Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for September 01, 2011

Is the Red Rascal afraid of girls?

I think Becca herself is smitten with Jeff’s genius and potential.

@Dylan: only on days that end in a Y. It’s part of the “air of mystery” thing …

Notice that Becca’s deftness in fending off the competition matches her deftness in fending off Excellency’s advances.

Jeff is not intimidated by the girls of his imagination.

Jeff caught off guard by missdirection?

@Richard S Russell, there hasn’t been another JD Salinger since KD Salinger but my favorite post-war American novelist is John Updike.

Do one book authors go to bourbon or scotch?

Jeff is not afraid of girls. Jeff is coy.

Becca – as sensible and intelligent as his Mom.

Pietro di Donato’s Christ in Concrete, Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair. John Le Carre beats Updike all hollow. Flannery O’Connor is 10 times Updike. Only one Salinger, but if you like him you might like Grace Paley.

Jeff’s trying to be clever so he can hit on the gullible ones – Becka’s too smart for him, and headed him off at the pass. Anyway, having him trying to put the move on the employees would be bad for HER business.

Wow, thanks for explaining, Joe…I mean,wwh. (Old go-comics joke.)

Wow, did I call wwh, Joe?

Some editors do specialize: .• Acquisitions editors may move on to the next client once the contract has been signed. .• Line editors do the actual day-by-day “battle of the text” with the author over points of fact, in-text legal questions (which might be kicked upstairs to the legal department for a decision), etc. .• Art editors do the same work on the pictorial parts of the “graphic novel”. .• Publicity editors may write cover copy and advertising copy for the publicity/advertising department. ..• Proofreaders and fact checkers are a lower (lesser paid) order of editor and check spelling, grammar, and factual content. (Example: if Red Rascal has a meeting with President Al Gore, the the fact checker would “query” RR on the point.) .• But Trudeau has called Becca a “top editor”, an executive editor who would oversee the whole process from beginning to end and be personally responsible to the Random House’s CEO and Board of Directors..Best-selling authors are never called “dupes” within the organization. (Example: J.K. Rowling.) The fear is that if a best-selling author is called a “dupe”, or feels s/he is being mistreated or ripped off in terms of her/his royalties s/he will go to a competitor for her/his next book contract. .To the contrary, best-selling authors are wined, dined, sent on book tours with TV personalities (somebody mentioned Oprah), radio personalities (say NPR’s Smiley Travis), put up in 5-star hotels, all expenses paid till the tour is over. .A “top” editor’s $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ really are earned. It takes publishing talent to recognize a potential best-seller, to commit the publisher’s $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ to the books proper development and marketing. A good top editor can land a non-fiction book for, say, President Obama after he wins/loses re-election, secure a ghost-writer for him, etc. Since a “top” editor earns Random House the most $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$, the “top” editor makes the most $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ of any editor at the House. .This includes advertising in many media, such as “placement” of the book in an upcoming movie. (Example: Brad Pitt is seen poolside reading it as he rubs the bare back of Angelina Jolie with his foot.).By the time the book (in this case “graphic novel”) has gone this far, the “top” or executive editor is well into the next “title”. Consequently she must continually “groom” best-selling author Jeff Redfern as he writes it so that he isn’t seduced away by another acquisitions editor from a competing house..This throws Jeff and Becca together and makes an “opening” for romance between Jeff and Becca.

I express my doubt that this will ever see paper. More likely an ether book of complied insanity. Then GT will come out with the paper version and we’ll all dive into the Goodwill waiting for someone with actual cash to turn it in and we can getit for $.25 along with three mystery novels by the official greatest American authors, Robert Parker, Richard Stark (Don Westlake) and Dashiell Hammett. (Hemingway forever changed the way American Fiction was written. Faulkner was the greatest Regionalist, Henry James was THE “American” author. ) Nothing wrong with the Romancers, Nora Roberts, Iris Johansen, Lisa Gardner. Or the pop “artists” Frey, Franzen, or Pynchon. Or the horror twins, Koontz (who writes moire and more like Dickens) and King.

Brilliantly well done, Becca….Given his track record with women, it was the most sensible thing you could do for him.

He has to wear sunglasses because his future’s so bright!

Becca’s in the business of selling beautiful lies. It remains to be seen what else she sees in Jeff. She actually might be smart enough to straighten him out. And if things get nasty, well, she certainly has the redder hair. This might be amusing.

Of course, with all that red hair in play, any kid they had would probably turn out to be the Antichrist.

I think either Amy Adams or Jessica Chastain should play Becca in the film adaptation.

@leftwingpatriotI too think John Updike is tops as a novelestand am re-reading one of the Rabbit books, He also does fine book reviews. For memoirs, essays, letters, etc, and LOLITA, Nabokov is a joy. I always urge others to read SPEAK, MEMORY, his account of growing up in St Petersburg in a cultivated well-to-do (happy!) family and later their hardships in Germany and France after they fled the Revolution, ending as he and his new wife and young son leave for his teaching post at U of Wisconsin.

@leftwingpatriot

Of course I read the news and the obituaries when Updike died. I guess I just put it out of my mind. (wiishful thinking?)

Jeff’s concerned that their cravings for his precious bodily fluids will diminish his creativity. Publishing Groupies are as bad as the Russians … no worse!

pd’s right yesteday, Jeff’s been kissed by Lady Luck.

… or “blind luck”.