tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3752457333383090137.post8549453091691017775..comments2024-03-22T05:48:33.690-07:00Comments on Uncensored John Simon: Unwritten MemoirsJohn Simonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00876490457067235124noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3752457333383090137.post-85056292725123927272013-08-04T08:57:57.706-07:002013-08-04T08:57:57.706-07:00I meant to add to my above comment that Mr. Simon&...I meant to add to my above comment that Mr. Simon's foot anecdote about Geneviève Bujold is exactly what I'm talking about.Hesperadohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10394374828751466705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3752457333383090137.post-59507132732344186522013-08-04T08:51:47.329-07:002013-08-04T08:51:47.329-07:00I think I disagree with noochinator's prescrip...I think I disagree with noochinator's prescriptive recommendation for Mr. Simon. It's not so much a matter of a broad sweep of history and culture that matters in a memoir (and frankly it sounds rather boring), as it is whether the memoirist has had an eye for noticing, and a knack for recalling, quintessential moments. <br /><br />Kurt Vonnegut's <i>Wampeters, Foma, and Gonfalons</i>, for example, has a remembered moment when he was at a writer conference and the question of how many instances of "And so it goes" appeared in his most famous novel, <i>Slaughterhouse-Five</i>, came up. Vonnegut reports that during a break in the conference, John Simon, one of the attendees, was nowhere to be found -- and when a few minutes later he returned to rejoin the conference, he told Vonnegut exactly how many instances of that phrase were in his book. I.e., he had apparently gone off to count them all. Vonnegut found this remarkable enough to memorialize (and wisely and wryly left it as is without any commentary).Hesperadohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10394374828751466705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3752457333383090137.post-44153859022764491522013-08-04T03:24:11.645-07:002013-08-04T03:24:11.645-07:00An excerpt from a kind of memoir
That through the ...An excerpt from a kind of memoir<br />That through the years goes coursin'---<br />Hank Jaglom dishing dirt at lunch<br />With Welles; from 'My Lunches with Orson':<br /><br />Henry Jaglom (HJ): It’s like in Israel, where there’s no art now. All these Jews, they thought they were gonna have a renaissance, and suddenly, they’re producing a great air force, but no artists. All those incredible virtues of the centuries—<br /><br />Orson Welles (OW): They left all that in Europe. Who needs it? They get to Israel, and they sort of go into retirement.<br /><br />HJ: Their theater is boring; their film is boring. Painting and sculpture—<br /><br />OW: Boring. You know, the only time they make good music is when Zubin Mehta, a Hindu, comes to conduct.<br /><br />HJ: It’s amazing. When the Jews were in Poland, every pianist in the world—<br /><br />OW: Every fiddler who ever lived was Jewish. It was a total Russian-Jewish, Polish-Jewish monopoly. Now they’re all Japanese and Orientals. [Arthur] Rubinstein is gone.<br /><br />HJ: Last year.<br /><br />OW: I knew Rubinstein for forty years, very well. I told you his greatest line. I was with him at a concert in Albert Hall, and I had no seat, so I listened to the concert sitting in the wings. He finished. Wild applause. And as he walked into the wings to mop his face off, he said to me, “You know, they applauded just as loudly last Thursday, when I played well.”<br /><br />HJ: Dying at ninety-five is not bad. He had a full life.<br /><br />OW: Did he ever.<br /><br />HJ: It’s true, all that, then? That he fucked everybody?<br /><br />OW: He was the greatest cocksman of the nineteenth century. Of the twentieth century. The greatest charmer, linguist, socialite, raconteur. Never practiced. He always used to say, “You know, I’m not nearly as good a pianist technically, as many of my rivals, because I am too lazy to practice. I just don’t like to. [Vladimir] Horowitz can do more than I can. He sits there and works. I like to enjoy life. I play clinkers all the time.” But, he says, “I play it better with the clinkers.”<br /><br />HJ: And Horowitz hates his life, and for fifteen years hasn’t been able to play or even move.<br /><br />OW: Rubinstein walked through life as though it was one big party.<br /><br />HJ: And then ended it with this young girl. Didn’t he leave his wife after forty-five years when he was ninety to run off with a thirty-one-year-old woman?<br /><br />OW: Like Casals. Who suddenly, at the age of eighty-seven or something, came up with a Lolita.<br /><br />noochinatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12584058407655395128noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3752457333383090137.post-52123632308043653272013-08-03T11:04:01.545-07:002013-08-03T11:04:01.545-07:00Simon is going about this all wrong. Most people d...Simon is going about this all wrong. Most people don't care about memoirs about the little details of someone's life... unless that person is really famous and slept with a lot of sexy people. I doubt if Simon was 007. <br /><br />But Simon can write an interesting memoir around certain major themes as surely so much changed in the arts, culture, and society--and thoughts, theories, and values related to them--during his lifetime. Surely, he noticed the changes at Harvard over the yrs, from the 50s to the 60s to the 70s to the 90s and etc. <br />Surely, he was part of the film culture debate with MacDonald, Sarris, Kael, and the rest. Surely, he remembers the times when he became notorious in some circles. <br />Surely, there's something to be said about him writing for National Review and New Criterion, two politically conservative journals at which John Simon was only a cultural conservative, as many of his political views tend to be Liberal. <br />Surely, he has witnessed a sea change in European culture, with so much Europe becoming Americanized. And surely he had certain feelings about Yugoslavia during the Cold War and when it went up in flames after the Cold War. Ironically, end of cold war led to hot war there. <br /><br />So, instead of bothering about with whom Simon had lunch or dinner when or where, Simon should write a memoir revolving around certain broad themes that defined his own life and views in relation to the larger world. In what ways did the world change but not him? In what ways did he change but maybe not the world so much? <br /><br />A good model for this kind of memoir is William Friedkin's recent book THE FRIEDKIN CONNECTION: A MEMOIR. Though there is much that Friedkin doesn't remember and much that he passes over, he recounts the things that really mattered in his life and maybe the world, at least the movie world. Thus, Friedkin gives us a sense of broad sweep of his life with emphasis on certain high points. <br /><br />Simon could do the same. He should ask himself: what were the basic themes and goals of my life? What are my main convictions, passions, loves, and hatred? When did I feel most successful and happy, most certain that I meant something in the world of culture? Why did some things go right, why did some thing go wrong in my life and the world of culture? Who deserves the credit, who deserves blame? When was I right, when was I wrong looking back? Which of my students became famous people? Who were the teachers and inspirations that led me to the life of a critic? <br /><br />If he thinks along such lines, he can write an interesting memoir. But if he's gonna idly remember various personalities he had lunch with, I mean who cares? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3752457333383090137.post-10198627186938919272013-08-02T06:18:32.932-07:002013-08-02T06:18:32.932-07:00Impresario Jacques Leiser is writing his memoirs,
...Impresario Jacques Leiser is writing his memoirs,<br />He'll publish them via e-book---<br />He used to accompany A.B. Michelangeli<br />On tours---should be worth a look---<br /><br />And he claims that in his years managing A.B.M.,<br />The pianist never canceled a concert! Hot d--n.noochinatorhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12584058407655395128noreply@blogger.com