Had lunch with my wife today at the "Library" -- a small restaurant and pub near the University; I'm sure every college town has one, the idea being you can always tell your folks or significant other that you regularly spend several hours a week at the library.
I think there's a large town in every state that has a bar named "The Office" for that same reason. "Honey, I'll be home late. I got tied up at the office."
I'm reminded of the scene in Straight Outta Compton where the band members see people crushing their CDs. One dude (I forget who) is upset, but another points out to him that the people destroying the CDs had to buy them to do so.
If you've seen the Beatles parody
The Rutles: All You Need Is Cash, you might remember the commentator making that remark about the burning of their albums back in the day after Ron Nasty (the John Lennon character) said that the band was "bigger than God."
I agree with you to a point; but I still think that if I ever did get a book published, I would enjoy what money I got but still find it sad to see it on the remainder pile or totally ignored.
Well, there's this noted poem by Clive James, which opens:
"The book of my enemy has been remaindered
And I am pleased.
In vast quantities it has been remaindered.
Like a van-load of counterfeit that has been seized
And sits in piles in a police warehouse,
My enemy’s much-praised efforts sits in piles
In the kind of bookshop where remaindering occurs.
Great, square stacks of rejected books and, between them, aisles
One passes down reflecting on life’s vanities,
Pausing to remember all those thoughtful reviews
Lavished to no avail upon one’s enemy’s book –
For behold, here is that book
Among these ranks and banks of duds,
These ponderous and seemingly irreducible cairns
Of complete stiffs."
And there's more in this embodiment of
schadenfreude, which can be found here:
Home >> Poetry >> Poetry Collections >> Other Passports >>Recent Verse>>The Book of My Enemy has been Remaindered
www.clivejames.com
