A month ago I’d never heard of James Franco. Now I hear the name “James Franco” and I get a little dizzy.
James Franco reads Hart Crane and Elizabeth Bishop. He wants to film adaptations of Faulkner and Cormac McCarthy from his own scripts.
He writes poetry. He wrote a story collection. He wrote this unreadable story that appeared in Esquire.
According to the NY Times James Franco is applauded by professors at Yale for “making it to class” on a Monday. Elsewhere, the chairman of the Yale English department gushes over how James Franco doesn’t display his “Hollywood wattage” in graduate classes about Walt Whitman. Still others enthuse over how “mysterious” fellow student James Franco is.
Google “I Hate James Franco” and you mostly find articles by people who admit they wish they could be James Franco.
On Thursday I asked my students “Who is James Franco?” and they immediately listed his acting credits. I found my students could spontaneously talk at length about the career of James Franco. This means James Franco is probably the most famous living American short story writer. He easily our most famous poet of the last 40 years.
Google “James Franco Devoured by Alligators” and you will only be disappointed.
James Franco’s mother is named “Betsy Franco” and he reads Karen Russell to her.
I told my students, “James Franco is evidently a student at Yale. He managed to make it to class on Monday. Like most of you.”
James Franco is potentially a bringer of light to literature. James Franco is, probably, sincerely enthusiastic about literature and art.
I told my students, “If any of you made a million dollars a movie I’d tell you not to come to class.” I told them, “If any of you made a million dollars a movie I’d ask you for a grant so I wouldn’t have to come to class.”
I told my wife, “If I ever met James Franco I’d punch him in the face.”
I told my students, “You don’t learn how to write by flying around to a dozen different schools.” I told my students, “You don’t learn about literature by enrolling in 10 different PhD programs.”
I meant to tell my wife, “It breaks my heart to see this man in such a position of influence.”
I meant to say, “If I met James Franco I’d slip him a copy of Scorch Atlas. I’d give him With Deer. I’d give him Motorman.”
I would hope for something to happen.
Punch him the face. Yep…a little bit.
This post seems a very sour about James Franco. Please spare him both of those books — Scorch Atlas and Motorman. Both turgid and not that great. But, I guess I find it difficult to begrudge Franco since he was one of my favorite TV shows of the late 90s and early 00s, the great and late Freaks and Geeks. And he’s an actor who also really likes literature. I may not share his tastes, but he actually has some preferences. I’ve been aware of his James Dean and nods to The Beats for a long time. Actors who write literary stories include the likes of Sharon Stone and of course Ethan Hawke. In the 90s Hawke was similar to James Franco where he was an easy punching bag. Hawke now co-chairs the highly regarded Young Lions Fiction Award. A classic famous in another medium yet very serious (cough cough) poet is of course Jim Morrison who has the support of the genuinely obscure yet bona fide Beat poet Michael McClure. I think if I were to create a list of “crimes against literature by celebrities,” Jim Morrison would go near the top, along with Jem and James Stewart. Franco might not even make the list.
Hmmm. Maybe sour about James Franco? I don’t know anything about James Franco, really. He may be a talented filmmaker. Evidently he is a good actor.
I like the idea of James Franco, a young and sincere famous person who is evidently beloved by … everyone and who wants to make film versions of great literature and promote great literature.
I like that you mention Jim Morrison because I sort of see Franco in that role. I think many, many young people came to Rimbaud and the Beats and Artaud through The Lords and the New Creatures.
I guess my point with bringing up Scorch Atlas isn’t necessarily that I mean Scorch Atlas, but that there are books that I would rather a young, very famous, very interested promoter of literature would know about and talk about than Cormac McCarthy and William Faulkner. I could well be misguided, though.
That makes sense to me…
Robert Kloss is one jealous MF……
I want to believe (check too-clever-by-half Duchovny ref) , but I always assume actors who talk about reading are mounting the long, slow campaign to legitimize their inevitable run at Hamlet. (In my house we refer to it as “Hamlet-Shmamlet”)Read the latest Vanity Fair i-view with Johnny Depp, and you’ll see what I mean. But my cynicism probably places me on the same level as Bill Hicks’ waffle waitress.
Patty, you raise a good point. It seems like when nobody-writers criticize celebrities who write it is assumed they are jealous (I don’t even know how much I’m criticizing Franco versus criticizing his teachers and classmates and Esquire and the NY Times etc … ).
Anyhow, when I was gathering info on Franco (and the feelings about him) this seemed to be the majority opinion–that any criticism would be based on jealousy. I wonder why this is? How many people would actually want to live James Franco’s life?
Unless you were talking about Karen Russell. I am jealous of Karen Russell.
You articulate yourself really well and in the process, you have articulated what I’ve been feeling too. Thanks
I’m a nobody writer and I hate the stories of Franco I’ve read, but I don’t envy one iota of his life. There’s no way in hell that Esquire story would have seen the light of day if it wasn’t attached to celebrity. The difference between someone like Franco and say, Snookie, is that he affects a posture that ignores his underdeveloped skill set. I think he’s embarrasing himself.
my friend’s cat writes some shit but some people call it ‘turds in a litter box’
personally i don’t think it matters what they look, taste, smell or feel like,
but how big they are when you roll them out with a pin
my friend’s cat is also very sincere and yet i sometimes want to punch it in the face
i think it’s pretty obvious at this point that my friend’s cat is james franco
Actually, “most famous living American short story writer” would be more accrurately rephrased as “most famous living American who, coincidentally, is a also a short story writer.” His fame doesn’t come from his short stories.