On Sky Art's The Book Show, presented by the gorgeous Mariella Frostrup, famous writers are invited to present a book that they wish they had written. At the end of the series all of these books - signed by their wannabe authors - are up for grabs in a big competition. John Banville chose Evelyn Waugh's Scoop, Tony Parsons chose Replay by Ken Grimwood, Sue Townsend chose Flaubert's Madame Bovary. I love Sue Townsend - not just for her hilarious fictional memoirs but her flamboyant style. The lady doesn't give a damn.
It was through this programme that I was first introduced to Joe Gould's Secret, a 1965 book by Joseph Mitchell. The book details the true story of Joe Gould, a writer who lived on the streets of Greenwich village in the first half of the 20th century. He was an eccentric, bridging the gap between bohemianism and the beat generation, though he was an outspoken critic of both. Gould set about compiling an exhaustive record of modern life, ambitiously titled An Oral History of Our Time, claiming that oral history held more truth than the formalized history of textbooks and professors. In the 1920s, Gould had small portions of his "history" published in magazines, but in the years that followed he became more secretive and eccentric. He was well-known among the local shopkeepers, artists and restaurateurs, many of whom gave him handouts of money or food in support of his project.
Journalist Joseph Mitchell met Gould in 1942 and wrote a profile of him for The New Yorker, which makes up the first part of Joe Gould's Secret, documenting Gould's graduation from Harvard in 1911, leading up to the writing of his "oral history", said to be composed of 20,000 conversations and 9,000,000 words. The second part of JGS is a more personal memoir of Mitchell's experience with Gould, their eventual falling out, and his discovery of Joe Gould's actual secret: that the "oral history" did not exist.
Gould suffered from writer's block and hypergraphia; while to those around him he appeared to be taking constant notes - a notion he was happy to reinforce - he was, in fact, re-writing the same few chapters dealing with seemingly trivial events his own early life. He had filled countless notebooks with edited version of these events, evidently searching for a meaning in the revisions. Out of respect, Mitchell waited several years after Gould's death to reveal the secret. Ironically, Mitchell was plagued with writer's block for the next three decades, and was never able to publish another book.
All these dramatic twists made perfect fodder for the big screen. Ian Holm, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon and Steve Martin starred in the independent film version made in 2000, see below photograph. God I love Stanley Tucci!
Journalist Joseph Mitchell met Gould in 1942 and wrote a profile of him for The New Yorker, which makes up the first part of Joe Gould's Secret, documenting Gould's graduation from Harvard in 1911, leading up to the writing of his "oral history", said to be composed of 20,000 conversations and 9,000,000 words. The second part of JGS is a more personal memoir of Mitchell's experience with Gould, their eventual falling out, and his discovery of Joe Gould's actual secret: that the "oral history" did not exist.
Gould suffered from writer's block and hypergraphia; while to those around him he appeared to be taking constant notes - a notion he was happy to reinforce - he was, in fact, re-writing the same few chapters dealing with seemingly trivial events his own early life. He had filled countless notebooks with edited version of these events, evidently searching for a meaning in the revisions. Out of respect, Mitchell waited several years after Gould's death to reveal the secret. Ironically, Mitchell was plagued with writer's block for the next three decades, and was never able to publish another book.
All these dramatic twists made perfect fodder for the big screen. Ian Holm, Stanley Tucci, Susan Sarandon and Steve Martin starred in the independent film version made in 2000, see below photograph. God I love Stanley Tucci!
I can think of a certain friend who already seems to be following in Gould's footsteps. The demi-monde lifestyle, the pathological lying, the sparkling company... vagrancy beckons.
This is why The Book Show is one of the best programs on TV - without Mariella grilling her panel of writers I would have never come across Joe Gould's Secret. I then started to think about which book I would like to submit... which book would I love to take credit for? Jilly Murphy's The Worst Witch? Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God? Kidding. It would have to be José Luís Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings (A Handbook to Fantastic Zoology), a captivating compendium first published in 1957 and containing descriptions of 120 mythical beasts from folklore and literature. In the preface, Borges states that the book is to be read "as with all miscellanies...not...straight through.... Rather we would like the reader to dip into the pages at random, just as one plays with the shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope".
I'm ashamed to say this is how I read almost all books - even novels - so you can understand the appeal. The staff and students at an art college in Athens became so enamoured with the book that they designed a book of graphic illustrations for each and every beast. See the results here.
Borges knew his onions: he even name-checks the Bahamut - a huge, measureless fish which is often used to describe the spaces between heaven, earth and hell. Who needs mescaline when you have fairy stories?!
This is why The Book Show is one of the best programs on TV - without Mariella grilling her panel of writers I would have never come across Joe Gould's Secret. I then started to think about which book I would like to submit... which book would I love to take credit for? Jilly Murphy's The Worst Witch? Neale Donald Walsch's Conversations with God? Kidding. It would have to be José Luís Borges' Book of Imaginary Beings (A Handbook to Fantastic Zoology), a captivating compendium first published in 1957 and containing descriptions of 120 mythical beasts from folklore and literature. In the preface, Borges states that the book is to be read "as with all miscellanies...not...straight through.... Rather we would like the reader to dip into the pages at random, just as one plays with the shifting patterns of a kaleidoscope".
I'm ashamed to say this is how I read almost all books - even novels - so you can understand the appeal. The staff and students at an art college in Athens became so enamoured with the book that they designed a book of graphic illustrations for each and every beast. See the results here.
Borges knew his onions: he even name-checks the Bahamut - a huge, measureless fish which is often used to describe the spaces between heaven, earth and hell. Who needs mescaline when you have fairy stories?!
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