A Confederacy of Dunces - 必应 Sign in A Confederacy of Dunces A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which appeared in 1980, eleven years after Toole's suicide. Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a foreword) and Toole's mother, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States. The book's title refers to an epigraph from Jonathan Swift's essay, Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces ... (展开) are all in confederacy against him." Its central character, Ignatius J. Reilly, is an educated but slothful 30-year-old man living with his mother in the Uptown neighborhood of early-1960s New Orleans who, in his quest for employment, has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters.

Toole wrote the novel in 1963 during his last few months in Puerto Rico. 关于A Confederacy of Dunces，网友们最关心的问题 1 Ignatius J. Reilly Ignatius Jacques Reilly is something of a modern Don Quixote—eccentric, idealistic, and creative, sometimes to the point of delusion. In his foreword to the book, Walker Percy describes Ignatius as a "slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one." He disdains modernity, particularly pop culture. The disdain becomes his obsession: he goes to movies in order to mock their perversity and express his outrage with the contemporary world's lack of "theology and geometry." He prefers the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages, and the Early Medieval philosopher Boethius in particular. However he also enjoys many modern comforts and conveniences, and is given to claiming that the rednecks of rural Louisiana hate all modern technology which they associate with progress. The workings of his pyloric valve play an important role in his life, reacting strongly to incidents in a fashion that he likens to Cassandra in terms of prophetic significance.

Ignatius is of the mindset that he does not belong in the world and that his numerous failings are the work of some higher power. He continually refers to the goddess Fortuna as having spun him downwards on her wheel of fortune. Ignatius loves to eat, and his masturbatory fantasies lead in strange directions. His mockery of obscene images is portrayed as a defensive posture to hide their titillating effect on him. Although considering himself to have an expansive and learned worldview, Ignatius has an aversion to ever leaving the town of his birth, and frequently bores friends and strangers with the story of his sole, abortive journey from New Orleans, a trip to Baton Rouge on a Greyhound Scenicruiser bus, which Ignatius recounts as a traumatic ordeal of extreme horror. Myrna Minkoff Myrna Minkoff, referred to by Ignatius as "that minx", is a Jewish beatnik from New York City, whom Ignatius met while she was in college in New Orleans. Though their political, social, religious, and personal orientations could hardly be more different, Myrna and Ignatius fascinate one another.

The novel repeatedly refers to Myrna and Ignatius having engaged in tag-team attacks on the teachings of their college professors. For most of the novel she is seen only in the regular correspondence which the two sustain since her return to New York, a correspondence heavily weighted with sexual analysis on the part of Myrna and contempt for her apparent sacrilegious activity by Ignatius. Officially, they both deplore everything the other stands for. Though neither of them will admit it, their correspondence indicates that, separated though they are by half a continent, many of their actions are meant to impress one another. Irene Reilly Mrs. Irene Reilly is the mother of Ignatius. She has been widowed for 21 years. At first, she allows Ignatius his space and drives him where he needs to go, but throughout the course of the novel she learns to stand up for herself. She also has a drinking problem, most frequently indulging in muscatel, although Ignatius exaggerates that she is a raving, abusive drunk. She falls for Claude Robichaux, a fairly well-off man with a railroad pension and rental properties. At the end of the novel she decides she will marry Claude.

But first she agrees with Santa Battaglia (who has not only recently become Mrs. Reilly's new best friend, but also harbors an intense dislike for Ignatius) that Ignatius is insane and arranges to have him sent to a mental hospital. A Confederacy of Dunces Confederacy and New Orleans The book is famous for its rich depiction of New Orleans and the city's dialects, including Yat. Many locals and writers think that it is the best and most accurate depiction of the city in a work of fiction. The city described in the novel differs in some ways from the actual New Orleans. The first chapter mentions the sun setting over the Mississippi River at the foot of Canal Street. As this direction is to the south-east, this is clearly impossible in reality. Possibly this is a joke by Toole related to the fact that the area across the river is known as the "West Bank", despite the fact that because of the twists of the river it is actually to the south or east from parts of central New Orleans. Such details are not likely to be noticed by people who are not familiar with New Orleans. A bronze statue of Ignatius J.

Reilly can be found under the clock on the down-river side of the 800 block of Canal Street, New Orleans, the former site of the D.H. Holmes Department Store, now the Hyatt French Quarter Hotel. The statue mimics the opening scene: Ignatius waits for his mother under the D.H. Holmes clock, clutching a Werlein's shopping bag, dressed in a hunting cap, flannel shirt, baggy pants and scarf, 'studying the crowd of people for signs of bad taste.' The statue is modeled on New Orleans actor John "Spud" McConnell, who portrayed Ignatius in a stage version of the novel. Various local businesses are mentioned in addition to D. H. Holmes, including Werlein’s Music Store and local cinemas such as the Prytania Theater. Some readers from elsewhere assume Ignatius's favorite soft drink, Dr. Nut, to be fictitious, but it was an actual local soft drink brand of the era. The "Paradise Hot Dogs" vending carts are an easily recognized satire of those actually branded "Lucky Dogs".

