[lit-ideas] Help Please!
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2009 10:05:31 -0600
from the BBC:
"Shortlists for major literary prizes often leave casual readers scratching
their heads, as they wonder why such acclaimed novels have passed them by. But
even avid bookworms may have missed out on Baboon Metaphysics, which is up for
this year's Diagram Prize. The award, which is run by The Bookseller magazine,
aims to reveal the oddest book title of the last year. Five more titles,
including Strip And Knit With Style, have been shortlisted. A public vote will
decide the winner....
Last year's winner was If You Want Closure In Your Relationship, Start With
Your Legs by "celebrity bodyguard" Big Boom.
"So effective is the title that you don't even need to read the book itself,"
noted the Bookseller's deputy editor, Joel Rickett.
The self-help tome took 33 per cent of the public vote. I Was Tortured By The
Pygmy Love Queen came a close second, on 20 per cent.
Third place was taken by Cheese Problems Solved - which was described by its
publishers as providing "responses to 200 or so of the most commonly asked
questions about cheese". http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7903515.stm
My question: "Cheese Problems Solved" -- I assume that plays on flatulence
("farting" for all you Anglo-Saxons out there), but my very first response was
eerie, like an harmonic response of guitar strings, the words -- the vowel
sounds? the rhythm? whatever the hell -- it set in motion something long lost,
some childhood song or nursery rhyme? Does anyone else have that sensation to
that title and know from whence it cometh? Or do I just need to turn in my
badge?
Mike Geary
Memphis
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