Talk:David Sedaris/Archives/2014

Main Article Picture and Question About Hugh

Does anyone have a picture of Sedaris that is a bit more flattering then the current one? I know David Sedaris is middle-aged and all, but this picture makes him look dopey (and he is anything but that.)

Also, Sedaris' boyfriend, Hugh Hamrick, is a successful artist, photographer, and director. Does anyone have some information regarding Hugh that would make for a worthwhile Wikipedia entry? BadMojoDE 23:34, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Naked date?

In-text says 1996, the link at the end says 1997. Which is correct?--AaronM 17:38, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Re: youcantkilltherooster.com

Why isn't youcantkilltherooster.com pertinent?

I think because it isn't technically a David Sedaris page, rather a products page linked to from Paul Sedaris' company site, http://www.sedarishardwoodfloors.com, which doesn't technically pertain to David Sedaris (directly) either. But I'm pretty indifferent on the issue. I think www.youcantkilltherooster.com could be useful to a David Sedaris fan looking for a product related to that story. Dharma 15:48, August 9, 2005 (UTC)

That page contains a Sedaris story about his brother. Cunningpal (talk) 17:00, 23 June 2014 (UTC)

Sedaris New Yorker gig a regular one?

David Sedaris seems to have been taken on as a formal contributor to the New Yorker -- his second (third?) piece this year just arrived in the last issue. Given that...

1. if it turns out to be true, the abovementioned new role at TNY should be menitoned. 2. the external link to the FIRST article (listed as from Feb. 2005?) should be deleted, as it would be too specific to link to just one article if he's going to be a regular there.

Thoughts? Jfarber 21:27, May 15, 2006 (EST)

Certainly. Inoculatedcities 05:41, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

Jewish Heritage

The claim that he is of Jewish heritage is something of a surprise since most of his work is heavily autobiographical and I am pretty sure it is never mentioned, and it seems like it would be a topic ripe for dissection. Can anyone substantiate this claim? jordan 13:39, 4 August 2006 (UTC)

To my knowledge, he only mention he makes of a family religious heritage is Greek Orthodox. One of his books -- Me Talk Pretty One Day, I think -- has an extended section talking about his family's customs of celebrating Orthodox Easter (noting especially the fact that it usually takes place one week after the Easter celebration of other Christian traditions). Personal opinion: The misinformation may simply come from someone's stereotypical associations of Jewish heritage with either humorists or New Yorkers.Lawikitejana 23:11, 15 August 2006 (UTC)

Sedaris is not Jewish. As user Lawikitejana has mentioned, his heritage is Greek Orthodox. In Naked, however, there is a story which recounts his experience working for an anti-Semitic woman.Radishes (talk) 21:49, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

david sedaris picture

David Sedaris metiones that in his neighborhood in Raleigh their were very little Jewish households along with his Greek orthodox background in his audio version of Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim. Also in the audio version of Naked he mentions that his fathers parents were immigrants from Greece along with the fact that they were Greek orthodox. His father was also Greek orthodox acording to the same audiobook. Also of note in Naked was his story of the time when he was forced by his father to go on a trip to a greek camp for those who were Greek orthodox. He finaly mentiones it in his book Me Talk Pretty One Day that he is Greek orthodox. That is three diffrent books to mention his religion.

Alex Heard's article

Too little attention is paid in the "criticism" section to Alex Heard's "This American Lie." Sedaris's readers, including myself, expect his work to contain a good amount of comic exaggeration. But Heard's article states that not only is Sedaris's work exaggerated, but that Heard contacted Sedaris, who admitted that parts of his essays, including almost everything he wrote about his midget piano teacher in "Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities," was false. If this is true, it should merit more than a short one-paragraph summary/dismissal. However, I'm not sure if Sedaris has confirmed or denied his conversation with Heard. If Heard's information is confirmed, we might add a few sentences to the "Criticism" section. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Graymornings (talk • contribs) 23:47, 2 May 2007 (UTC).

