Dude, where’s my brow?

by Ted on October 13, 2003

Did you know that Rita Mae Brown, who wrote Rubyfruit Jungle*, the frequently-assigned novel about growing up lesbian, also wrote the screenplay for the slasher movie The Slumber Party Massacre? (She also writes a popular series of mysteries.)

If I was a professor of cultural studies, my head would be spinning. Accurately measuring the brow altitude of American culture is a job for braver souls than I.

UPDATE: Just Rubyfruit Jungle, not The Rubyfruit Jungle. Thanks, Patrick.

{ 10 comments }

1

harry 10.13.03 at 5:14 pm

Did you know Roger Ebert wrote the screenplay for Russ Meyer’s Beyond The Valley of the Dolls?
That C Day Lewis was Nicholas Blake?
That Julian Barnes is Pat Kavanagh (the author, not the literary agent, who is his spouse)?
There must be a party game here.

Actually I did know the Rita Mae Brown thing — it’s no surprise having read Rubyfruit Jungle. Just be glad you are not in cultural studies. Or, if I’d more time, should we collaborate on a spoof paper?

2

Ted Barlow 10.13.03 at 6:39 pm

Or, if I’d more time, should we collaborate on a spoof paper?

That would be a lot of fun. (By the way, I’m a fan of Julian Barnes, but I can’t find a “Pat Kavanagh” whon isn’t a hockey player. What was published under that name?)

3

Patrick Nielsen Hayden 10.13.03 at 6:46 pm

Did you know that Gene Wolfe helped design the machine that makes Pringles’ potato chips?

That Thomas M. Disch wrote the copy on the original Screaming Yellow Zonkers box?

That the United Nations’ “Universal Declaration of Human Rights” was originally drafted by Ron Goulart?

Okay, I made that last one up.

However, the title Rubyfruit Jungle has no article preceding it.

4

Ted Barlow 10.13.03 at 6:53 pm

D’oh!

5

Ophelia Benson 10.13.03 at 7:18 pm

Oh, do the spoof cult studs paper, willya? You could have a new postmodern generator type thing. We’d probably publish it on B and W. I’d do it myself only I’m busy with a different spoof.

6

Harry 10.13.03 at 7:46 pm

Sorry Ted, it’s Dan Kavanagh (and the novels always carry obviously spoof bios for Kavanagh). They are private eye novels (there are quite a few).
OK, let’s think about the paper. My other favourite spoof idea (though maybe I shouldn’t be discussing this in a public place) is on the way that 70’s heavy metal influenced British analytic philosophy which, in turn, influenced the new heavy metal movement of the 1980’s (so the infleunce of 70s metal was in fact mediated, not direct, as the dominant paradigm supposes).

7

Ophelia Benson 10.13.03 at 8:56 pm

Right, that’s two we’ll want…

8

Xhenxhefil 10.14.03 at 12:07 am

I didn’t know she wrote books about growing up lesbian OR slasher movie scripts, but I’m familiar with her cozy mysteries that are supposedly co-written with her cat.

Truly a renaissance woman.

9

Nabakov 10.14.03 at 3:16 am

And Thomas Pynchon used to write brochures for Boeing’s missile division.

10

Paul 10.14.03 at 3:44 am

What was published under that name?

A series of detective novels featuring a bisexual detective named Duffy. The only one I have is the third in the series, Going to the dogs. Haven’t read it in years, but I have fond memories of it.

According to the bio, Kavanagh was

“born in County Sligo, Ireland, in 1946. After an uncompromising adolescence he left Ireland and roamed the world. He has been an entertainment officer on a Japanese supertanker, a waiter on roller skates at a drive-in eatery in Tuscon, a bouncer in a gay bar in San Francisco. He boasts of having flown light airplanes on the Columbian cocaine route, but all that is known for certain is that he was once a baggage handler at Toronto International Airport. He lives in Islington, North London, and works at jobs which (with mild paranoia) he declines to specify. He is also the author of Duffy and Fiddle City.”

Patrick Kavanagh, btw, was an Irish poet. Van Morrison recorded his poem Raglan Road.

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