James Urbaniak ([info]urbaniak) wrote,
@ 2007-08-04 22:51:00
Previous Entry  Add to memories!  Tell a Friend!  Next Entry
The Shadow of the Pulitzer: A Cautionary Tale
When the (Pulitzer Prize-winning) author Robert Olen Butler's wife left him for Ted Turner, Butler sent an e-mail to a group of his grad students offering his side of the story. Assuring the recipients that they "need not keep this to [themselves]," Butler encouraged them to forward the electronic missive to others in the department. "I really appreciate your help," he wrote.

A multi-layered and often bizarre portrait of a wounded ego, the e-mail unsurprisingly made its way beyond the department and was recently printed in full at Gawker.com. I've never read any Robert Olen Butler but if his books are anything like this e-mail I'm going to Barnes and Noble first thing in the morning. web stats script

(Post a new comment)


[info]55seddel
2007-08-05 06:26 am UTC (link)
perfect way to retort there.

BTW your LJ postings always kick 10 different kinds of a total of 14 flavors of ass (it is up to you to decide which flavors). thanks

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]binaisagnome
2007-08-05 12:18 pm UTC (link)
i'd like to think one flavor is sno-cone, wild cherry.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]st_rev
2007-08-05 06:55 am UTC (link)
The comment thread is like a warm, luxurious bath of schadenfreude topped to overflowing with a rich lather of snark.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]mmatthew
2007-08-05 07:15 am UTC (link)
ooo...good one.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]wedbertham
2007-08-05 11:08 am UTC (link)
I get the feeling that I'm missing something here.

With that said, I'm going to post a David Bowie video that is probably only new to myself:

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]craigjclark
2007-08-05 01:00 pm UTC (link)
Have no fear, that clip was new to me, too. And I'm glad you posted it because one of the related videos was Bowie & Cher performing a bizarre medley bookended by "Young Americans."

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]urbaniak
2007-08-06 02:26 am UTC (link)
If I'm not mistaken Nancy Walker also had a walk-on during the Glass Spider Tour.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]mimitabu
2007-08-05 12:25 pm UTC (link)
that email reminded me for a minute of the outrageous self-importance of the academy, and i immediately vomitted. when i got over that, i appreciated how funny the email is.

(Reply to this)


[info]craigjclark
2007-08-05 12:39 pm UTC (link)
Here's a sample of his prose, also courtesy of Gawker:

'Jealous Husband Returns In The Form Of A Parrot' By Robert Olen Butler

(Reply to this)


[info]chaosomega
2007-08-05 03:00 pm UTC (link)
Thanks, that was creepy... and also hilarious.

(Reply to this)


[info]brinagirl
2007-08-05 03:23 pm UTC (link)
Having sworn off Gawker almost a year ago because of their personal and unwarranted attacks against a friend of mine, I almost didn't click your link. But then I thought, "Maybe it's worth my time if James Urbaniak is posting it. I mean, he doesn't post crap, so it's got to be something worthwhile."

The thing is, I didn't laugh. It seemed sad and pathetic-crazy, not funny-crazy.

Alas. Gawker just doesn't do it for me any more.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]urbaniak
2007-08-05 03:35 pm UTC (link)
I understand your feelings about Gawker. I just find the e-mail a fascinating character study.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

[info]brinagirl
2007-08-05 07:15 pm UTC (link)
It is that. A sad character study, but a fascinating one. It makes me want to go out and find this man, and hug him, and then give him some tea and some mild sedatives and put him to bed. Also, to take away his computer.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
Classic!
[info]easterkat
2007-08-05 03:33 pm UTC (link)
My favorite comment:

"Is this going to be on the final?"

(Reply to this)


[info]revme
2007-08-05 04:36 pm UTC (link)
...am I weird for not really finding it funny or really too awfully weird? It was actually a pretty straight-forward email, I thought. I suppose the stuff about her abuse got a little too-much-informationy, but over all, it wasn't too bad. (The note, not the abuse.) I was expecting full-on "WHOOO! HAVE FUN COLORIZING MOVIES BITCH!!!" or something.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]urbaniak
2007-08-06 02:20 am UTC (link)
For me it's that he employs a voice of utter empathy and reason to passive-aggressively belittle the other parties and pump himself up. That this dynamic does not appear to be intentionally satirical is what gives the e-mail its WTF frisson.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)
I laughed, I cried, it was better than Lucrezia Floriani.
[info]ninjalicious
2007-08-06 02:46 am UTC (link)
When I first read and presumed it to be painstakingly tongue-in-cheek I thought it was hilarious.. in a drTY kind of way but hilarious nonetheless. Reading his later emails and responses creeped me the fuck out, of course. Somehow it read less vicious when it read snarky.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]jtron
2007-08-05 08:43 pm UTC (link)
I got really excited for a sec 'cause I thought this was about Fred Olen Ray.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

[info]urbaniak
2007-08-06 02:38 am UTC (link)
Far from it. The Pulitzer Committee hasn't awarded anything with "bikini" in the title since William Faulkner's "Bikini Hospital" (1957).

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

(Anonymous)
2007-08-06 01:45 pm UTC (link)
You are of course overlooking "Tan Lines: The Making of Suntanned Bikini" of 2003.

(Reply to this) (Parent)

[info]abbster88
2007-08-06 12:17 am UTC (link)
Wow...that was mad intense. I don't really know what to say other than how bad I feel for Butler's ex-wife. That poor woman's gotta have issues out the wazoo.

By the way, how is being in a relationship with a man who's got several other girlfriends NOT an abusive situation? I would find it really disturbing, if I were her.

(Reply to this)


[info]malsperanza
2007-08-06 03:12 am UTC (link)
How bizarre.

Butler is actually a pretty good writer. "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain" has some very fine work in it. But there's no doubt that he belongs to the testosterone school of belles lettres, and those guys generally do make public asses of themselves sooner or later, especially around women. Imagine what Norman Mailer would have done with email, had it been available in the 1970s.

(Reply to this)


(Anonymous)
2007-08-06 01:50 pm UTC (link)
And in other news, scientists are are searching for an explanation as to account for the sudden shift in the earth's orbital arc. "We are stymied," said Niel DeGrasse Tyson, "it doesn't make any sense. It seems as though the earth is rotating around Robert Olen Butler's ass."

(Reply to this)


(Anonymous)
2007-08-06 04:03 pm UTC (link)
Considering Mr. Butler's feeble attempt to condescend to his former wife and those people he pretends to inform w/ his missive, I find little incentive to delve further into his literary endeavors. However, if any of the commentators publishes anything (particularly, the poster of "You had me @ intestinal blockage"), I'm there.

(Reply to this)


[info]yezra
2007-08-07 05:51 pm UTC (link)
That's got to be the most Pathetically Melodramatic Communiqué I have read since one of my siblings wrote me to tell me that I shouldn't attend his wedding... and, because I am apparently an idiot, why I shouldn't, in glorious self-affirming detail.

I saved that letter, it's all crunchy & yellow. I hope Elizabeth keeps hers forever too, so that years from now when Mr. Butler might deny ever having written it, or perhaps writing any implications into it, she can pull that sucker out and post it on the web to prove its existence, and I am sure she will "feel free to use any part or all of this email to do so".

(Reply to this)

Create an Account
Forgot your login or password?
Login w/ OpenID
English • Español • Deutsch • Русский…