I added a sentence introducing the Heard article -- it must have been deleted, though the sentence about the responses to it incongruously remained. That sentence itself is problematic; only two responses are cited, which does not justify "several," and only one of those plausibly conforms to the description provided. Also, it is not clear that this topic is appropriately placed at this point, or even in this section. I think the controversy merits mention, and I am not at the moment prepared to try to do more with it. Perhaps the "Criticism" section mentioned below needs to be revived? David Watson (talk) 08:14, 29 June 2011 (UTC)

"Criticism" section

I'm of the opinion that the "Criticism" section is unnecessary and should be removed. Anyone? --AStanhope 02:37, 30 May 2007 (UTC)

Well, I think it's of note that the veracity of many autobiographical elements in David's stories has been challenged. If I remember correctly, even his sister Amy has admitted that the stories are, as is aptly put in the article here, "exaggerated for comic effect" (see paragraph above re: Alex Heard). It's relevant if not all that important. Inoculatedcities 05:41, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

I have seen David Sedaris speak a few times, and last year (in Santa Cruz), the debate about "A Million Little Pieces" was in full swing. I don't remember his exact wording, but it was along the lines of "the last place you would want to look for the truth is in an autobiography". Having read his books, in many cases several times, it is clear that not everything is totally true, but that doesn't matter. In my opinion, his themes and messages the important part, and the fact that he is a comedian, not a historian, gives him license to say whatever he wants. That, and the fact that he admits openly not everything is true. 71.143.108.105 20:31, 31 August 2007 (UTC)

The issue here is that David Sedaris has never explicitly stated that anything in his essays is truly autobiographical. Sure, the stories may come from events which actually transpired, but has he ever publicly admitted that the essays he writes are complete fiction? I think the burden of proof lies with the columnist(s) that accuse him of lying – and not with Sedaris himself. BadMojoDE 23:41, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

Let me state that I have read a few of Sedaris' books, and I thoroughly enjoy them. That said, his work does imply that a certain degree of truthfulness is necessary, and if his works are "part fiction," then that should be indicated here in this article. To paraphrase an author's note found on the copyright page of Naked, "The stories in this book are true. Names and identifying characteristics of characters have been changed." This is Sedaris directly claiming that his works are true. Regardless of how this turns out, David Sedaris is one of the most entertaining writers around. Radishes (talk) 21:54, 22 January 2008 (UTC)

The questions Heard brought up about veracity in Sedaris' works focus primarily upon one book: Naked. When that book was written Sedaris was still finding a voice as a writer and, if you recall, his earlier works (Barrel Fever and Holidays On Ice) were in-part works of fiction. In other words they were works that comprised a handful of autobiographical essays and a handful of works of pure fiction. "Naked" does include one essay of almost pure fiction (he did volunteer at a psychiatric hospital in his hometown but his duties there were significantly different from the ones detailed in his story) and in other essays, particularly Something for Everyone and C.O.G., some dialogue is made up. In "Me Talk Pretty One Day" two essays in particular have elements of fiction: Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities and The Late Show. Giant Dreams is a true scenario - he was forced into guitar lessons and his teacher was a little person - but the guitar teacher's personal characteristics were changed and, if I'm not mistaken, the homophobia incident was entirely made up. The Late Show is fiction in that it is specifically an essay about his late-night fantasies; dreams about the things he fantasizes he could do and be. Heard, as a news journalist, judged Sedaris I believe from the position of a news writer, a practice that demands strict accuracy and fairness. As a memoirist Sedaris should be judged, I believe, by a different set of rules. Memoirs are personal and emotional, just as all the stories we tell about ourselves are colored by what we know happened, what we wished happened and what we might have forgot happened. It appears to me that most of the elements of his work are true – that is, the stories are based on true events – but much of the dialogue and identifying elements of the characters seem to be larger than life. Is there any humorous memoirist that has never embellished or exaggerated for the sake of a chuckle? Dave Barry, Bill Bryson or Mark Twain? Could we hold Augusten Burroughs to every word he wrote? What seems most honest about Sedaris’ works are the emotional elements of his stories – the feelings of alienation and confusion, the envy and disappointment – that render the tales true for everyone who has experienced similar feelings and not merely true for the writer. The label “non-fiction” and the author’s note are used by the publishing industry as aids to the classification and cataloging of the published works. There has yet to be established a category called “creative non-fiction.” We simply call that “memoirs.” Wickedwonz (talk) 02:56, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

"There has yet to be established a category called “creative non-fiction.” "
That category is called fiction.
I was disappointed that the article didn't more explicitly state the mislabeling.
Commenting on an assignment he had for Esquire, where they required him to write what actually happened, Sedaris said:
"I couldn't exaggerate at all."; "It gave me a whole new appreciation for people who can honestly tell the truth, because people just didn't always say what I wanted them to."
His works are not non-fiction; they are not “creative non-fiction” (whatever that oxymoron means); they are exaggeration for effect.
And when ones lists hyperbole as non-fiction, they are not being accurate.
That his stories are, at best, 'enlarged' and are, at worse, out-right fabricated should be explicitly stated.
But then, I am not a big fan of handing someone an apple and saying 'here is an orange'.
216.000.000.000 (talk) 20:46, 19 January 2013 (UTC)

