LBC Podcast #2: Elizabeth Crane

Nominator: C. Max Magee

Nominee: Elizabeth Crane

Subjects Discussed: Mashed potatoes, Jonas Hanway, umbrellas, comparisons with Elizabeth McKenzie's Stop that Girl, writers named Elizabeth, blatant autobiographical fiction vs. entirely invented fiction, Owen Wilson, the influence of pop culture upon Crane's writing, numerology, three-minute films, Maury Povich's sadism, writing for Nerve, the horrors of blueberry bagels, the influence of David Foster Wallce, Michiko Kakutani, the credibility of "by the way" in dialogue, being categorized as chicklit, dicklit, Nick Laird, on being reviewed, the pros and cons of being a woman writer, New York vs. Chicago.

Backup Link:  (MP3)

(A co-production of the LBC and The Bat Segundo Show)

Comments

[Dan Wickett]

Another great effort Ed - this one was worth listening to, if only for the song playing under Max's introductory minute!

A nice job of questioning some aspects of Crane's writing without being obnoxious about it - getting her to talk about the DFW comparisons or C___K L_T, instead of hitting her in a way that precluded her from discussing them with you.

[Kassia]

Dan, it's okay. We can spell out the word. We're all adults here...

[Dan Wickett]

Hey, just following in Ms. Crane's footsteps!

[Sam]

Ed, you've outdone yourself. The intro for Max alone was worth the price of admission. My favorite moment was when Elizabeth asked you if you had a potato masher, and you said "No, I prefer to do it by hand."

This would be a good Flann O'Brien-ish thread for ROTR -- ask your readers to submit their designs for a potato-mashing machine.

[ed]

Well, it was a truthful statement! I do have a utensil that is good for potato mashing that a girlfriend once gave me and that I still, in fact, use. Imagine my great shock upon learning that what I have is, in fact, a potato masher! I genuinely believed that Elizabeth was referring to a form of potato mashing machine! After all, any trip to Lechter's will demonstrate that there's a machine for everything else!

[Health News]

I can't believe how much of this I just wasn't aware of. Thank you for bringing more information to this topic for me. I'm truly grateful and really impressed.