Hey. My friend James Marcus in New York has hit the big time! Woohoo!*
Some people have just got it. This precis from Moby Lives – the blog of Melville House Publishing in NYC – gives you the full flava:
The reviews are in. James Marcus’ dance track featuring the “Jewish shouting” of Philip Roth, which debuted last Thursday on MobyLives, is a hit, not to mention a viral sensation. While the New York Times said it “won’t be hitting the Top 40 chart any time soon,” they added that it’s already “playing in perpetuity at the hippest dance club our college-aged selves could imagine.” MediaBistro predicted that it’s “destined to be the ringtone of choice among hip literary types this summer.” (Though Gawker corrects this post, reminding us that “there are no ‘hip literary types.’ “) While in The Guardian, critic Alison Flood admits that she dreams of “getting New York’s clubbers to shake their stuff to a 76-year-old novelist’s yodelling.”
Click on their link, or here, to download the sound file. It’s the ring tone de nos j0urs! I’m going to get it. It’s the closest I’m ever likely to get to Philip Roth: my mate’s tape recorder.
Here’s James’ account of the historic moment:
And what about Ernest Lehman’s version of Portnoy’s Complaint, which brought back Richard Benjamin for a second turn as the author’s cinematic proxy? “Unspeakable,” Roth declares. “It’s a movie about shouting. Jewish shouting.” (He proceeds to give a brief, comical example, which strikes me as a specimen of literary history, like Thoreau demonstrating how to peel the bark off a birch tree.)
As for James himself? I think he’s a pretty hip literary type. But then, I would say that. And he’s a very funny writer. All he needs is someone to publish his novel.
* This exclamation comes from an old Blur song, and just goes to show you, post-Glasto, how totally up with it all, and down with it all, I really am. Oh yeah baby. I’m thinking of making a ringtone where I remix TS Eliot to sound like a pirate. Or Damon Albarn.