Re: "Greek Orthodox Christians" category

I have yet to find any evidence that Sedaris subscribes to any particular religious denomination; just because one's parents are of a particular religious background does not necessarily imply that one subscribes to the religion (to me this seems to be an obvious point). Furthermore, his homosexuality gives me serious reason to doubt that he is in fact a Greek Orthodox Christian. If there is any evidence for this paradoxical subscription on his part, please do post it here. In the meantime, in the absence of evidence, it shall be removed. Inoculatedcities 05:41, 11 July 2007 (UTC)

According to Sedaris himself, he was born and raised in the Greek Orthodox Church. (See bibliography.) As to his current religious beliefs, I have no clue. But isn't this a cultural matter just as much as a religious one? I believe he should be categorized as Greek Orthodox, especially since he's written about his upbringing in such close detail. BadMojoDE 23:50, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

One can be a homosexual and a Greek Orthodox Christian at the same time - or a mainstream Christian, practising Muslim, observant Jew, whatever. Since we are not here to judge according to our personal beliefs (I believe) please let the reference stand as Sedaris has written of his experiences attending Greek Orthodox church in Raleigh until the age of seventeen in more than one essay. I do agree, however, that this seems more a cultural matter in Sedaris' case since he doesn't appear to be particularly religious himself.Wickedwonz (talk) 02:17, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

Infobox

Why does this article use the Infobox Scientist template? Is Sedaris a scientist? Wouldn't Template:Infobox Writer or something be more appropriate?  LinguistAtLarge  16:23, 17 November 2008 (UTC)

Addition of External Link

Added a book review of both Me Talk Pretty One Day and Barrel Fever, to provide some op-ed, op-ed shouldn't be directly included in the article yet can be linked to. Just wanted to share my rational, loved both books, huge fan of Sedaris, getting to the current one shortly. --AGWriterly (talk) 17:39, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

DS's mother's heritage?

Does anyone have any info on Sharon Sedaris's heritage, her maiden name, etc? Is she from a Greek family also? The only info I've been able to find so far is that "Sharon's family was from nearby Binghamton [New York"].
From what I've read in DS's 'Naked' it sounds like the (fictional, anyway) mother may be non-Greek (in which case the statement in the article that DS was "born into a Greek family" would need revising). --Tyranny Sue (talk) 05:53, 7 February 2010 (UTC)

Add section for "Interviews" in "Works" section?

There seem to be a lot of external links for interviews with David Sedaris. Would it make more sense for there to be an "Interviews" sub-section under "Works" to gather these together? It would clean up the "External Links" section a bit while still providing access to valuable primary source material on Sedaris. Ollietheunlovedchild (talk) 18:36, 3 June 2010 (UTC)

Sexual orientation

He's openly gay and has written about it, but there is no mention of it in the article... and no LGBT banner... http://www.passportmagazine.com/departments/DavidSedaris.php

http://www.edgeboston.com/index.php?ch=entertainment&sc=books&sc2=features&sc3=&id=89813

http://www.newsweek.com/2008/05/29/all-you-have-to-do-is-live.html

He's been with Hugh, a French man and lives with him for years, in a civil union. Shouldn't the article mention this? He's been open about it for years.--Hitsuji Kinno (talk) 21:59, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

You seem to have overlooked Hugh Hamrick being mentioned in the lead text and in the document body. I guess "he's gay" probably was thought to be self evident, along with the "gay writers" category at the bottom of the page. Fæ (talk) 22:40, 6 November 2010 (UTC)

Changed "partner" to "Boyfriend" per reference that states he prefers "boyfriend" to "partner". BTW, this article for a year seemed to omit that he was gay at all. And it did need a reference for the stated... which definitely doesn't hurt.--Hitsuji Kinno (talk) 18:01, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

Weird contextless sentence

"Several published responses to Heard's article argued that Sedaris's readers are aware that his descriptions and stories are intentionally exaggerated and manipulated to maximize comic effect.[26][27][28]"

There's no mention of Heard's article except for this single sentence, so as it stands it makes no sense. I assume this is the issue referenced in the "criticism" section of this talk page above. Either some context needs to be added (another sentence at least outlining what Heard's article says) or this sentence should go too. --Jfruh (talk) 12:46, 27 June 2011 (UTC)

Comments about China

I'm going ahead and deleting this entire section. It doesn't deserve its own section, as it not a true "controversy." There was one response to his Guardian piece on a trip to China in on an online only column by Jeff Yangon the SF Gate (part of the Chronicle) website. A couple of other blogs mentioned it including one hosted by the Village Voice, but is incorrect to say he was criticized in the newspapers themselves. According to a LexisNexis search of "David Sedaris + China" the only reaction in print was a Letter to the Editor printed in the Guardian on 23 July, which made criticisms about Sedaris' "borderline sinophobic" attitudes.

