rumpus interview w/ eggers

[Patrick, photographic eye]

http://therumpus.net/2009/06/the-rump...

[Jonathan, the skipper]

. . . thanks for posting this, patrick . . .dave eggers is a badass dude . . .

[Jonathan, the skipper]

. . . oh yeah, and hey everybody, i went to my mailbox yesterday, and guess whose smiling mug greeted me on the cover of my beloved library news? that's, right, partick!

[Dan, deadpan man]

Thanks for posting this patrick, it was a good read. I tend to be on the side of liking dave eggers' work. some of it can be hit or miss but whether you like him or are annoyed by him the guy does a ton of good for other people and that is pretty remarkable.

also i really liked his short story collection. patrick is now a library news cover model? impressive.

[James]

Great link. Never really got the Eggers haters. Hard to come up with a writer more committed to independent publishing and progressive social projects.

[Dan, deadpan man]

Here is a TED talk Egger's gives about his 826 tutoring centers. it is pretty amazing.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dave_eggers_...

[Maureen, mo-nemclature]

James wrote: "Great link. Never really got the Eggers haters. Hard to come up with a writer more committed to independent publishing and progressive social projects."

well jpo, i hate his writing. i don't hate all that good stuff he does but as for his books, and his mcsweeney's and away we go, i could do without it. just a personal taste thing. :)

[Patrick, The Special School Bus Rider]

Yeah, his first book, Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genuis, I think it was a bit misshapened with the bloated end dealing with his mother dying of cancer and the thinnest end with the rest of his life.

But I still think it took a lot of courage to be honest in your writing, the part where he attempted to applied to the Real World and he confessed that he thought he could get in that show as a tragic kid who lost his mom at a young age was very real and honest which made his first book more interesting.

[James]

Maureen wrote: "James wrote: "Great link. Never really got the Eggers haters. Hard to come up with a writer more committed to independent publishing and progressive social projects."

well jpo, i hate his writing...."

Hate away on the writing. By Eggers-haters I was talking more about the people who turned on him because of his success and a perceived insider snarkiness surrounding McSweeneys. Of all the things to hate in the world, a lit journal is on the bottom of my list.

[Ben, uneasy in a position of power; a yorkshire pudding]

i'm a definite mcsweeney's hater! and every time they fool me into buying their crappy mag by disguising it as a bag of jelly beans or another 5'4" blond cheerleader it just pisses me off even more!

but the eggers, i liked the book of his i read quite a bit... it started right there on the cover. how come nobody ever thought of that before? ingenious, very ingenious.

[Matt, e-monk]

reasons to hate mcsweeney's:

packaging is over-rated

where the hell am I supposed to put this damn odd shaped multiple book set thingy anyway and how am I going to sell it when my customers cant open the damn thing because it is triple laminated and shrink wrapped and then dipped in chocolate - no ma'am or sir that is not a chocolate bar it is a 3 book set of fiction and essays by fresh new authors also it comes with a coolection of kitsch refrigerator magnets and transfer tattoos

those snide self superior people in that booth over in the PGW aisle? yeah that really is them

[Patrick, The Special School Bus Rider]

I don't know...I would have bought Mcsweeney's if it came with tranfer tattoos. Do they have one with GIJOE Snakeye? The old school type with the machine gun and the broadsword?

[Dan, deadpan man]

Matt wrote: " no ma'am or sir that is not a chocolate bar it is a 3 book set of fiction and essays by fresh new authors "

This might be my favorite post ever!

[Ben, uneasy in a position of power; a yorkshire pudding]

coolection!