An 'appropriate' response is kind of difficult to come up with because I've already done multiple responses to this essay, each in different forms and now I feel obligated to blog or journal or whatever with some original content. I guess that might be a problem with a lot of these blog entries.
Well, at the risk of sounding like the super negative person that I probably am, I feel like David Sedaris is kind of overrated. I know? How pretentious and annoying does that make me sound?
I mean, I do like him. I hadn't read much of his writings until recently (well, I still haven't read 'much' of his stuff) but I had heard him on the radio quite a bit. And he's funny, I suppose. And I tend to like that kind of self-deprecating humor that he seems to employ. In short, I like him. But I feel like America REALLY TOTALLY COMPLETELY OBSESSIVELY loves him right now, and I'm not sure why.
After at least some very small amount of thought, I've decided there are a few options here.
- I'm totally off in my perception that everybody is super in love with this guy. This is a very likely option.
- It's just a matter of the right place at the right time type of a thing. I mean, since I admit myself that him and his work are very likable, it's not hard to see how a bit of the right exposure could really make him mega-popular.
- He's just really 'accessible'. It really doesn't take a lot of effort to read his work and it immediately pays off by being funny. Additionally, he's not limited with the type of audience that might be interested in him. He doesn't write in some obscure style that would limit him to only fans of that obscure style, he just... I don't know... writes.
While working a string of odd jobs across Raleigh, Chicago and New York City, Sedaris was discovered reading his diary (which he has kept since 1977) in a Chicago club by radio host Ira Glass, who asked Sedaris to appear on his weekly local program The Wild Room.[19] Sedaris later said, "I owe everything to Ira....My life just changed completely, like someone waved a magic wand."
His stuff is kind of funny, but white people go crazy and will pay hundreds of dollars to hear him read from his own book. Let me say that again, they will pay money to see someone read from a book they have already read. They know the jokes are coming, they know the punch lines, but they feel the need to hear the author actually say it.
White people universally love David Sedaris. So if they ever ask you “who are you favorite authors?” you should always reply “David Sedaris.” They will instantly launch into a story about how much they love his work, and the conversation will go from there, and you don’t have to talk about books any more.
It is also safer than saying Jonathan Franzen, Dave Eggers, or Shakespeare. White people are very divided on these authors and might actually ask you questions about why you like them. Stick with David Sedaris, you can’t lose! If they do you press you, just say “I read a lot, and I never laugh out loud from a writer, but Sedaris is just brilliant.”
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