As loath as I am to even keep any mention of the reaction to "Chicken Toenails, Anyone?" I am going to edit it and move it to the "Collections and mainstream success" portion. (Which, considering its overall content may need to be renamed) I hope someone else agrees that this is not germane and deletes it, or if they are in support of its inclusion, explains it here. Petropetro (talk) 20:25, 21 January 2012 (UTC)

Does somebody who knows a little bit more about this stuff want to check into editing/possibly removing the "Other Controversies" section? It sounds like it was written by somebody with a grudge, and links to one blog post as proof for their statement. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.192.214.183 (talk) 16:35, 25 September 2012 (UTC)

Obsessive compulsive disorder

Why no mention of this very prominent feature in his life and writings?Mercurywoodrose (talk) 02:44, 22 October 2012 (UTC)

Better description of nature and tone of his writings requested.

On hearing about Mr Sedaris, and coming to Wikipedia to learn more, I read the following sentence (after a paragraph on his popular success as an author): "Much of Sedaris's humor is autobiographical and self-deprecating, and often concerns his family life, his middle-class upbringing in the suburbs of Raleigh, North Carolina, Greek heritage, jobs, education, drug use, obsessive behaviors and his life in France, London, and the South Downs."

Based on this information, I went to the latest "This American Life" episode in which his work was featured. The humor that was presented, a sketch about waiting in line behind a couple ordering coffee, seems very poorly captured by the quoted Wikipedia description of his work. Is the critical tone of his work a new development? (This is mildly expressed. The humor in the current piece was not self- but other-deprecating. The words "hate" or hating" appear several times in the piece, and not in relation to the comedic presenter.)

This is not a criticism of Mr Sedaris or his body of work. It is simply a request that the ascerbic nature of his work be made clear in its Wikipedia description. Whether this recent tone and and example of demeaning content—a true description I think, even if the listener might sympathize with the comedian's position—is characteristic, or a newer development in his work, should be made clear as well. LeProf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.223.9.222 (talk) 01:37, 8 June 2013 (UTC)

(Subsection:) Episodes of This American Life featuring Sedaris

Here we find a (maybe comprehensive?) list of episodes featuring the writer... Question is, half are listed as the title with a reference, and the other half are the title with an underlying external link -- so which format is preferable? I edited the first half so they'd at least appear consistently in the Ref List... but the second half doesn't match. Happy to fix if someone can point to the appropriate format.

-- Brhiba (talk) 19:43, 31 July 2013 (UTC)

Note to/request of the regular editors

I would note for regular contributors to this article, that the matter raised in the Section above, entitled "Better description of nature and tone of his writings requested"—a requested edit of the tone/topics of Sedaris' humor, in the lead—has not been addressed.

I would note, on a purely technical matter, my understanding that leads are intended to reiterate and summarize material appearing later and more fully in the piece. For this reason, in-line citations are (I understand) deemed unnecessary, as they are expected to appear with the later, more full appearance of the information. Hence, the lead could be uncluttered, via a move of the citations to the later point where the full information appears. Perhaps, even more advisable would be summarizing publications, rather than listing them so fully in the lead: "Sedaris has publish XX books, YY in the last five years, including the NYT Best Sellers...". Then leave the listing of the XX books, and the inline citations for lower in the article. Cheers. LeProf — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.223.9.222 (talk) 21:04, 16 August 2013 (UTC)

C.O.G.

There are mentions of the aborted movie idea based on Me Talk Pretty One Day, but no mention of C.O.G., the other movie based on one of his short stories that is being released on September this year. Could someone add this, please? 189.238.219.141 (talk) 05:08, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

Lou Sedaris, David's father, is probably still alive

The article says that Lou Sedaris "was Greek-Orthodox", but as far as I know Lou is still alive. I'm going ahead and changing this in David Sedaris and in Amy Sedaris — Preceding unsigned comment added by 82.80.54.137 (talk) 00:42, 17 November 2013 (UTC)