David Milofsky recently interviewed me for this Denver Post article about the role of literary blogs. To clarify, the fruit basket was set to Lev Grossman as a gesture of good will and the fruit itself was not intended to be injurious. (See here.)
David Milofsky recently interviewed me for this Denver Post article about the role of literary blogs. To clarify, the fruit basket was set to Lev Grossman as a gesture of good will and the fruit itself was not intended to be injurious. (See here.)
was it a really nice fruit basket with fancy fruits like mangoes and starfruit or was it the old apples, organges, and banana-variety? And despite your intent, was it injurious after all? Did you get a thank you note? On what stationery?
Congrats on the interview…I second your comments regarding veracity–I do my utmost to write accurately and credit sources. Anonymity is not an excuse to be rude, write badly, or knowingly lie.
I’m not gonna fall for the banana in the tailpipe!
I can’t believe someone could perceive the giving of a fruit basket as an act of evil! It’s not like it was fruitcake.
Congrats on all the press lately.
I wonder if Susan read the article since it’s hard for me to imagine anyone thinking I was suggesting that Ed’s act was evil. The phrase itself (insult to injury) was meant to be humorous–and most people understood that. My kicker reiterrated that idea. In other words, Ed’s sending Grossman the fruit basket was a masterful way of turning Grossman’s criticism on its head. Of course there was nothing injurious or evil or even serious about it. Rather, it was funny. Of course the Time people apparently didn’t share this impression since they refused to accept the fruit basket at first, but that’s their problem. Over thirty years of writing this kind of thing, I’ve learned to be tolerant of people misunderstanding what I write, but this surprised me.
Heya David: I know I owe you emails (among equally swell people) and I’m donig my best to catch up, but to clarify this little issue, I totally got the wry tone you went for in your piece. Hell, I would have done something similar myself if I had written it. My post here, just to clarify, was an effort to josh right backatcha. Who knew that a fruit basket could be so controversial? 🙂