A Confederacy of Dunces Structure The structure of A Confederacy of Dunces reflects the structure of Ignatius's favorite book, Boethius' Consolation of Philosophy. Like Boethius' book, A Confederacy of Dunces is divided into chapters that are further divided into a varying number of subchapters. Key parts of some chapters are outside of the main narrative. In Consolation, sections of narrative prose alternate with metrical verse. In Confederacy, such narrative interludes vary more widely in form and include light verse, journal entries by Ignatius, and also letters between himself and Myrna. A copy of the Consolation of Philosophy within the narrative itself also becomes an explicit plot device in several ways. A Confederacy of Dunces The difficult path to publication As outlined in the introduction to a later revised edition, the book would never have been published if Toole's mother had not found a smeared carbon copy of the manuscript left in the house following Toole's 1969 suicide at age 31. Thelma Toole was persistent and tried several different publishers to no avail.

Thelma repeatedly called Walker Percy, an author and college instructor at Loyola University New Orleans, demanding he read it. He initially resisted; however, as he recounts in the book's foreword: ...the lady was persistent, and it somehow came to pass that she stood in my office handing me the hefty manuscript. There was no getting out of it; only one hope remained—that I could read a few pages and that they would be bad enough for me, in good conscience, to read no farther. Usually I can do just that. Indeed the first paragraph often suffices. My only fear was that this one might not be bad enough, or might be just good enough, so that I would have to keep reading. In this case I read on. And on. First with the sinking feeling that it was not bad enough to quit, then with a prickle of interest, then a growing excitement, and finally an incredulity: surely it was not possible that it was so good." The book was published by LSU Press in 1980. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.

While Tulane University in New Orleans retains a collection of Toole's papers, and some early drafts have been found, the location of the original manuscript is unknown. A Confederacy of Dunces Adaptations There have been repeated attempts to turn the book into a film. In 1982, Harold Ramis was to write and direct an adaptation, starring John Belushi and Richard Pryor, but Belushi's death prevented this. Later, John Candy and Chris Farley were touted for the lead, but both of them, like Belushi, also died at an early age, leading many to ascribe a curse to the role. Director John Waters was interested in directing an adaptation starring Divine, who also died at an early age, as Ignatius. British performer and writer Stephen Fry was at one point commissioned to adapt Toole's book for the screen. He was sent to New Orleans by Paramount Studios in 1997 to get background for a screenplay adaptation. John Goodman, a longtime resident of New Orleans, was slated to play Ignatius at one point. A version adapted by Steven Soderbergh and Scott Kramer, and slated to be directed by David Gordon Green, was scheduled for release in 2005.

The film was to star Will Ferrell as Ignatius and Lily Tomlin as Ignatius's mother. A staged reading of the script took place at the 8th Nantucket Film Festival, with Ferrell as Ignatius, Anne Meara as his mother, Paul Rudd as Officer Mancuso, Kristen Johnston as Lana Lee, Mos Def as Burma Jones, Rosie Perez as Darlene, Olympia Dukakis as Santa Battaglia and Miss Trixie, Natasha Lyonne as Myrna, Alan Cumming as Dorian Greene, John Shea as Gonzales, Jesse Eisenberg as George, John Conlon as Claude Robichaux, Jace Alexander as Bartender Ben, Celia Weston as Miss Annie, Miss Inez & Mrs. Levy, and Dan Hedaya as Mr. Levy. Various reasons are cited as to why the Soderbergh version has yet to be filmed. They include disorganization and lack of interest at Paramount Pictures, the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission being murdered, and the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans. When asked why the film was never made, Will Ferrell has said it is a "mystery".

In 2012 there was a version in negotiation with director James Bobin and potentially starring Zach Galifianakis. In a 2013 interview, Steven Soderbergh remarked "I think it’s cursed. I’m not prone to superstition, but that project has got bad mojo on it." In November 2015, Huntington Theatre Company debuted the world-premiere of a stage version of A Confederacy of Dunces written by Jeffrey Hatcher in their Avenue of the Arts/BU Theatre location in Boston, with Nick Offerman starring as Ignatius J. Reilly. It set a record as the company's highest-grossing production. A Confederacy of Dunces Notes ^ "Amazon.com: A Confederacy of Dunces". Amazon.com. Retrieved 11 November 2014. ^ Giemza, Bryan (Spring 2004). "Ignatius Rising: The Life of John Kennedy Toole". Southern Cultures (review) (Cambridge: Chadwyck-Healey) 10 (1): 97–9. ISSN1534-1488.

