After some initial confusion about whether or not author (and celebrity) Sarah Vowell, herself, would be in attendance at last night's gathering of The Artist's Bookshelf (she would NOT), we settled into an interesting conversation about her most recent book, ASSASSINATION VACATION, and its curious relationship to the Walker's current Warhol exhibit, all of which led to intriguing speculation about the very nature of celebrity, itself, and how we, as Americans, often seem to be simultaneously drawn and repulsed by its powers.
We all found the book to be an intriguing, and irreverently humorous journey into the heart of America's cultural fascination with violence (specifically assassinations), and our sometimes bizarre tendency to iconize and memorialize these events through plaques, historical markers, and pilgrimages.
We generally agreed that Ms. Vowell (along with McSweeny-esque writers Dave Eggers and David Sedaris) speaks for a new literary generation, (dare we demography it as Generation Y?) whose caustic and sarcastic surface more often than not belies an underlyingly soft and tender heart of emotional gold.
We wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with as much as a passing interest in assassinations, the Civil War, vacations, Sleater-Kinney, 19th Century sex cults, or the t-shirts worn by Timothy McVeigh.
Thanks to Roger to moderating a great discussion and thanks also to the dedicated folks who stayed to discuss the book even though its famed author was not in attendance. If we ever do invite Sarah Vowell to read at the Walker, at least I’ll have the funny little story of last night’s confusion to include in the invitation. Although, on second thought, if you were a literary buff like herself, who had just written a book about (in part) the American obsession with celebrity, would you be offended or excited that a bunch of people showed up to discuss YOUR book, but upon hearing that YOU would not be present, most participants ditched out? Hmmmm.
Never-the-less, the conversation was stimulating–it sent me home thinking about my generation of Americans who has not seen an assassination of a major political figure, yet perhaps yearns to be included in that kind of history. I grew up hearing my parents say things like “I remember where I was when JFK was shot…” and thinking that I have none such point of reference. Until 9/11 all I could say was that I remembered where I was when I heard that KURT COBAIN died. My friends and I sat around in the classroom of the highschool newspaper we staffed and talked about how Kurt was the JFK of our generation because one day everyone would ask us “Dude, do you remember where you were when Kurt died?” It seems ridiculous now, but at the time I felt like being alive during that event made me part of American history in a more active, emotional way. Perhaps that is akin to why Sarah Vowell went chasing the bones of dead presidents all over the east coast…the desire to be present in our history? Maybe time will tell.
–Sarah, Public Programs Manager, WAC
Comment by Sarah Peters — 12/7/2005 @ 5:39 pm