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Prince Reference in Motherless Brooklyn Anybody here read Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn?
It's his 1999 novel about a bunch of boys who grow up in Brooklyn and get involved with this dubious, pseudo-gangster/neighborhood character kind of guy. Frankie Minna (the small time hood and/or jack of vague trades) pulls these young orphaned kids out of the school/halfway house they are in and gives them all kinds of work, from loading unnamed items into and out of trucks and brownstones, to fronting a car service and running a detective agency. I picked it up because it's set right in my neighborhood. The novel, which is partly a detective novel and partly a coming of age tale is told from the perspective of one of the boys who happens to have Tourette's Syndrome. This presents all sorts of narrative dilemmas that Lethem handles beautifully. Whether his descriptions of what goes on in Lionel Essrog's (the boy with TS) is an accurate portrayal of someone who suffers from TS, I don't know. But it's a wonderful narrative device that he also handles with a great deal of sympathy and humor. Why am I telling you this? And why am I telling you this in this forum? Glad you asked. Anywho, I haven't finished it yet but on page 112 we learn that Lionel has a strong liking for Prince. There's a scene where he puts How Come You Don't Call Me Anymore on repeat and just fades off to sleep. There's a description of Essrog's CD shelf which has mostly Prince/Artist Formerly Known as Prince CDs on it. And there is a loving description of how Lionel first came to know Prince by hearing "Kiss" and then going out and getting the 12" and various other B-sides. And there's this wonderful passage (that, what the hell, I will quote in full) where Lionel tries to wrap his Tourette affected mind around the symbol, as he is trying to avoid speaking to his companion: The desultory magazines were shelved in two deep in the rack -- there weren't more than one or two customers for GQ or Wired or Brooklyn Bridge per month around here. Me, I was bluffing, didn't read magazines at all. Then I spotted a familiar face, on a magazine called Vibe: The Artist Formerly Known As Prince. Before a blurred cream background he posed resting his head against the neck of a pink guitar, his eyes demure. The unpronounceable typographical glyph with which he had replaced his name was shaved into the hair at his temple.
"Skrubble," I said. "What?" "Plavshk," I said. My brain had decided to try to pronounce that unpronounceable glyph, a linguistic foray into the lands On Beyond Zebra. I lifted up the magazine. "You're telling me you're gonna read Vibe?" "Sure." "You trying to make fun of me here Alibi?" "No, no, I'm a big fan of Skursvshe." "Who?" "The Artist Formely Known As Plinvstk." I couldn't quit tackling the glyph. I plopped the magazine on the counter[.] And then there's this beautiful section: I don't know whether The Artist Formerly Known As Prince is Tourettic or obsessive-comulsive in his human life, but I know for certain he is deeply so in the life of his work. Music has never made much of an impact on me until the day in 1986 when, sitting in the passenger seat of Minna's Cadillac, I first heard the single "Kiss" squirting its manic way out of the car radio. To that point in my life I might have once or twice heard music that toyed with feelings of claustrophobic discomfort and expulsive release, and which in so doing passingly chamrmed my Tourette's, gulled it with a sense of recognition, like Art Carney or Daffy Duck -- but here was a song that lived entirely in that territory, guitar and voice twitching and throbbing withing obsessively delineated bounds, alternately silent and plosive. It so pulsed with Torettic energies that I could surrender to its tormented squeaky beat and let my syndrome live outside my brain for once, live in the air instead.
Anyway, wonderful book. SOS? Didn't you once mention The Fortress of Solitude, another one of Lethem's books? He's got a bunch of them. And I think this motherfucker should be a featured thread!! Feauture me dammit! [Edited 9/13/04 18:56pm] | |
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2the9s said: Anybody here read Jonathan Lethem's Motherless in Brooklyn
no, but send me a copy with MY POSTCARD and I'll read it!  [Edited 9/13/04 18:19pm] VOTE....EARLY | |
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DiminutiveRocker said: 2the9s said: Anybody here read Jonathan Lethem's Motherless in Brooklyn
no, but send me a copy with MY POSTCARD and I'll read it!
[Edited 9/13/04 18:19pm] OMG you bitch!! I just sent out a bunch and your address wasn't on there! 
Send it to me again!!  | |
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2the9s said: DiminutiveRocker said: no, but send me a copy with MY POSTCARD and I'll read it!
[Edited 9/13/04 18:19pm] OMG you bitch!! I just sent out a bunch and your address wasn't on there!
Send it to me again!!  What?! You bastard!  VOTE....EARLY | |
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DiminutiveRocker said: 2the9s said: OMG you bitch!! I just sent out a bunch and your address wasn't on there!
Send it to me again!! What?! You bastard! Please!!!!  | |
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2the9s said: DiminutiveRocker said: What?! You bastard! Please!!!! well...  Ok. 
But it better be an F'ING GOOD POSTCARD! or....  VOTE....EARLY | |
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Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn" (there is no 'in' in the title) is a fun read, especially for Prince fans. For all of you New Yorkers, this is a must read.
I just finished the Black Album by Hanif Kureishi, which has another nod to Prince and his impact on pop culture. This book was recommended by a friend that is not necessarily a Prince fan and did not get the reference in the title. I though it was mere coincidence myself until about pg 30 when the first Prince reference appears. And while Prince is not really even a secondary theme in the novel, his music is symbollic of the pop culture in the 80's. A fun read. And while were on a literary thread, I am reading A Clockwork Orange right now - how wonderful is this book!!!! Can I kiss you there, down there where it counts? | |
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Colbert said: Lethem's "Motherless Brooklyn" (there is no 'in' in the title) is a fun read, especially for Prince fans. For all of you New Yorkers, this is a must read.
I just finished the Black Album by Hanif Kureishi, which has another nod to Prince and his impact on pop culture. This book was recommended by a friend that is not necessarily a Prince fan and did not get the reference in the title. I though it was mere coincidence myself until about pg 30 when the first Prince reference appears. And while Prince is not really even a secondary theme in the novel, his music is symbollic of the pop culture in the 80's. A fun read. And while were on a literary thread, I am reading A Clockwork Orange right now - how wonderful is this book!!!! Thanks Colbert! I'll fix that! It really is a fun read. Someone gave a copy of Buddha of Suburbia a while back and it's been sitting on my shelves. I'll check out The Black Album. I've also seen references to Prince in Kathy Acker's Don Quixote, where she says he should run for presdient or something. lol It would be interesting to know of other references in other works of literature. (Well to us Prince idiots anyway...  ) | |
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Plavshk
hmmm well thats a better name for it then :hold up ya symbol: Yesterday is dead...tomorrow hasnt arrived yet....i have just ONE day...
...And i'm gonna be groovy in it! | |
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2the9s thank u for that post. I will purchase that book and read. Sounds like something I would enjoy reading. Least we know the author digs our man.  |
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pennylover said: 2the9s thank u for that post. I will purchase that book and read. Sounds like something I would enjoy reading. Least we know the author digs our man.
Whoo hoo! 2the9s getting props in the PM&M forum!  | |
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also a covert reference in 'Madam 90210'. | |
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