Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Dear Tracy

Lake Leelanau August 2011

  Okay, this one is a little odd.  I'm not sure if you know the answer, but if you don't, maybe you can point me to someone who does (maybe Harold?)

  I was at a used bookstore up in Northport this afternoon, and I ran across something that looked interesting: a trade paperback version of Chris Offutt's Kentucky Straight autographed by Offutt and inscribed to Jim Harrison (!!). The inscription was something like "to a writer who has deeply inspired me" or something like that.  It was going for 85 bucks, though I might be able to talk them down a bit.  My question is: what would something like that be worth on the open market?

  Or a second question: how is it that something like this becomes an object in the marketplace?  Like, how would you feel if you walked into the local Unique Thrift and saw that painting you gave your boyfriend in high school? Not "you" specifically - don't know if that's your speed or not - but, just generally, this thing that used to be a private symbol of an intimate relationship re-purposed & hanging on the wall with a little price sticker on it . . . how would that feel?  Maybe it's some jacket that you spent way too much money and way too much time picking out for this guy, and now it's just hanging in a shop for cheap, or maybe marked up because it's "hip" and "collectible".  Or, maybe you're a fledgling writer, and you're getting some good notices, and you get to meet a writer whose work you really respect, and you give him a copy of your blood & tears with a humble inscription/tribute to his genius . . . only to find it years later, in Dog Eared Books in Northport, Michigan, marked with a collector's price.  How much would that suck?

  I have little flashes like this when I see one of my old band's CDs in the used bin . . . "couldn't take it, could you?" . . . but this is really different, isn't it?  I've never autographed anything for anyone as far as I know (oh, wait, there was that undergrad literary journal I got published in back in the day, for the guy who lived next door to me in the dorm), but if you're the type for whom the whole idea of inscribing things rubs against your self-image, then you do it, and it essentially gets discarded?  Whoa.  How can you not feel, a least a little, like someone has rejected you?  And, based on the inscription, how much more does it suck because you really put yourself out to that someone who rejected you?

  Or maybe it's not a big deal.  Lord knows I don't hang around the Iowa Writers' Workshop or anywhere like that, so what do I know?

  I would try to authenticate it, of course.  It does seem reasonable that Offutt would be inspired by Harrison, and Harrison lived around here until 2001 or so.  Kentucky Straight had been out a few years by the time Harrison headed out to Montana, but perhaps Harrison, who seems a bit anti-social, wouldn't have sought out a new writer unless somebody put a book in his hands.  It seems that "somebody" was Chris Offutt himself.  Bottom line, if I could pick this up for $75-$85 and move it quickly for $150, then I'll send mom back up there to pick it up for me.  Otherwise, I'll let it go.  I'm not much of an autograph collector, myself.

  Well, let me know what you think.  If I need to run this by someone else, point me their direction.  Otherwise, talk to you soon.

Bill

P. S.  I know what you're thinking: "Who gives a fuck about an autographed copy!  Just read the book."  I'm with you there; if the book would have been $5 instead of $85, I would have picked it up.  I'll probably get around to getting it sometime, but my reading list is getting out of control since Borders marked their philosophy books 50% off & I went crazy on the Baudrillard and Zizek books.  And as for Harrison, I have a brother who swears by him, but those Hemingway types annoy the hell out of me.  His appearance on that Anthony Bourdain show didn't do much to dissuade me of that notion, either.  Because of my brother, I always wanted to like him, and someday I may . . . but, right now, if Offutt's way down the reading list, then Harrison isn't even on it.

B-


2 comments:

  1. my love of jim harrison has been downgraded to "like". Or more accurately, I lost interest in Harrison after "The Road Home", which is one of the best books I've ever read. Don't bother with him now - he's covering the exact same ground he's always covered. He's gone to the same well too many times. And he's turning into a bit of a name dropper, which is really annoying. I'll always like him though - I guess it's a "Rolling Stones" thing. (See: http://themailtrucktooblivion.blogspot.com/2011/08/attn-john-r.html)

    I'm reaching the same conclusion about Wilco too. (Lost interest after "Summer Teeth".) That would get me 50 lashes with a fixie bike chain in hipster court.

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  2. Don't worry about the hipsters dissing you over Wilco. They've moved on to Bon Iver or some such shit.

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