Some of my favorite people from the Office, talking about the Writer’s Guild Strike.
I watch the show on the internet, for the record.
Some Things You May Like If You Like This Blog
Me on James Salter at The Paris Review Daily. Me on studying with Annie Dillard, learning to use an e-reader, and the racial unconscious of the United States as seen in our superhero comics.
A a copy of my first novel at your favorite retailer of choice.
Edinburgh is in print from the good people at Picador. Here are some reactions to it:
…Alexander Chee’s Edinburgh, fucking incredible son of a bitch...
— Junot Diaz, over at Austinist
Alexander Chee is the best new novelist I’ve seen in some time. Edinburgh is moody, dramatic—and pure.
— Edmund White
Edinburgh has the force of a dream and the heft of a life. And Alexander Chee is a brilliant new writer.
— Annie Dillard
Haunting… complex… sophisticated. [Chee] says volumes with just a few incendiary words.
— The New York Times Book Review
A coming-of-age novel in the grand Romantic tradition, where passions run high, Cupid stalks Psyche, and love shares the dance floor with death . . . A lovely, nuanced, never predictable portrait of a creative soul in the throes of becoming.
— The Washington Post Book World
Chee is a gifted, poetic writer who takes big risks…This novel marks the debut of a major talent whose career will bear watching.
— Publishers Weekly
A striking debut…A complex story told with skill and intensity, but also filled with moments when agony and extraordinary beauty somehow coexist.
— Kirkus Reviews
A complex, sophisticated, elegant investigation of trauma and desire - like a white hot flame.— Joyce Hackett, in the Guardian UK
A second novel will be out soon, but not really soon, as it is still being edited. When it appears, it will be called "The Queen of the Night" and say "Houghton Mifflin Harcourt" on the spine, plus my name. Details will appear here and also on alexanderchee.net.
While I just linked to Mark Harris’s “the WGA is right!” column, it’s really hard to feel sorry for these people. The writers of “The Office”? They’re all making more money than anyone could ever need. And Mike Schur? He’s married to the one of the head writers of “Heroes,” who is Regis Philbin’s daughter. He’s so, so, so not hurting. Meanwhile, the key grip is collecting unemployment. Niiiiice.
Well, I think it’s important to remember that the real people in this who are making more money than anyone could ever need are the networks. And while you or I might feel these writers make too much, in the last year we’ve moved into a world where millionaires have to keep their day jobs, and billionaires no longer keep their money in dollars.
Imagine if publishing were to decide that books should all come out in market paperback as well as hardcover and trade, and that the writers shouldn’t get paid for market paperbacks because they’re ‘promotional copies’. And that also the people who made the promos shouldn’t get paid. But they’re still getting sold, and maybe even more popular than hardcover or trade.
You know you wouldn’t stand for that.
Right now the only people making money off the iTunes downloads and the episodes aired on the websites are the studios, and in principle that is wrong, because that’s where the future is headed already. If we don’t close this gap, the studios will have found a way to make writers and actors work literally for nothing. And I’ll always be against that.