4 ms·

Joe Gould’s Teeth: The long-lost story of the longest book ever written (2015)

28 points by benbreen 6y ago

neonate 6y ago
https://archive.is/kIca3 https://archive.is/kIca3
erulabs 6y ago
Beautiful and wonderful and sad and beautiful again. Highly recommended read. > “The fallacy of dividing people into sane and insane lies in the assumption that we really do touch other lives... Hence I would judge the sanest man to be him who most firmly realizes the tragic isolation of humanity and pursues his essential purposes calmly” Tragic isolation indeed. The story of Savage, the African American sculptor, rings with as much tragic isolation as Joe’s. The author and the reader share the emotion, which is probably the measure of success in any writing. It’s somewhere around this age of mine when one realizes one will be forgotten - and quickly. A few database columns here or there and then what? Subsumed by billions of the equally forgotten. So, I pursue my essential purpose; is there anything else?
- leafmeal 6y ago
  I pray database columns aren't my essential purpose.
- ebullientocelot 6y ago
  I wouldn't normally click into an article with this title/source but your comment led me to do so on a whim. I don't often finish reading long-form and think "that was a great way to spend 30 minutes" but this time I did. Thank you!
  - greatquux 6y ago
    I had a case of insomnia last night that was only cured when I finally reached the end of this great article. :)
leafmeal 6y ago
This is a fascinating history. This New Yorker article goes deep, but in another sense it barely scratches the surface. Retelling this story would make an amazing HBO series.
- atombender 6y ago
  It's already a very good movie: Joe Gould's Secret [1], with Ian Holm as Gould, and Stanley Tucci (who also directed) as Joseph Mitchell. Unfortunately I don't think it's available for streaming anywhere. I watched it in theaters, and I'd love to watch it again. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gould%27s_Secret_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gould%27s_Secret_(film)
  - leafmeal 6y ago
    Thanks for pointing this out! I'll try and track it down.
Magi604 6y ago
Hypergraphia! I didn't know this was a thing until I read this post. When I was in university I worked for a year as the News Editor of the school paper. Every couple of weeks or so, we would get letters from a random guy. They were papers that had text written on almost every inch of them, sometimes both front and back. They were grammatically correct, but mostly just ramblings about topics like philosophy and war and politics and science. They started coming before I was there, and sometime during my tenure they stopped. Some were thrown away for sure, but I managed to collect what I could in one place, and when I left I took them with me. There are around 150-200 pages total. They are just cool. Anyways I couldn't quite pin down what would cause someone to write such letters, but now I possibly have a name for it. Hypergraphia. Samples: https://imgur.com/a/9nRzL6o/ https://imgur.com/a/9nRzL6o/

28 points by benbreen 6y ago

https://archive.is/kIca3 https://archive.is/kIca3

Beautiful and wonderful and sad and beautiful again. Highly recommended read. > “The fallacy of dividing people into sane and insane lies in the assumption that we really do touch other lives... Hence I would judge the sanest man to be him who most firmly realizes the tragic isolation of humanity and pursues his essential purposes calmly” Tragic isolation indeed. The story of Savage, the African American sculptor, rings with as much tragic isolation as Joe’s. The author and the reader share the emotion, which is probably the measure of success in any writing. It’s somewhere around this age of mine when one realizes one will be forgotten - and quickly. A few database columns here or there and then what? Subsumed by billions of the equally forgotten. So, I pursue my essential purpose; is there anything else?

leafmeal 6y ago
I pray database columns aren't my essential purpose.
ebullientocelot 6y ago
I wouldn't normally click into an article with this title/source but your comment led me to do so on a whim. I don't often finish reading long-form and think "that was a great way to spend 30 minutes" but this time I did. Thank you!
- greatquux 6y ago
  I had a case of insomnia last night that was only cured when I finally reached the end of this great article. :)

leafmeal 6y ago

This is a fascinating history. This New Yorker article goes deep, but in another sense it barely scratches the surface. Retelling this story would make an amazing HBO series.

atombender 6y ago
It's already a very good movie: Joe Gould's Secret [1], with Ian Holm as Gould, and Stanley Tucci (who also directed) as Joseph Mitchell. Unfortunately I don't think it's available for streaming anywhere. I watched it in theaters, and I'd love to watch it again. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gould%27s_Secret_(film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Gould%27s_Secret_(film)
- leafmeal 6y ago
  Thanks for pointing this out! I'll try and track it down.

Magi604 6y ago

Hypergraphia! I didn't know this was a thing until I read this post. When I was in university I worked for a year as the News Editor of the school paper. Every couple of weeks or so, we would get letters from a random guy. They were papers that had text written on almost every inch of them, sometimes both front and back. They were grammatically correct, but mostly just ramblings about topics like philosophy and war and politics and science. They started coming before I was there, and sometime during my tenure they stopped. Some were thrown away for sure, but I managed to collect what I could in one place, and when I left I took them with me. There are around 150-200 pages total. They are just cool. Anyways I couldn't quite pin down what would cause someone to write such letters, but now I possibly have a name for it. Hypergraphia. Samples: https://imgur.com/a/9nRzL6o/ https://imgur.com/a/9nRzL6o/