Tip of Hat or Wag of Finger?
Stephen Colbert has a celebrity kids book, I Am A Pole, publishing in a few weeks. As an author/illustrator, who works pretty hard at it, I hate celebrity books, and the people that make them.
But I'm a big fan of Stephen Colbert. So what do I do? Do I give his new book—which I haven't seen—a "tip of the hat" or a "wag of the finger?"
Tip of the Hat!
There's an anecdote, I love, about Salvador Dali: At the top of his career, Dali assembled a group of reporters on an airport tarmac. He told them that they (and the art world in general) were such a bunch of sycophants that they would buy anything he put his name on because he's famous. To prove it, he then takes a shotgun (full of paint?) and destroys the canvas displayed in front of them.
As foretold, the bidding for the "masterpiece" begins before the artist's gun was cool.
This is how I see Stephen Colbert. He takes a gleeful pride in letting everyone know his book is crap, but that people will buy it only because he's famous.
And he's right. They will. Hell, they'll probably give him a Caldecott.
But I'm a big fan of Stephen Colbert. So what do I do? Do I give his new book—which I haven't seen—a "tip of the hat" or a "wag of the finger?"
Tip of the Hat!
There's an anecdote, I love, about Salvador Dali: At the top of his career, Dali assembled a group of reporters on an airport tarmac. He told them that they (and the art world in general) were such a bunch of sycophants that they would buy anything he put his name on because he's famous. To prove it, he then takes a shotgun (full of paint?) and destroys the canvas displayed in front of them.
As foretold, the bidding for the "masterpiece" begins before the artist's gun was cool.
This is how I see Stephen Colbert. He takes a gleeful pride in letting everyone know his book is crap, but that people will buy it only because he's famous.
And he's right. They will. Hell, they'll probably give him a Caldecott.
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