Meanwhile, over in truepenny's head

[truepenny]

ROS: You know, this book is kind of for crap.
GUIL: Oh hush.
ROS: But it is.
GUIL: You always think that after you read the edit letter. Hush.
ROS: Fine.
[beat]
ROS: But it's definitely broken.
GUIL: All books are broken. Bear says so. You're not going to try and argue with Bear, are you?
ROS: No-ooo.
GUIL: Well, then.
[beat]
ROS: But it's broken! And don't tell me you know how to fix it, 'cause you don't.
GUIL: Well ...
ROS: The reviews are going to trash it. And everyone's going to laugh and laugh and laugh.
GUIL: They are not.
ROS: Book-burning parties, then.
GUIL: You are exaggerating.
ROS: Yeah, I know. It's not that bad.
GUIL: Exactly.
ROS: It's not interesting enough to be that bad. It'll just sink like the Titanic--no, not even like the Titanic, like a freaking canoe with a hole in it!--and we are going to be the guy in the poem. And not the happy guy, either.
GUIL: OhfertheloveofChrist!
ROS: Go on. Tell me I'm wrong.
GUIL: Look. We'll fix it.
ROS: How?
GUIL: By bleeding all over the fucking page! How do you think!
ROS: [very small] Oh. [beat] I was hoping there was an easier way.
[GUILDENSTERN starts laughing. It's going to be a while before he stops.]
[Moodily, ROSENCRANTZ makes paper airplanes out of the ms and launches them off the stage.]

Comments

[redbird]

Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

At least we can be massive commercial failures together.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Sister!

[barriequark.livejournal.com]

We can all sit in a bar drinking whisky and talking about what flops our stuff was. I can see us slouched on barstools with piles of bad reviews in drifts around us, as we drink and eventually sing (badly and off-key)along with the jukebox.

[aranel.livejournal.com]

I don't know what it says about me that I immediately knew, in the split second before I hovered to see the link, what "the poem" was.

[pameladean]

Words, words. They're all we have to go on.

P.

[aitchellsee.livejournal.com]

God I loved R&G said the old gal who'd seen the original New York production back when she was, oh, 15 or 16.

Maybe even she said, looking back Maybe they're why I fell in love with truepenny's discussions on LJ about The Dissertation (having already fallen in love with the discussions about DLS because I'd been a mad DLS fan since the age of about 10 or 11) -- Well, R&G and The Worm Ouroboros.

Now you see us, now you

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Have you thought about adding a goat? Well, maybe not. But sometimes it helps.

The new bed was delivered Friday afternoon by a couple of guys whose van said "Monette & Freres" and I didn't think they looked like any brothers of yours, and one of them could hardly talk. Fortunately it wasn't until after they'd put the bed together and gone that I realised they were Felix and Mildmay -- they were dyeing their hair -- or I'd have been more freaked out.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Wow. That's pretty awesome.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Hey, you recorded my mind!

[barriequark.livejournal.com]

That's funny - I thought I was the only one with a comedy troupe in my head giving critique to my novels.

Guess I am not alone.

[casacorona.livejournal.com]

There there. ::pats the Good Writer on the head:: You can do it.

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

If you can write self-loathing in a way to make us readers laugh, you've definitely got the chops. You can fix it.

(I just decided to special order The Virtu because my Favouritest Bookstore Evar still disappointed me by not having it in. I should mention I'm effectively broke.)