'Mondegreen': A Serial Novel by Jacob Clifton

Jacob Clifton, Television Without Pity's most zealous TV recapper, is self-publishing his novel—in draft form, online, in serially. (For serialists!) Like maybe a chapter a day. It is called Mondegreen. It is freaking me out.

"In the morning he's still there, even scarier-looking with sobriety on his side, milling around my tiny house and making strange bored noises with his lips, alternately quacking and buzzing them like a raspberry, and nearly silently naming every author, I assume, he hasn't heard of, which is all of them. He takes one down off the shelf with a happy sound of recognition and, before he can either attempt to borrow it or attempt to discuss it with me, I realize we have reached a deliriously critical moment.

"Jaime," I say from the bed, slowly rising. "Are you a Republican or a Democrat?" It's fucking nine AM on a Sunday morning, cut me a break. I have to work fast.

He looks at me like I've just turned my skin inside-out and put it back on like everything's fine, and then narrows his eyes: "What are you?"



"Oh, I'm a libertarian," I say, and remember too late the dawning confusion on his face: "Basically a Republican, but like… Meaner."

I love it.