« Who Needs Robbi? | Main | You Be the Judge »
April 15, 2007
A Very Good Day
When Robbi told me a few weeks back that George Saunders would be visiting Washington College as part of the Humor and Satire Festival, it didn't immediately sink in that I might actually have the opportunity to talk to the person who has become one of my literary heroes. Saunders' blend of humor, critique, and humanity delights and inspires me. When I thought about going to graduate school, Syracuse rose to the top of my list because of the prospect of studying with him.
Alas, grad school was not meant to be (at least last year) and, in retrospect, there is probably no person more glad about NOT having gotten into graduate school than I, given the fun we've been having with Idiots'Books.
Anyway. Today was George's reading. We went. Matt Westbrook came over from Baltimore to join us. We sat in the third row and listened and admired as George read from In Persuasion Nation.
After he was done reading, there was a Q&A. I asked a few questions because, if I was not going to spend three years working on my MFA with George Saunders, I could, at least, take the opportunity to poll him on a few things I'd been wondering about. He answered my questions most satisfactorily. Then the thing ended.
A brass band showed up along with a woman in a strange costume. She was the performance artist Pat Oleszko, who asked us to form a procession and march behind her to the Washington College literary house where she had installed about 10 huge inflatable sculptures. The ensuing exodus allowed Robbi and me to corner George Saunders and gush enthusiatically about our intense admiration of his work. He was extraordinarily gracious, kind, and generous. A truly nice guy. The kind of guy you hope your literary hero will be, while knowing the statistical unliklihood of someone being both 1) hero-quality and 2) really nice.
But LO! George Saunders appears to be both.
And so I was glowing as he, Robbi, Matt, and I walked together over to the Literary House, making pleasant chit-chat along the way.
When we arrived, we encountered the enormous inflatables. Some of which were delightful in shape.
Though I am ashamed to admit it, I could not resist the temptation to pose provocatively in front of the inflatable called, "A Womb With a View." Matt posed for this photograph only after making me promise that I would not post it on the blog.
Seeing how much fun Matt and I had, Robbi and our friend Adam could not resist doing their best to outdo us.
Seeing that I had been bested, I was compelled to pose even more inappropriately with this inflatable, the name of which I cannot now recall, but which was basically a multi-nippled construct.
I do not understand this sculpture. Sometimes art is supposed to be beyond our grasp.
And sometimes squarely within it.
Here is Pat Oleszko, the woman behind the inflatables.
We had dinner with Pat later on in the day, and heard the story of the 60-foot rocketship inflatable she had to make one time. Her studio was not big enough to accommodate the thing, so she had to set it up in the park near her studio to see if it looked ok before installing it in its final destination. As she inflated the rocket in the park, the neighborhood kids gathered around and cheered like it was Christmas.
After molesting the inflatables, we went back to our place so that I could collect all five of the George Saunders books we own. We brought them back to the Literary House, where George was hanging out being nice to all sorts of people, and asked him to sign them. Not only did he sign them, but he talked to us some more while he signed them. We told him a bit about our venture and he offered kind, encouraging words. We gave him a couple of our books and he kindly and graciously accepted them and asked us to autograph them. At several times throughout this encounter I felt the way a young, impressionable girl might feel if Justin Timberlake were suddenly appear and ask for her to sign his washboard abs. You get what I'm saying, I think.
Over the next few hours, there were four more readings. Dan Kennedy, Sarah Payne Stuart, Jason Schneiderman, and Jonathan Ames each read from their work. All were masterful, but mostly I was just floating on the cloud of George Saunders and his kindness.
At the end of the evening, we found him, bid our farewells, thanked him, and cagily requested that he pose for this photo.
Anyone who hasn't yet should go out and buy a George Saunders book, taking satisfaction as they read in knowing that the brillant words within were written by an outstanding person, my literary hero, George Saunders.
Posted by bogenamp at April 15, 2007 01:24 AM