Comments on: Camping out for Clinton

By: fyreflye

fyreflye — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 20:35:55 +0000

Seeking autographs of famous people, whether camped out for or not, is the sort of retrograde primate behavior we should all be struggling to rise above. This kind of irrational irrationality deserves a sharp rebuke on B & W, if not elsewhere.

By: Anno-nymous

Anno-nymous — Fri, 09 Jul 2004 01:03:02 +0000

I couldn’t care less about a book signing. But Bill Clinton is, I think, the only living person whose hand I would be proud to shake. Mostly because other people I admire aren’t really the hand-shaking type, I suppose.

By: David W.

David W. — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 19:17:59 +0000

Well, I’m quite impressed at how soon the Exley reference was noted! I’d definitely camp out for a George Orwell signing, myself. Sigh. (I’m currently reading Ian Slater’s recently reissued The Road to Airstrip One, and recommend it highly to anyone who is an Orwell fan.)

By: PG

PG — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:37:10 +0000

But you wouldn’t have known at the time of Theory of Justice’s release that it would become the Bible of post-WWII political philosophy. John Rawls was not a rockstar when Theory was first published, although there’s no reason not to have camped out at his Harvard office five years ago to get his autograph then.

By: harry

harry — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 18:32:21 +0000

Norman Geras’s cricket books are autographed… I’d have camped out for the first Just William by Richmal Crompton, or the first Jennings Goes to School by Buckeridge. Otherwise, nothing, not even TofJ.

By: Paul

Paul — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 15:04:49 +0000

And the cooler the signer, the worse it would be to dork it up in front of him. That’s the real dilemma of book signings. It hasn’t stopped me from asking for autographs, but it has stopped me from camping out.

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 14:51:34 +0000

I’d stay up for an autographed copy of the Bible. Should be good for a few bucks on e-bay.

By: Nabakov

Nabakov — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 14:48:39 +0000

I’d stay up for an autographed copy of the Bible. Should be good for a few bucks on e-bay.

By: Jeremy Osner

Jeremy Osner — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 13:28:13 +0000

Well… if Pynchon were signing copies of Gravity’s Rainbow I reckon I would camp out for it. Or: Dylan signing copies of Tarantula. Also I would camp out to get a book signed by Vonnegut but I think I would not have to.

By: jdw

jdw — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 06:48:07 +0000

The problem is, it seems to me there’s something unavoidably dorky about getting autographs in general, and waiting in line to get them in particular. So to get a book signed by somebody cool—like Gore Vidal—means you’d have to look like a dork in front of him. And the cooler the signer, the worse it would be to dork it up in front of him. That said, if Phillip Larkin were still alive, I’d steal one of his books from the library and wait in line for weeks to get him to sign it. Kinda apropos of nothing: a friend of mine got the Mothers of Invention to sign his birth certificate, which I imagine will at some point lead to his being considered a non-person or in jail for defacing government property or something, but I’ve always thought it was pretty cool.

By: Cb

Cb — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 05:41:13 +0000

Gore Vidal, yes.

By: Chris Marcil

Chris Marcil — Thu, 08 Jul 2004 05:31:25 +0000

I don’t even think Frederick Exley would’ve camped out for Frank Gifford.