nihilistic_kid: The Donny and Karl show

Nick Mamatas (

nihilistic_kid) wrote,
@ 2003-10-30 13:37:00

The Donny and Karl show
Historian Donald Sassoon interviews/channels Karl Marx.

Funny stuff, especially when Sassoon-as-Karl slags on every 19th and 20th century intellectual you can name. He also hates sociology. Ultimately it sounds like Sassoon more than Marx, which is what Sassoon accuses Lenin of doing, and hell, it is also what I'm doing, with this little "But what Marx would really say is..." claim.

I found the link on Ken Macleod's journal.

(Post a new comment)

	buscemi 2003-10-30 11:53 am UTC (link)
	I'm guessing he also hates it when people ask, "So, how is Vidal getting along?" (Reply to this) (Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:04 pm UTC (link)
	oh for the days that mailer hits your vidal. fuck your soft skull (Reply to this) (Parent)

paganini
2003-10-30 05:02 pm UTC (link)

ok, i'm calling you out. you are not a writer. i give people a week. one week. to say something. you are my dad at the breakfast table with the morning paper "hey son, look at this jackass"

no wonder you equivilate writing with commerce and destroy the idea of press with "small press" in a stupid commerce gen x sarcastic bullshit way. fuck you. fuck your friends. you are going down.

(Reply to this) (Thread)

nihilistic_kid
2003-10-30 05:07 pm UTC (link)

Equivilate?

You do realize that this is a blog, right and one element of blogging is offering up links and commenting on them, right?

I'm a writer because I get paid to write -- that is, someone else thinks my stuff is worthy enough to spend their own money to make it public. Before you declare me not a writer, you should probably read some of it.

Someone just dashing off bullshit on an lj isn't a writer, that much is true, but nobody here is claiming that this lj is an example of writing.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:14 pm UTC (link)
	equivilate is a magical word! they pay people to transcibe, is that writing i think we both know what i mean when i say WRITER! whens the last time you read something that hits a hard spot, that lump in the throat, or gives you that notion that "this is a book that will be passed down to my kids" over and over do you know brady udall? wanna buy him out? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

nihilistic_kid
2003-10-30 05:18 pm UTC (link)

they pay people to transcibe, is that writing

Nope, that's transcribing. One can also write out a grocery list, but that isn't writing either.

i think we both know what i mean when i say WRITER!

As far as I can tell, you mean a romantic figure suitable for hero worship. What I mean is someone who writes as part of their livelihood, or in an attempt to gain one.

whens the last time you read something that hits a hard spot, that lump in the throat, or gives you that notion that "this is a book that will be passed down to my kids" over and over

A very rare occurrence. I certainly don't read ljs to get that experience.
Something Happened by Joseph Heller is a good example of a book like that.

do you know brady udall? wanna buy him out?

Never heard of him.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:20 pm UTC (link)
	i cry when i see a bus. you're right. you win. death to writing. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 05:22 pm UTC (link)
	(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:31 pm UTC (link)
	you're right. fuck it. writing is for money. i give up. let's make out. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 05:33 pm UTC (link)
	No. Writing isn't for money. Writing can lead to money, and why shouldn't it? It's labor like anything else. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:40 pm UTC (link)
	ofcourse the payoff should be there. but look at your press, and look at how fucked up the money gets so early on. and with marking like it is, how do you break the evil chain. i'm on a soapbox, and idealistic, but do you see what i mean, sort of? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:41 pm UTC (link)
	this fight is slowing down, feel free with the fuckyous! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

nihilistic_kid
2003-10-30 05:43 pm UTC (link)

Money didn't fuck SSPI up. Ego did. Someone believing his own press clippings did.

If you want to get a payoff, you need to know the basics of addition and subtraction; otherwise it is the authors that get screwed.

Evidence: the ten thousand authors who paid to be published by XLibris, iUniverse, PublishAmerica, 1stBooks, etc., and who don't understand why their books aren't in stores.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:49 pm UTC (link)
	hehehehe. one is just a stupid american if one believes something in the mail that says "we will publish you for just 1000" i have a qvc gift for you, my friend! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:44 pm UTC (link)
	this is a writer, this is not a blogger, but it could be an entry. pay the man!: http://www.whysanity.net/creative/brady.html (Reply to this) (Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 05:47 pm UTC (link)
	National Public Radio paid him for it! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

(Deleted post)

nihilistic_kid
2003-10-30 05:55 pm UTC (link)

He doesn't read for free. He's unlikely to read into a microcasette recorder you offer him. In that case, he reads for exposure.

