Talk:Jonathan Franzen

message: Oh, get over it, Johnny.  Oprah praising your book is one of the best things that could happen. Sweep the leg.  You got a problem with that!?! -Martin Kove — Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.113.104.47 (talk) 13:13, 14 January 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Oprah's Book Club

message: "The Corrections, which became one of the most best-selling works of literary fiction of the 2000's."
How can this be assumed, the decade isn't yet finished! --Hugh 08:22, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: [Most best-selling works of literary fiction of the 2000's?]

message: "A film adaptation of the novel has been in the works since 2002, with Robert Zemeckis attached as director."
" He expressed his dissatisfaction with the Oprah insignia being printed on his book by saying, "I see this as my book, my creation, and I didn't want that logo of corporate ownership on it." 
Really? He didn't want corporate ownership without an official check (even though I know he liked all the sales her endorsement provided. Ask James Frey, Oparah can sell books. I wonder what the "logo of corporate ownership" (film deal) paid?Master Redyva 20:38, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: And what's wrong with that? Surely an author can decide what he wants to do with his own book.85.157.155.247 (talk) 17:29, 25 August 2012 (UTC)
thread_title: Film Deal

message: Can we get an actual picture of Mr. Franzen in this page and not a cartoon of him with 3 other cartoon authors?  It isn't even clear from the caption which one is Franzen.  The only one I know by sight is Gore Vidal and I consider myself something of an avid reader.  How is the average person seeking information on Franzen supposed to know which of the figures represents Franzen?—Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.237.208.174 (talk • contribs) 
:(L to R: Chabon, Franzen, Wolfe, Vidal) ShelfSkewed [Talk] 19:47, 15 March 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Picture

message: This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 07:09, 10 November 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  WikiProject class rating

message: Is there no public domain photograph of The 'Franz better than this? He looks here to have just suffered an Immodium-filled night. Please? If anyone's got one, let us in on it. Chicopac (talk) 14:22, 24 September 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Photograph 

message: I would point out that the link for the title freedom only indicates that that will be the title when released in Italy. PDBailey (talk) 01:07, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: That's not exactly what the cited source says, if read closely, and you look at the newspaper-column photo. It will be titled Libertà in Italy. But it might be more accurate to say that Freedom is still the tentative or working title, per this site: Jonathan Franzen profile at The American Academy in Berlin website.--ShelfSkewed Talk 04:21, 22 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Cute, but if we are going to lawyer this thing, I think the secondary source is pretty easy to read. In fact, I think the text, "in Italy, it will be called 'Freedom'" obviates any close reading requirement. Now, had the cite been to the Italian article, then yes, that would be what the citation said.  PDBailey (talk) 01:14, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: A completer version of the quotation: "...his new book, his first novel after The Corrections came out in 2001, will come out in the fall of 2010 in the US and right before Xmas 2010 in Italy, it will be called 'Freedom'". It mentions both the U.S. and Italy, and gives the title in English. I don't see any implication that Freedom is the title only in Italy. Anyway, it's just a blogger's ungrammatical paraphrase of the Italian article, so we don't know exactly what the article said. So I'm not really arguing with you--I agree the title needs a better source. But the best one I found was the one I cited above, which says only that the novel is "tentatively titled Freedom".--ShelfSkewed Talk 04:28, 23 June 2009 (UTC)

text: And we're unlikely to find a better source soon. Another page on the same site , dated May 6, offers more: "And as to the title, Freedom, Franzen, indeed an adept political mind, erred on the side of coyness: 'The American Academy needed a name.'" Whether that's the real title may not be verifiable for several months.--ShelfSkewed Talk 04:45, 23 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  freedom 

message: Has anyone actually heard him speak fluent German? Why the reluctance to do so publicly? Where did this claim originate? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.179.91.85 (talk) 20:11, 10 October 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Hi, yes, he does speak fluent german. He lived in Berlin for a long time and in 2010 he gave lectures in Germany in german so this claim is basically BS  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 79.222.59.82 (talk) 16:23, 14 November 2010 (UTC)
thread_title: Speaks fluent German?

message: When some notable people pushed the hype surrounding Freedom (e.g., Time editors) and some notable people objected to the hype (as documented with two reliable citations, more available), the word for that in English is "controversy". Choor monster (talk) 16:24, 25 March 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  TIME cover appearance was controversial 

message: There are a few points where the article references another piece of media, but doesn't actually include the relevant pieces of information. It seems like whoever wrote it is confusing what is important. It's not important that Franzen is interviewed. What is important is what he says in the interviews.
- "In the lecture he said of the third question in particular "This one always raises my blood pressure" and quoted Nabokov in response." Shouldn't the Nabokov quote either be included or the entire Nabokov reference be left out?
- "He discussed the implications of the Time coverage, and the reasoning behind the title of Freedom in an interview in Manchester, England, in October 2010." Shouldn't we include what he said, not that he did an interview?
- "Franzen also discussed his friendship with David Foster Wallace and the impact of Wallace's suicide on his writing process." What was the impact of his friendship with Wallace and Wallace's suicide?
71.245.182.119 (talk) 14:49, 19 November 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Interviews 

message: The Somerville Scout seems to think at some point he lived in Somerville, Massachusetts. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Beland (talk • contribs) 20:10, 26 July 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Somerville, Massachusetts 

message: I have commenced a tidy-up of the Bibliography section using cite templates. Capitalization and punctuation follow standard cataloguing rules in AACR2 and RDA, as much as Wikipedia templates allow it. ISBNs and other persistent identifiers, where available, are commented out, but still available for reference. Feel free to continue. Sunwin1960 (talk) 05:19, 22 December 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bibliography 

message: The article on Franzen and his first breakthrough book includes only positive opinions. Meanwhile, on the Graham Greene page, readers are subjected to Franzen’s negative assessment of Greene, as if that was crucial to know. Seems pretty biased. I don’t think Franzen’s opinions matter as to whether I would read another Greene novel. Meanwhile Franzen’s own boring, overlong work functions as its own dissuasion to reading his. 211.250.58.37 (talk) 00:47, 9 January 2022 (UTC)
thread_title:  Fawning