Further Commentary on Long Books

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

As you know, I recently made a thread where Cormac McCarthy claimed the long novel was essentially dead.

Last night, on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, his guest was Denis Leary, who was plugging his new book, which consists entirely of Twitter posts he made over the past year. They joked about how small of a book it is, and how it has made #7 on the New York Times best-sellers list (I think that's the list he sites). Leary also goes on to ridicule Jon Stewart et al's latest book, Earth, because it is so "long".

Now, keep in mind this is purely comedy, but what is said in jest often reflects the truth, and this seemed quite apropos.

Enjoy:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/denis-leary

[laymonite]

Thanks for sharing! Man, I just made a joke about writing a book in nothing but Twitter messages on another thread somewhere around here. Should've figured someone was doing it!

There are 3 sides of me when it comes to this whole the-literary-world-is-going-to-hell topic: (1) The Reader: I could care less as a reader because there are already more than enough great books to read; (2) The Writer: I am, indeed, frightened; and (3) The Evangelist: I see a great challenge to bring others to the enjoyment of great literature.