used to own a shop that Lethem worked in -- though I'd imagine that the idea for the story had to have come from somewhere.