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Where the Wild Things Are author tears into Stephen King, Gwyneth Paltrow
By Kristin HuntOctober 4th, 2011, 12:17 pmComments (16)
Statler and Waldorf, step aside. There's a new hysterical heckler in town. Maurice Sendak, author of the children's classic Where the Wild Things Are, decided to turn this recent interview into a roast of his literary peers, ebooks, and Gwyneth Paltrow. Unsurprisingly, it was glorious.
His first target was ereaders. "I hate them. It's like making believe there's another kind of sex. There isn't another kind of sex. There isn't another kind of book! A book is a book." He then took aim at New York City ("You get pushed and harassed and people grope you") and Rupert Murdoch ("He represents how bad things have become").
But the piece de resistance came when he dug into entertainers. Roald Dahl? "Scary guy. I know he's very popular, but what's nice about this guy? He's dead, that's what's nice about him." Stephen King? "Bullshit." Gwyneth Paltrow? "I can't stand her." Salman Rushdie? "That flaccid fuckhead. He was detestable. I called up the Ayatollah, nobody knows that."
If Sendak's wrath is any indication, children's authors save their real bite for later years. And I don't know about you, but I can't wait to hear a seventy-year-old JK Rowling call Stephenie Meyer an idiotic twat.
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maurice sendak
Commentarium (16 Comments)
He just gave me a mental erection.
Isn't he crazy? Like, isn't that his thing now?
Actually, Maurice, there is another kind of sex. It's called "With A Woman." (Not, for the record, that there's anything wrong with his kind.)
My Brooklyn homeboy Maurice now thinks New York is a bad place? Too bad.
What a sad hilarious man. We are all winners in his game.
I love Dahl.
I do too, but he's better for his work than as a person. Then again, I love the fact that his work is unrelentingly dark and dangerous but also empowering for children.
Old man rants are always hilarious.
The real news is that he's not dead, aka the Andy Rooney effect.
Andy Rooney's a g.
Aren't there a whole bunch of different kinds of sex? e-readers give us another way to read, which is no way a bad thing, Sendak is trolling.
He is right about Dahl. That guy had a miserable childhood and his books often were very dark for children's lit. The rest of his rant sounds like " Shit my Dad says".
He's been doing this for 40 years. Someone just found a way to place it in a wider arena. Where the Wild Things Are is a lovely accident of art. And then there was a lot more of less of the same...
And does he have anything positive to say about anything or did he just spend the whole interview moaning and bitching?
Angry people make me angry.
Wow!!!! This is awesome hearing this!!! I love(d) WTWTA as a kid growing up and it has a certain childhood nostalgia factor to it for me. I've long admired him and his work. But this is a different side to him I didn't think he had in him. I like it!!! Yes!!! Rage on Maurice!!!!
Ah, fahgeddaboudit. What a bunch of pillow biters you homos are.