Jonathan Franzen on Author Videos & the Novel

[amaxamon]

Everyone who is concerned about overpopulation, feel free to be the first to go...

[Savorist]

David Foster Wallace is Kurt Cobain. Jonathan Franzen is Dave Grohl. Stephanie Meyer is Krist Novoselic.

[SimAlex20000]

@Savorist kris novoselic was and is a great basist. so the meyer comparison is completely off-base, my friend. :D

[MyBigDing]

I was so excited to read this book . . . until I saw this video

[hisnameisdan]

stfu franzen

[TheGenYgirl]

I love him so much. It's just ridiculous.

[winewanker]

Just read Freedom. This guy is fucking brilliant.

[melvis9000]

TURD IN YOUR MOUTH REGISTERS MY DISCOMFORT.  PUT THAT IN YOUR "STILL PLACE" and swallow. TURD IN YOUR BONNET.

[melvis9000]

TURD IN YOUR MOUTH REGISTERS MY DISCOMFORT. PUT THAT IN YOUR "STILL PLACE" and swallow

[dyad2r1]

Franzen projects many of his personal life experiences onto his characters. If I could, I'd tell him two things. He doesn't suffer from clinical or any other kind of depression. What he lacks is an anchor; to-wit, a religion and a wife and a couple kids. I'd advise him to get of the booze, meds or drugs he's addicted to. Once he's done these things, he'll be able to focus, go on to be a complete human being and a truly great writer.

[ryan06105]

@dyad2r1

How do you know he's addicted to booze, meds, or drugs?

[dyad2r1]

@ryan06105 - I don't. His leading character in both books was based on himself and his own experiences and were highly autobiographical. I don't know if he was ever or is now addicted to anything, but I know my drunks and druggies and his unsettled lifestyle suggests that he *might* have a problem in this area. I could be wrong, but I'm sure he mentioned it in one of his interviews. You were right to call me out on it.

[superclaydude]

@dyad2r1 who says you need religion or a family to have a good life?

also, he doesn't seem to be addicted to drugs. If he did, we'd probably hear about it.

[carsanookdotcom]

Hi I am in Bangkok, Kingdom of Thailand and as I am watching this Jonathan Franzen in on the cable TV BBC. They say the way he writes is incredible easy to read. Is it true?

Dr John

Carsanook

Bangkok

+661 8 1713 8954 

[dyad2r1]

@carsanookdotcom

The book is 562 pages long. I didn't find it easy to read as it was hard to keep up with characters and family relationships. Nevertheless, it was hard to put down. I enjoyed the sardonic and funny political observations, but disliked the scatology and sex scenes which bordered on pornography. One might say it was a fairly accurate treatment of love in the 21st century. Best of luck to you.

[TheAdrioscroce]

@carsanookdotcom

Yes it is.

[socoolbooks]

I want to appreciate the heck out of a guy who "objects" to "author videos" per se ... and yet musters up the courage to do one ... BRAVO !!!

[calebjross]

I had the pleasure of attending a Franzen reading last night in Kansas City. During the Q&A portion, Franzen spoke to his discomfort with authors being personalities. I wrote a blog about it, including some quotes from Franzen at my blog (youtube won't let me direct link)

I would have liked to record a video of his response, but unfortunately he had asked that no pictures be taken of the event.

[HealthisWealthyes]

His novel implies that personal liberty is BAD! Liberty is what made this country GREAT. TYRANNY is NO solution to personal liberty. NEVER NEVER NEVER be deceived by these lies. LIberty and free speech are essential elements to human dignity. God gave us free will. Tyranny is evil. Just look up "New World Order" on youtube. Trust Jesus Christ, not Oprah.

[Super8StrikesBack]

@HealthisWealthyes You're nuts.

[jtomkiw]

How positively meta of you, Jonathan! Complaining about an author video while DOING the author video. Gad...what a self-important piece of work. Not the novel. Franzen.

[vallsack]

@jtomkiw

exactly my thoughts on this.

[adlucem5]

@jtomkiw Yes.

[fromis111]

@jtomkiw I don't think he was trying to be particularly sophisticated or "meta." He was just being honest about his discomfort with the whole author video thing, while still acknowledging the fact that he ultimately wanted to do it. Seems perfectly legitimate to me.

[clone63742]

Freedom really sucked.

[kingjohnkk]

good book jonathan... i've not finished it yet, but you've shown me a lot from your thoughts and what you're trying to make people think about. We need more novelists and idealists like you(not saying you're an idealist), but i think you've made me ponder about many topics that's important to humanity's Survival and continuation, also my family and my personal responsibilities. Thank you for your book, I hope you write more because your are classified as 'endangered' by Time magazine

[jennincl]

Tim Robbins with grayer hair.

[ZachClooney]

@jennincl Yes! Tim Robbins is the perfect lost twin of Franzen:)

[BrettJyc]

What a load of bunk...this white, rich, liberal sees the "problem" in the world as "too many people" -- what this really means is that there are too many poor people that are spoiling his views while on safari.

I got news for you Frazen, the problem is not too many people, it is the nihilistic liberal materialism that you promote in your long, sentimental novels that is the real problem. The liberal western world is 20% of the world pop but 80% of resource consumption. You are the problem,Jon

[scifiwritir]

Well, am glad Mr Franzen made this video. I read a lot but generally don't pick up his books. The after-effect of the whole Oprah thing. This video made him seem a bit more pleasant. Although, to me the paradigm of "over-population" doesn't seem quite right. At the least, it often touches on racism...at the best, it hints at general eugenics. But it seems to me the paradigm really should be about how resources are horded by the haves. Thanks always for your great videos, MacMillanUSA