To begin with, I thought the piece by Gay Talese about Frank Sinatra was really impressive for someone who never talked to the man. It does make me wonder about certain things, though--like, can Talese really say that Sinatra was worried about something, or upset about something? These are all things that he would've had to get secondhand, and so is it really something Talese can rely on without attributing to the specific people (which would obviously disrupt the narrative)? Is this ethical? Does it not deceive the readers?
In terms of the piece itself, though, there were parts that I liked and parts that I thought were rathet boring. I'm not sure about the effectiveness of the opening, for example--it didn't seem all that catchy to me, and I'm not sure I would've kept reading if I didn't have to. But I thought the sections with his parents were interesting, and also the scenes of him doing the two different tapings (the first when he had a cold and didn't finish taping, and the second when it went really well). Despite my maybe-lack of enthusiasm about the piece as a whole, though, I can see how it would've been a really big deal at the time, considering the man himself and the fact that Talese didn't actually interview him. So in that regard, I think he did a really great job with the piece; I'm just not all that fascinated with it.
I really liked the Ted Conover piece in the Literary Journalism book, though. I was again unenthused about the beginning, but I really came to find the story about their perspective of AIDS to be really interesting. There were parts that the narrative slowed, I thought, but overall Conover did a really good job with scene and dialogue, and just with conveying all the misconceptions and lack of concern about AIDS by the people there. There was one line that especially stuck out to me: "'You know Ted,' he had said, touching my arm, 'how you kill is how you will die'" (337). I'm not sure that Conover actually included this scene for the reason it sticks out to me (the fact that all these people are killing other people through AIDS, and that's also how they themselves are going to die), but it really stuck out to me. Overall, I think that the piece is a really good expose, so to speak, of the attitude in Africa about AIDS and how it relates to the trucking profession.
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I was curious about Talese's particular method. Did he inform Sinatra that he wouldn't be interviewing him directly? Was everyone he spoke to - and in Sinatra's case, didn't speak to - in on the idea? I'm surprised Sinatra's ego didn't get in the way. How did Talese pitch his idea?
ReplyDeleteI agree, as much as I was impressed with Talese's writing of a man he didn't even know, how did he find particular emotions, specific details, and well, the fact that Sinatra had a cold?
ReplyDeleteI had wondered, too, about how accurate Talese could be having never talked to Sinatra himself. But, the people that are closest to us can usually tell what we're feeling or thinking without asking, and often they do ask. So the fact that Talese interviewed some of Sinatra's closest friends and family members I think does give it some authenticity. These are the people who really know Sinatra.
ReplyDeleteInteresting point about wondering how accurate Talese can be without the access to the man. I thought maybe he was able to talk to the handlers and people surronding Sinatra and get it that way?
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