Against all odds, Dave Eggers is a happy postmodernist. It's inspiring, really, that the man who wakes up each day knowing that he is the editor of McSweeney's*, and has fathered a child horrifyingly named October Adelaide Eggers Vida, can still manage a smile at the Brooklyn Book Festival. Even though he's rubbed elbows with such dark and shady characters as Beck and...shudder...Sufjan Stevens, he's not letting it get to him, and I think that's a message all of us at Happy Postmodernists, whether or not we harbor an irrational dislike for Mr. Eggers, can get behind.
*Actually, I do kinda like McSweeney's. Especially the Icelandic Fiction issue, because I read it while I was hopped up on anaesthetics after I got my wisdom teeth out, and then again in 105 degree heat while I was selling snocones at the zoo in Kansas. Both times it was very good. Delightful, even. But I have the disconcerting feeling that my skin got just a little whiter both times, and has never gone back.
Oh, PS, We actually like Dave Eggers and hope we're not being too hard on the poor guy for some rather unfortunate experiences with high school snobbery that were in NO WAY HIS FAULT. Keep it up, Dave. We mean it! And feel free to name your child whatever you want.
I like him. And McSweeney's. Hipsters have ruined it, though. Damn them.
ReplyDeleteYeah, and for me it was high school hipsters, which are the very worst kind. That's why, while I have no reason to dislike Dave Eggers, I sometimes still gotta hate. It's my way of getting back at the high school experience in general. (But I totally geeked out over the newspaper issue of McSweeney's. It was way cool.)
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