What a great pen name. FX as in special effects. Toole as in tool. Toole as in Irish as hell. F.X. as in Francis Xavier (Irish as hell).
2005 I saw Million Dollar Baby, saw Clint, saw Morgan Freeman, saw Hilary Swank, saw them all win award after award. I liked Baby; though I sure didn’t like it that much, had quarrel after quarrel with it: thought it was one of Clint’s lesser good efforts, enjoyed seeing Swank buff, but didn’t think it was her best. ... Now I just watched the DVD: and hated more than liked it. IMDb.com informed me that the source had been called Rope Burns. I instantly thought that was a better title, went to the library, got it, read it. Van Gogh all over again.
This is great writing. This is great boxing writing. This is great gender writing. ...
So now I know: Jerry Boyd was 70 before he got published. He’d been fielding rejection letters for forty years. He dies two years later. Three years after that, the movie comes out. One year after that pk discovers the writing. ...
Are we still supposed to think that publishers can tell shit from Shinola? their ass from their elbow? "good" from "bad"? marketable from unmarketable?
"Van Gogh," as a principle, has been a theme at
for a decade, a theme with pk for half a century or more: just as is Jesus, just as is Galileo ... Just as has become kleptocracy, just had been civilization ... Nice to have a new example to add.The author credits an agent for making "a silk purse from a sow’s ear." Editors, agents ... have long collaborated with authors, with composers ... How much of Michael Jackson’s excellence is Michael Jackson? how much the choreographers? the music teachers (or the whole family)? the Hollywood directors of the videos? the rest of the ensemble?
How much of the Mona Lisa is Leonardo and how much Walter Pater? How much of the sunset is the sun and how much the particular day’s atmosphere? How much of "seeing" is in the eye? in the visual cortex? in the pre-existing mind?
How much of the next day’s mind is the pre-existing mind?
Then again: how much of F.X. Toole’s acknowledgment of Nat Sobel is business obligation? mere courtesy? flat-out lies? We’d have to read all the MSs before Sobel, and read them again after, before we could have even so much as an opinion.
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