Posted on 03/26/2019 12:14:18 PM PDT by Borges
On March 26, 1969, John Kennedy Toole used a garden hose to pump exhaust fumes into his car. He wouldn’t live to see the success of his novel, “A Confederacy of Dunces,” which he had tried and failed to get published.
The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1981, but it also became beloved by audiences who connected with the romp of a picaresque, a dialect-driven New Orleans yarn about a gaseous, garrulous, non-fool-abider, would-be philosopher named Ignatius J. Reilly who lives with his mother.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
I have a feeling John Candy could have done Ignatius, but I also wonder if “Confederacy” might be like “Catcher in the Rye” - it probably wouldn’t matter who you got for the lead, it would be really tough to get the feeling of the book onto the screen.
And now I’ve got to sign off - my valve is getting bothersome.
When I read it, I pictured Ignatius as sounding something like Victor Buono (who played King Tut in Batman). Unfortunately, Mr. Buono was too old, and passed away in 1982, long before the book caught on.
Google his images and see if you don't agree. Also, he had this regal-sounding way of talking that would have been perfect. If he could've played Ignatius using his King Tut persona, it would have worked I think.
My valve! My valve is like an altar ego, my mad self, seat of my greatness and of my torment!
One of the funniest, most entertaining books I’ve read.
It’s a great book, but then I’m from New Orleans and I get it. Just reading a few pages and I’m laughing my behind off.
My God, I am in tears. Thank you for that link. My God. Beautiful.
I loved it.
One of my professors in my undergrad days knew the author personally and met some of the people that were the basis for some of the characters in the novel; he regaled the class with stories about how it was written and the people involved.
That class was a hoot.
“I read it 35 years ago. Did not get it. Too gross and grotesque for me.”
I have a dear friend, one of the most insightful men I have ever met and whose observations count for much in my thinking. When he talks about CoD he convulses in laughter so strong he cannot continue speaking.
I tried reading it and found it to be mind-numbingly stupid. Made it about halfway through and decided it was just not for me. Oh well.
If I were a Leftist I would want the book banned because I did not like it. But since I am a Conservative I will simply choose not to read it further.
On the longest drive of my life; driving in the logistics trains of a field artillery brigade during Desert Storm.
A fellow soldier had it; I traded the loan of Jurassic Park and Silence of the Lambs, neither of which had been filmed yet.
Wouldn't have bothered before; would not bother since.
I think Zero Mostel could have played Reilly.
I’ve tried reading it before and didn’t get it - why is this book funny? Serious question.
His mama finally got it published by LSU Press, when I was a proofreader there.
FWIW, there is a bronze statue of Ignatius P. Reilly on Canal Street in New Orleans, by the clock in front of the old D.H. Holmes department store. He stands there with his ear flaps on his cap flying, waiting for his mama, just like he did in the book.
The building now houses the Ritz Hotel.
The Ritz has a great dance hall on the 4th floor where Johnny Angel & the Night Cats perform & the swing dancers in zoot suits & saddle oxfords get really wild.
It’s like being in a fabulous 50s time warp.
Tooley is buried in one of the coolest cemeteries— cant remember its name— but it’s one with a lot of fantastic statuary.
You nailed it.
Not everybody “gets” New Orleans. It occupies its own dimension in a parallel universe.
Such folks naturally wouldn’t “get” the book.
I cried on every page, it’s the funniest book I’ve ever read.
Yes, I’ve heard about the statue.
I’ve always wondered about the other items in the book, the “savory” hot dogs made from pig guts, the blue-jeans factory with the two smokestacks that are not vertical but oriented like a rabbit-ears antenna.
Also the “Night of Joy” club, of course. I’m fairly sure all those things are real, although perhaps slightly exaggerated.
I think Ignatius Reilly is really just a conservative, as was John Kennedy Toole. The story is essentially that of an artistic and sensitive conservative, trying to make sense of the societal changes going on in the 1960s.
His comments on beach blanket movies are one of the things I remember laughing at, to some extent because I agreed with his take on them.
Pretty sure the Levi’s factory is long gone, tho it was there, just as he described it at one time.
The Lucky (?) Dogs hot dog carts were still around at least until the late 90s when I was there, IIRC.
I don’t recall anyplace actually called Night of Joy, but there were plenty of dives in the Quarter fitting that description, no exaggeration.
Thanks for the link.
My three favorite modern authors are Flannery O’Connor, Walker Percy and John Kennedy Toole - I knew of the link between the last two, but I hadn’t ‘til now known that Toole had gone to Milledgeville to see O’Connor.
My 12th grade English teacher went to college with Flannery O’Connor, who is also one of my faves. Not surprised that Toole thought highly of her, because I have always thought that the character (can’t remember name) in O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” was a bit of a two-dimensional template for Ignatius Reilly.
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