fifteen minutes
June 5th, 2006 | Uncategorized
Man. My little burst of fame reached a new level this morning. The FedEx guy brought a package and instead of just handing it to me, gave me a knowing smile and said “nice piece in Entertainment Weekly.”
That was pretty cool. But I’m starting to feel overwhelmed. I’m happy for all the attention, but it’s rather jarring after my long years of relative obscurity.
I won’t keep making posts about every Fun Home review that comes out, but there’s a really great one on Salon today, by Douglas Wolk.
“Fun Home” is a beautiful, assured piece of work, by far the best thing Bechdel has done in over two decades as a cartoonist. Her language and drawings are impressively sensitive to the details of her physical experience and to the trickier folds of her own self-consciousness; she dives over and over into the cloudy waters of her past, swimming deeper every time.
Okay. I gotta get back to work.
19 Responses to “fifteen minutes”
Congratulations! It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.
I’m looking forward to reading your memoir.
Those FedEx guys are smarter than you think. I bet they’ve been following your career for years. Watch out for them. Same goes for that wily Jonesville postmaster.
too bad it wasn’t a FedEx Gal that came by with the delivery….;)
Although my obsession is with female UPS delivery workers. Could be that attractive, yet subtle, complete wardrobe in brown.
Congrats Alison!
I got it! I got it! Ii picked it up today, fresh out of the box, and I’m counting the minutes until work is over and I can engross myself for the remainder of the evening. The only question is, do I devour it immediately or read it slowely, savoring every panel over several days…
And why shouldn’t you post about all your reviews? Hell, it’s YOUR blog! 🙂
Congrats again! And I really like the FedEx Gal idea…Hmmmmm!! 🙂
I know the guy who wrote that review! He is best friends with the woman that was the first person I knew who had your books (well, her or our other housemate, I’m not sure whose books were whose.) Anyway, Douglas mostly does indi rock stuff — like God is My CoPilot are one of his bands. He’s one of the hands Liz Phair’s first album passed through on the way to getting signed & pressed. I didn’t know he did graphic novel reviewing though!
yep it’s getting a little out of hand. it’s so all or nothing in this culture. it’s great to have your work recognized but there is a limit. Since you seem to have a well-developed ability to say no to people, maybe you’ll come through it all relatively unscathed. I mean, are you going to talk to freaking Regis Philbin?
Will you go on Oprah, and if you do, will you ask her about her failure to endorse Kerry when it was clear that the world was going to hell in a handbasket? Would you attend a White House literary dinner while George Bush is in office? It will be interesting to see where you draw the line. What you do with this. If you just focus on promoting the book, and being a gentle, polite human being, or if you take a stand with some of these more objectionable people and kick some ass.
“White House literary dinner”! What a laugh! He’d quote from The Very Hungry Catterpillar. Anyway, no way on earth is Dubya going to invite any lesbians or gay people to the White House.
Someone overwhelmed is not someone to expect to take stands and kick butt.. or visit with “objectionable people” — or keep up reading this blog..
(Suzanne, who also liked the Fed Ex gal idea. Anyone remember the Fed Ex gal on The Office episode of Michael’s birthday? Nice.)
Sure, why not? Alison can go to a White House literary brunch and brace Laura Bush on our country’s misadventure in Iraq. Sort of like Eartha Kitt giving Ladybird Johnson an earful about Vietnam. (God bless Eartha Kitt!)
I’m just going to jump into this debate on the political choices confronting certain author-artists – and say that I got the book this weekend and have read it twice already and it is even more gorgeous than I had hoped. Thank you so much – I know rationally that you didn’t write the book for me, but reading it was such a pleasure I can’t do anything but thank you for it.
Well, can you imagine Mo at a White House dinner?? OMG! What about any of our other favorites?? For some reason I keep seeing Mo….her eyes narrowed dangerously and her fists clenched under the 500 count starched white cotton napkin as she is served the pink champaigne….on simmer!
Hi Alison, beautiful new web page, and I (like everyone here) am so happy to see you getting the recognition you deserve. You are my role model. We’ll say hello at Simmons College in Boston.
I can understand getting overwhelmed, but I’d be lying if I said you didn’t deserve it. Enjoy it for now, in a surprisngly short time, you’ll be able to lay low again. I did, however, post in my amazon review that part of me always wanted to be the with-it person who was always a fan and part of me is reluctant to share you with people who are just discovering you now.
Isn’t fame just the damndest thing?
Apparently, Marvel comics writer Brian Michael Bendis had a strange Fed-Ex Fanboy moment one time, when his fed-ex package arrived re-taped after being opened. Inside was a handwritten very nice note from one of his longtime fans — and this was back before Marvel had even heard of Bendis.
Those Fed-Ex folks know everyone.
I am counting the days down until I get my copy. It’s seriously a nerve-wracking wait by now!
I liked the book very much. Congratulations on your well-deserved moment in the spotlight, and please don’t feel pressured to make any grand, explicitly political gestures.
I bought the book today (at my local indie bookstore, natch). Physically, it is a freakin’ gorgeous book. (It’s also a steal at 20 bucks!) And the content is just wonderful – probably the most literary graphic novel/memoir I have ever read. I’ve been a fan of DTWOF for almost a decade now, and it’s terrific to see you get the recognition you deserve.
Alison,
Got my copy yesterday and read it right away… half before the kid came home from school and the other half after I tucked her into bed.
tried reading a bit while she was doing her homework
but I think the cover and a new book in my hands
was too distracting for her.
She kept trying to peek over my shoulder…”whaddya reading?”
“a book about a woman’s life
and it’s illustrated like a comic”
“what’s it about?”
“the girl, her growing up, her family”
“is it for kids too?”
“no, honey, it’s a grownup’s book”
peeking over my shoulder “is that the girl?”
“no, that’s her mother”
“where’s the girl?”
“here she is”
“oh”
“now go back to your homework,
you can read it yourself when you’re a little older”
“‘kay, Mom”.
Anyway…wow. Beautiful, richly told, haunting, funny. I really loved it. Thank you for writing it and for sharing such an intimate part of your life with us.
I hope to see you at your signing/talk in Philadelphia.
The accolades that you are receiving are well deserved and long overdue. Congratulations.
Great Dougwolk piece. Can’t say I like his characterization of it as “the best thing Bechdel has done” though. Apples and oranges, ya know: the book is brilliant, so’s the strip, why compare ’em? Great to have heard in Phila that you never intend to stop DTWOF.