John Cheever
John Cheever
Borstalboy
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/9/04
#1John Cheever
Posted: 8/26/14 at 9:02pm
Such an incredible writer and yet no one talks about him any more. Rarely taught in universities and the once-ubiquitous COLLECTED STORIES OF JOHN CHEEVER now only sells about 5,000 copies a year while his full-length books struggle to remain in print.
What do you think happened to the man they called "the American Chekhov"?
"Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.”
~ Muhammad Ali
#2John Cheever
Posted: 8/26/14 at 9:23pmYou would think that Matthew Weiner himself calls Cheever the biggest influence on Mad Men would help in that department a bit but as it turns out, that show doesn't get the viewership at Game of Thrones ratings numbers to spike any related influences.
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#2John Cheever
Posted: 8/27/14 at 12:30pm
"now only sells about 5,000 copies a year"
That's a HUGE number nowzadays.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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#3John Cheever
Posted: 8/27/14 at 3:01pm
And that 5,000 probably doesn't include ebook sales.
But no one reads anymore anyway, except women (who read 50 shades of porn) and teenagers.
#4John Cheever
Posted: 8/27/14 at 6:37pm
^ I know you were generalizing, but on my commute today, looking around the carriage ,I saw all sorts of people on kindles and a good number of real books too. The hot twenty-something guy beside me was reading a hardcopy "Northanger Abbey" and the less-hot one beside him was reading a Lionel Shriver.
Yeah... John Cheever, I must get around to him someday.
Beyoncé is not an ally. Actions speak louder than words, Mrs. Carter. #Dubai #$$$
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
FindingNamo
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/22/03
#6John Cheever
Posted: 8/27/14 at 11:23pmYes. Life imitating art.
Twitter @NamoInExile
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#7John Cheever
Posted: 8/28/14 at 11:21am
Rarely taught in universities
That has not been my experience.
When I was a graduate student in an MFA program, Cheever was prominently taught in several classes I took (theory of fiction, writing workshop, etc). This was only ~10 years ago. As a university professor now, I regularly teach a course on American short stories and always feature a few Cheever stories. I particularly like teaching "Goodbye, My Brother" and "The Country Husband".
Many writers I know also list Cheever as a major influence.
"You travel alone because other people are only there to remind you how much that hook hurts that we all bit down on. Wait for that one day we can bite free and get back out there in space where we belong, sail back over water, over skies, into space, the hook finally out of our mouths and we wander back out there in space spawning to other planets never to return hurrah to earth and we'll look back and can't even see these lives here anymore. Only the taste of blood to remind us we ever existed. The earth is small. We're gone. We're dead. We're safe."
-John Guare, Landscape of the Body
