Are you a literary harlot? You are not alone.
Even Vladimir Nabokov had an eye for self-marketing, subtly suggesting to photo editors that they feature him as a lepidopterist prancing about the forests in cap, shorts and long socks. (“Some fascinating photos might be also taken of me, a burly but agile man, stalking a rarity or sweeping it into my net from a flowerhead,” he enthused.) Across the pond, the Bloomsbury set regularly posed for fashion shoots in British Vogue in the 1920s. The frumpy Virginia Woolf even went on a “Pretty Woman”-style shopping expedition at French couture houses in London with the magazine’s fashion editor in 1925.Best of all? "In 1887, Guy de Maupassant sent up a hot-air balloon over the Seine with the name of his latest short story, 'Le Horla,' painted on its side." Um, tacky! Tacky like an enormo mustache.
I've seriously resisting the urge to dump copies of my book at the Catholic church around the corner just to see what happens. Figured it was much more savvy to write Awl comments about thinking about it. The copies will just fly!
ONLY 16 COPIES LEFT* IN STOCK AT AMAZON! HURRY!
http://amzn.to/eE35TS
And when I start rocking the monkeytail beard? http://www.buzzfeed.com/melismashable/monkeytail-beards
Forget about it.
*Sure, I know this number is meaningless, but does the consumer? GOING OUT OF BUSINESS! CLEARANCE!
Does it have to be a literary harlot?
Nabokov wants to see my stamp collection?
In Maupassant's defense, he was possibly suffering from neuro-syphilis at the time, extreme megalomania being one of the symptoms. Doesn't account for the poor taste in facial hair.
Nabokov in shorts: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_djqL2PbSMQs/Swq49GuhDqI/AAAAAAAAFy4/CaI79b4CcUk/s400/nabokovhunt.jpg
@#56 Someone pick Balk up off the floor. He just fainted.
@#56 And another: http://donotfind.tumblr.com/post/3789915867/thisrecording-i-want-to-be-quite-clear-and
Collect them all!
I hear Tom Wolfe did this as well by personal dropping off copies of The Bonfire of the Vanities in thrift stores across the nation.
Also, some stealth marketers keep on leaving various financial books in trash piles across NYC to help inspire the homeless to get there financial life back on track.
Also, who is this GABBO I keep in hearing about?
@SpyMagician I figure it's some guy. Some guy named Gabbo.
Hustle n' Narrative Flow.
If you decipher some of the codes in which Dan Brown's books are written you can find out all about my oeuvre.
More literary hag than harlot.
Nabakov actually was a passionate lepidopterist and actually published a theory of migration of a particular butterfly which has recently been proven right. So it may have been marketing but it's accurately reflecting a serious interest of his. He was more than a dabbling amateur in it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/science/01butterfly.html?ref=vladimirnabokov
Writer is the bourgeois version of a hustler, of a hustler, of a of a hustler.