David Sedaris Exaggerates!

  • Post author:
  • Post category:Books
  • Post comments:3 Comments

The New Republic comes out with a world-rocking revelation: David Sedaris embellishes his humorous non-fiction memoirs.
Um, no shit, Sherlock. You needed to write an article to tell us this? He’s a humor writer. I sort of figured out he was gilding the lily on my own, thanks. As if any one person has that much funny shit just happen to them randomly. Think about it – is your life that funny? Is anyone’s? Of course he punches it up to make it more funny. It’s not a big deal. He’s not a frackin’ presidential biographer for crap’s sake. I hope that he keeps doing it – he makes me laugh my ass off.
Hell, I didn’t even think it was that big a deal when James Frey exaggerated, except that there were people who looked at his book as some sort of self-help inspirational piece. But even then, I hardly think that was Frey’s fault.

This Post Has 3 Comments

  1. Maxine Dangerous

    *gasp*
    My life!
    It is over!
    As I know it!
    An author … stretched the truth??
    THAT’S WHY IT’S CALLED CREATIVE NONFICTION.
    The New Republic must be run by a murder of dillweeds. (Dillweeds, crows … whatever.)
    [insert eye rolling here]

  2. nitsudima

    Last night Jon Stewart was doing a bit lamenting his childhood when he was told he was “frequently, ignorantly, and woefully wrong.” The crowd let out an empathetic “awwww,” which made Jon jump out of character and say “It’s not my real life we’re talking about. It’s my comedy life, people!”
    This shocked me that Jon wouldn’t be completely honest with his viewers. In fact, apparently he (along with thousands of stand-up comedians) embellishes the truth or invents new life experiences simply for the sake of a joke.
    I suppose now someone is going to tell me that Rodney Dangerfield wasn’t married when he did his famous jokes about his wife. Or Stephen Colbert is never “in character” because his show is truly about his beliefs. (I mean, why would they name the show with his real name if he was in character all the time?)
    When you can’t trust comedians and humorists, who can you trust? Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to finish blogging about why I believe Bush when he says the firing of those U.S. attorneys wasn’t politically motivated. At least I know Bush and Rove would never stoop to the level of humorists and comedians and their reckless disregard for the truth.

  3. Dorothy Snarker

    People. A sense of humor. Grow one. Oy.
    By the way, howdy Steph, greetings from one ex-Hoosier to one current one. And thanks for the hat tip.
    Cheers, Ms. Snarker

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.