My New Year's Day hangover started a week early
Sorry for the dead air. Usually I like to post a stay-tuned message when I'm offline for an extended period, but this time I was too focused on last-minute changes to Rapture Ready! (Exclamation point is part of title, not enthusiasm for last-minute changes.) If you're keeping track, I've just returned the copy-edited manuscript, which was my last chance to make substantive alterations to the text. Galleys come out in a week or two. The book goes on sale April 8. Make that, April 8!
I did manage to squeak out a promotional post for HuffPo on Chuck Norris's career in the Christian bubble. I'm actually getting hate mail from Christians for this one. That's a bit of a surprise. I met so many cool Christians on my travels that I'd begun to think I might even be able to sell my book to Christian audiences. Of course, the assholes are always louder than everyone else, so maybe I shouldn't take this as any kind of real sign.
However, it may be that once the book comes out I'll need to institute some kind of registration for posting on this blog. I'd hate for the comments to be overwhelmed by idiots.
Comments
I'd hate for the comments to be overwhelmed by idiots.
First!
Posted by: Anno-nymous | January 2, 2008 11:02 AM
I'm also surprised you're getting hate mail for it, because it seems like such a completely uncontroversial article. It doesn't actually make fun of Chuck Norris (although it does leave the way open for readers to mock him on their own).
Posted by: Francis | January 2, 2008 11:07 AM
When I lived in Houston I thought ordinary people were awfully protective (and defensive) about Chuck, although I always took it as more of a Texas thing than a Christian one. And maybe it was at the time.
Your points about Norris's relationship with Christian culture are right on but I also suspect that the lawsuit has almost as much to do with Norris's lawyers protecting the Chuck Norris brand as it does with any personal objections Norris has to the jokes. When you make your living off your name as much as Norris does you have to be kind of vigilant about that because you can't pick and choose. If you don't challenge one person's use of your name for profit it makes it harder to challenge the next one. And next thing you know Mountain Dew is making those commercials without you.
It seems like the book is pretty clearly protected by parody (you can't stop someone from making fun of you by claiming they're violating your trademark) but you'd expect his attorneys to at least make a show of trying by claiming the jokes were defamatory.
(I'd make this comment over at HuffPo but I didn't want to duck through all the atheist/Christian hairpulling over there. Yipes.)
Posted by: Kevin Guilfoile | January 2, 2008 11:43 AM
You know you hit the big time when you have hundreds of people attacking you by posting a slight variation of the same nasty remark. (Like they do at Huff-Po)
It's the price of fame, Danny-Boy.
(But literary historians DO note that neither Keats nor Hemmingway neglected their respective anti-caption contests while chasing fame.)
Posted by: al in la | January 2, 2008 1:22 PM
You know you've hit the big time when you have dozens and dozens of posters attacking you with slight variations of the same nasty remark. (As happens at Huff-Po)
It's the price of fame, Radosh.
(But literary historians DO note that neither Yeats nor Steinbeck neglected their respective anti-caption contests while chasing fame.)
Posted by: Ernest | January 2, 2008 2:58 PM
A few type-o's..."Yeats?"..."Keats?"
What the fuck, its funny!
Posted by: redfaced in la | January 2, 2008 5:22 PM
God God man, those aren't typos, they're slight variations. (And I like the idea of Yeats running an anti-caption contest while writing poems about the Second Coming! Ready!)
Posted by: Ernest | January 2, 2008 8:37 PM
Last!
Posted by: PoGo | January 3, 2008 11:26 AM
Wow, Radosh, if anything you are extraordinarily respectful to the feelings and values of a people that are often reviled as extremist, deluded, etc. etc. (a view I am NOT endorsing here). You explain a worldview that's hard for people not part of it to understand or accept.
Quite frankly, I wasn't planning on reading your book (I have no special interest in the topic), and I am now based on that article.
Posted by: Trout Almondine | January 3, 2008 11:28 AM