Re:Tim Minchin on Quitting Comedy
by rory on Tuesday October 19, 2021 @09:09AM
(#28917659)
I had a similar realization at a similar time. Unfortunately, by that age, my novel "Little Winky" had already afforded me some acclaim.
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Wow, I did not expect a reference to 'Synecdoche, New York' to crop up here on HN, even less in such a fitting context. For anyone else wondering what this is about, here is the scene from the film (the whole film is worth watching if you are into the sort of postmodern-surrealist stuff):
Caden Cotard : I wanted to ask you, how old are kids when they start to write?
Madeleine Gravis : Listen, there's an absolutely brilliant novel written by a four year old.
Caden Cotard : Really?
Madeleine Gravis : 'Little Winky" by Horace Azpiazu.
Caden Cotard : That's cute.
Madeleine Gravis : Hardly, Litty Winky is a virulent anti-Semite. The story follows his initiation into the klan, his immersion in the pornographic snuff industry, and his ultimate degradation at the hands of a black ex-convict named Eric Washington Jackson Jones Johnson...
Caden Cotard : -Written by a four year old?
Madeleine Gravis : -Jefferson.
Caden Cotard : Wow, written by a four year old.
Madeleine Gravis : Well Azpiazu killed himself when he was five.
Fantastic movie everyone here should watch. Supremely philosophical and funny.
I did dabble in writing. In junior high, my book, "Marvin, the Shy Elf," threatened to bring me fame not only amongst my classmates, but in the wider town of 1200 where I lived. At the last moment, I cleverly sabotaged the work by including many childish illustrations.
Nice to see so many self-made normallaires. My family has been non-famous for generations. One of my great-grandfathers or another was "Man In Hat" in a local theater, but managed to marry into stronger mediocrity.
Novel? Ho, ho, how quaint. If you'd made a dent in the hard sciences by then, I'd be impressed.
Re:Tim Minchin on Quitting Comedy
by whatshisface on Tuesday October 19, 2021 @11:54AM
(#28919533)
They say that scientists rarely get any real work done after they win a Nobel prize, because the prestige warps their self-expectations in a way that guides them away from things they could actually make progress on and towards heights that are too difficult to climb. Avoiding this has guided career my up until now and I can safely say I have been totally successful at eliminating even the slightest risk.