Links gone wild!
Any writer who’s ever gotten a rejection letter from a publisher — which is to say, every writer who’s ever lived — will appreciate knowing that in 1950, a book company turned down the opportunity to publish a manuscript called “Lolita,” dismissing it as “very dull.” In fact, another 15 publishers also passed on it before it finally came out two years later. The book went on to sell 30 million copies and, as you surely know, it’s considered a literary masterwork. The greatest gift in this essay, however, is the recitation of the famous authors whose work was given equally negative recommendations by the “readers” hired by publishers to screen manuscripts. It’s a virtual Who’s Who of great writers. I’m the possessor of an impressive number of rejection letters myself, and I plan to read every one of them aloud the day I accept the Nobel Prize.
I was saving this link to the 12 different kinds of ads for a rainy day, but considering that there apparently will never again be a rainy day here in North Carolina, I’ll link to it now. (Those of you in faraway points of the globe have no reason to know this, or care, but most of the American South is in the grip of a ruthless drought. Send aid immediately. I prefer Yuengling, by the way.) It seems that some years ago an advertising executive decided to take a break from work to study TV ads and look for common patterns. What he concluded was that all of them fell into 12 identifiable categories, which are described here, along with actual TV ads as examples. What I concluded is that the advertising on European TV is clearly more interesting than that found on American TV. Watch the ad for Lynx, for example. You’ll see what I mean.
I’ll finish, as always, with a clip from YouTube. Remember Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to the United States last week, and his absurd declaration that Iran doesn’t have homosexuals? Well, that was red meat waved in front of the starving Dobermans who write for Saturday Night Live. This parody makes the Iranian president the star of a gay love music video, which I can only hope is getting a huge pass-around in his home country. And yes, that’s Jake Gyllenhaal you see toward the end.