A lot of literary journals only pay in copies, but those journals are also read by agents and editors. In my form of fiction, genre stuff, we get paid because the magazines are actually read by readers. Thus, they don't need the largesse of non-profit status, university-backing, and a firmly bourgeois pool of writers who are living off Mayflower-era trust funds.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 06:46 pm UTC (link)
	you are blinded by the train of thought: "this is how the game is played. it's always been like this so it always is. so don't rock the boat." that's not very nihilistic of you. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 06:50 pm UTC (link)
	It's not a game at all. I write or I starve to death. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	paganini 2003-10-30 05:53 pm UTC (link)
	wait don't be so quick with the assumption. letting loose the hounds was out way before this american life asked him to come by and read. people do read for free you know???? did you even read it? read it (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 05:56 pm UTC (link)
	I did read it. Honestly? Slice-of-life lump-of-shit. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 06:41 pm UTC (link)
	not enough vampires for you? how fucked are you? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 07:02 pm UTC (link)
	Cloying Hallmark card sentimentality. Pass the hankies, a member of the middle class has died! STOP THE PRESSES! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 05:57 pm UTC (link)
	Ah, W. W. Norton. So Udall probably got a $15K advance for his collection. Not a bad haul. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 06:44 pm UTC (link)
	when haper drops 100,000 to change a little girl's life, you call 15k selling out? try harder than that. you know, now that i think about it, all your mcsweeney hating? it's just schoolyard jealousy. you'd trade places with them in two seconds regardless of what you think your convictions are. that smells like hypocracy (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

nihilistic_kid
2003-10-30 06:47 pm UTC (link)

I don't call it selling out at all. I'm sure he deserves a good advance.

You're the one who thinks money fucks things up; you're the one who'd pull the food out of Udall's mouth. Do you think he'd write better if he was a school janitor?

McSweeney's is lame because McSweeney's is lame. I told my agent I'd never sign with Nazi Bertelsmann (literally, they were a Nazi publisher then hid the truth for fifty years) or Murdoch's News Corp, or AOL/TW. I don't see Eggers doing the same.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 06:48 pm UTC (link)
	fuck that, Udall WAS a janitor. on a navajo reservation no less. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 06:51 pm UTC (link)
	And you'd have him there forever. Now that's some hero worship. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 06:55 pm UTC (link)
	as long as he's got a pen in hand, yes. struggle! you ARE fucked in the head. run to starbucks! (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 06:58 pm UTC (link)
	You like Brady Udall's writing. You like it so much you'd basically force him to write it for free while he continues to put in 40 hours a week as a janitor, because actually getting any of the money the publisher would collect from selling it would taint him. And I'm fucked in the head. Is there anyone else you'd care to enslave, Massa? (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	paganini 2003-10-30 07:00 pm UTC (link)
	didn't seem to bother buk (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 07:05 pm UTC (link)
	Actually, it pissed him off to no end. He was happy to get that subsidy from Black Sparrow to quit his job. (Reply to this) (Parent)

	t.rev (Anonymous) 2003-10-30 06:46 pm UTC (link)
	NK, congratulations on your new stalker. (Reply to this) (Thread)

	Re: t.rev paganini 2003-10-30 06:47 pm UTC (link)
	you said the magic word. game over. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: t.rev paganini 2003-10-30 06:49 pm UTC (link)
	once the thread hits 30 i quit (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: t.rev (Anonymous) 2003-10-30 06:52 pm UTC (link)
	It's spelled 'pagan ninny', by the way. Two words. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: t.rev paganini 2003-10-30 06:56 pm UTC (link)
	no, faganini, try harder. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	Re: t.rev paganini 2003-10-30 06:59 pm UTC (link)
	and don't fucking flatter yourself thinking i am just some schmuck begging for attention, i've been here longer than you. i've gone through all this friend's list bullshit and i don't need it: here is your a-list in year 2000: http://www.livejournal.com/users/slowbus/11660.html slowbus was me. (Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)

	t.rev (Anonymous) 2003-10-30 07:03 pm UTC (link)
	Are you still here? (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: t.rev nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 07:06 pm UTC (link)
	I'm not begging for attention! Look at my URL! (Reply to this) (Parent)

	Re: t.rev nihilistic_kid 2003-10-30 07:00 pm UTC (link)
	Haw haw, he said "fag." Clearly, with this much wit, he must know which writers have earned the right to be his personal entertainment slaves and which are bad enough writers to actually earn some filthy money. (Reply to this) (Parent)

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