Comments on: The “things that don’t go together” game, installment 2

By: Hamish MacEwan

Hamish MacEwan — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:08:11 +0000

While I enjoyed the post, and agree that in total Eggers compared to Alda might engender some dissonance, the Amazon example is one domain and a single match. Given our diversity, it is not surprising some overlap might exist. At a more general level, they are both men, and mortal, possibly fathers, certainly both sons.

While the differences are intriguing, it shouldn’t surprise us that there are commonalities.

By: Lana

Lana — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 22:47:52 +0000

I don’t know, Grant…
My guess is that is goes a little something like this:
Eggers/McSweeneys is very NPR
NPR is very West Wing/Alda
Not too far a walk!

By: Donald A. Coffin

Donald A. Coffin — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 12:53:51 +0000

Not exactly on subject, but those pairings that Amazon recommends? You don’t save anything by buying them together…the “paired” price is the same as the individual prices added together. Does anyone fall for that?

By: Matt

Matt — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 09:05:30 +0000

Have you read the book “Everything is Miscellaneous”? I suspect the author, David Weinberger, would have no problem with with this taxonomy, since he argues that we still classify things based on physical characteristics. Books especially. Fiction over here, non-fiction over there. But online, he argues, everything can go with everything.

In the case of this Amazon connection, I wonder if enough people both tagged the books as ‘clever’.

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:23:34 +0000

That taxonomy might be familiar to some people but it was new for me and had me giggling for about 10 minutes. Thanks Vincent.
=) Marc

By: Vincent LaConte

Vincent LaConte — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 02:07:16 +0000

Very interesting juxtaposition indeed. I don’t think I’m alone in saying the following either: subjectively, I have equally but oppositely mixed feelings about Alda and Eggers. Alda I respect for maintaining a certain integrity throughout a mainstream career, an Accessibility, even if feigned (and I don’t assume it is). He is the consummate Nice Guy but performs well behind the performative Fourth Wall.

Converseley, Eggers is cantankerous, inaccessible to the public, nearly faceless if you’ve not found his few Google Images grabs or seen him in a rare interview, eschews “integrity” as an artist in favor of “authenticity” (or some would say, drily, “irony”). He is the consummate Bastard Writer and performs best behind a real wall of near hermit-like reclusiveness and anti-publicism.

Among my father’s generation, Alda was a hero for his characteristics above. In my generation, Eggers is a hero for just the inverse (converse?) reasons.

Interesting.