Talk:Hubert Selby, Jr.
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[edit] Correct Last Name Pronunctiation
Could anyone put here the .ogg file with Selby's last name correct pronunciation. 'Selby' vs 'Shelby', i.e. does it begin with [s] or [sh]? It's important for Russian and some others Wiki projects cause many languages have separate letters for 's' and 'sh' sounds. Unprejudiced 04:38, 6 December 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Selby is a hypocrite
I don't get writers like Selby, Mamet, et al....millionaires who relentlessly, almost obsessively worked at something they loved - writing - and became wildly successful, achieving the American Dream - only to denigrate and rail against anyone who might want to achieve the same American Dream in their books and plays. Selby thinks (er, "thought" - he's dead) that not only is the American Dream not achievable, but than anyone who TRIES to achieve it is immoral. Sorry, but coming from someone who dropped out of school at 15, never read a book before deciding to become a writer, and then became a best-selling fiction writer, I have one thing to say to the Selby-ites who think (thought) like he does: Only in America.
[edit] Reply to the above
What is your proof that Selby was a millionaire? If he was, do you think he would have spent his last years teaching at USC? If you read the interview in Lou Reed's book Between Thought and Expression you will learn that Selby was on welfare for a period not too far previous to when that interview was conducted. Perhaps he made more money after his books were made into movies, but I don't know what he had in his bank account. In this interview he says "I'd be a millionaire today," which seems to suggest he was not the millionaire you make him out to be.
And where does he rail against the American Dream? Is this how you interpret Requiem? He explicitly said he did not see himself as a didactic writer.
So, why do you really dislike Selby?
[edit] Reply to the above
Hubert Selby, Jr was not a millionaire. In the early 70's he worked at a gas station to support his family. In the 80's he had a period of time where he worked as a clerk in a hotel lobby candy shop. He did "work obsessively at something he loved - writing" as you said. It brought him fame and some degree of satisfaction but it did not keep him from living in a simple one bedroom rental at the time he died.
[edit] Section headers
The first four section headers ("Wrong Entrance", "One Way", "Last Exit", and "Dead End") are inappropriate for an encyclopedia article. Someone should change them to plainer titles. Rhobite 02:11, 17 April 2006 (UTC)
- Done - hope they are plain enough. Eddie.willers 19:30, 19 April 2006 (UTC)
--- Changed "..after the marines.." to read "...after the merchant marines..." Marines is a the term for the US Marine Corp, not the US Merchant Marine who are refered to as "merchant mariners".
