Saturday, April 03, 2010

James Franco's short story

James Franco wrote a short story that was published in Esquire magazine.

Many blogs (and a few of my friends) claimed that it was terrible. They had criticisms such as "Reading this story killed my crush on James Franco" and "This proves that if you are good-looking and successful in Hollywood, everyone will say yes to you no matter how bad you are at writing." I was afraid to read it, in case it was as awful as claimed. I do not want my attraction to James Franco to be killed.

Finally I read it, and it's pretty good! I like it. The characters are vivid. The dialogue about the power struggle between men vs women, especially pertaining to sex, was powerful. The story is good at conveying a malaise. There is a pervasive sense that the routine of existence is pointless and you feel compelled to do crazy things just to feel alive.

I like this line:

this spot is as good as any to just sit in the shadows and let life slow

3 comments:

Dianna said...

...And I only like the line "the air plays on my forehead like a cold whisper." Otherwise I really did expect better from James. I'm still compassionate about him though!

Yishan said...

Yeah, that's not a terrible piece of writing at all. That's actually very good.

I don't think I liked it as much as you did, but that's more because I'm not into that style of writing, but it is pretty high-quality writing. Other people are just idiots. You know, people who have a crush on James Franco.

You're posting a lot on this trip.

N said...

I'm glad others concur that the writing is high-quality!

I'm posting a lot right now, because I'm in Irvine. When i get to LA, I probably won't be posting much. :)