^ Miller, Karl (March 5, 1999), "An American tragedy. A lifetime of rejection broke John Kennedy Toole. But his aged mother believed in his talent, found a publisher for his novel and rescued his memory from oblivion", New Statesman, retrieved August 25, 2010. ^ Lowe, John (December 2008). Louisiana culture from the colonial era to Katrina. LSU Press. p.164. ISBN978-0-8071-3337-8. Retrieved 15 March 2011. ^ Patteson, Richard F (1982), "Ignatius Goes to the Movies: The Films in Toole's ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’", NMAL: Notes on Modern American Literature 6 (2), item 14. ^ Toole 1980, p.136. ^ Nagle, Stephen J; Sanders, Sara L (2003). English in the southern United States. Cambridge University Press. p.181.

^ Heilman, Heather; DeMocker, Michael (November 26, 2001). "Ignatius Comes of Age". Tulanian. Tulane University. Archived from the original on 2010-06-06. Retrieved 2010-02-05. ^ Miller, Elizabeth ‘Liz’. "An Interview with Poppy Z. Brite". Bookslut. Archived from the original on 16 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-01. ^ Percy, Walker (1980), Preface in Toole 1980. ^ MacLauchlin, Cory (March 26, 2012). "The Lost Manuscript to ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’" (online magazine). The Millions. Retrieved 2012-04-18. ^ a b Hyman, Peter (December 14, 2006). "The development hell of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’". Slate. Archived from the original on 22 January 2009.

Retrieved 2009-01-29. ^ Allman, Kevin. "John Waters" (interview). Gambit New Orleans News and Entertainment. Best of New Orleans. Retrieved 2011-08-01. ^ Fry, Stephen (2005-09-06). "The great stink of 2005". Huffington post. Archived from the original on 2009-09-15. Retrieved 2011-08-01. ^ Fry, Stephen (2008), Stephen Fry in America, Harper Collins, p.138. ^ Fretts, Bruce (19 May 2000). "A Confederacy of Dunces celebrates its 20th anniversary". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 25 July 2015. ^ Head, Steve (2003-06-25). "Filmforce". IGN. Archived from the original on 19 July 2011. Retrieved 2011-08-01.

^ Stephenson, Hunter (February 29, 2008). "Will Ferrell Talks Land of the Lost, Old School 2, Elf 2 and A Confederacy of Dunces". Slashfilm. Archived from the original on 24 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-29. ^ Brodesser-Akner, Claude (2012-05-22), "Exclusive: ‘Dunces’ Finds Its Ignatius in Galifianakis", Vulture. ^ "Soderbergh in Vulture". vulture.com. Retrieved January 30, 2013. ^ Shanahan, Mark (23 December 2015). "‘Confederacy of Dunces’ sets Huntington Theatre record". The Boston Globe. A Confederacy of Dunces Further reading Scholarly studies Clark, William Bedford (1987), "All Toole's children: A reading of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’", Essays in Literature 14: 269–80.

Dunne, Sara L (2005), "Moviegoing in the Modern Novel: Holden, Binx, Ignatius", Studies in Popular Culture 28 (1): 37–47. Kline, Michael (1999), "Narrating the Grotesque: The Rhetoric of Humor in John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces", Southern Quarterly 37 (3–4): 283–91. Leighton, H Vernon (2007–2012), John Kennedy Toole Research, Winona, three scholarly articles (including one free full text) and other materials. Lowe, John (2008), "The Carnival Voices of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’", Louisiana Culture from the Colonial Era to Katrina, Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State UP, pp.159–90.

MacLauchlin, Cory (2012), Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’ (biography), Da Capo Press, ISBN978-0-306-82040-3 (literary analysis, chapter 15). Marsh, Leslie (2013), Critical Notice of Butterfly in the Typewriter: The Tragic Life of John Kennedy Toole and the Remarkable Story of A Confederacy of Dunces’ (review), Journal of Mind and Behavior, ISSN0271-0137 McNeil, David (1984), "A Confederacy of Dunces as Reverse Satire: The American Subgenre", Mississippi Quarterly 38: 33–47. Palumbo, Carmine D (1995), "John Kennedy Toole and His Confederacy of Dunces", Louisiana Folklore Miscellany 10: 59–77.

Patteson, Richard F; Sauret, Thomas (1983), "The Consolation of Illusion: John Kennedy Toole's ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’", Texas Review 4 (1–2): 77–87. Pugh, Tison (2006), "'It's Prolly Fulla Dirty Stories': Masturbatory Allegory and Queer Medievalism in John Kennedy Toole's ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’", Studies in Medievalism 15: 77–100. Rudnicki, Robert (2009), "Euphues and the Anatomy of Influence: John Lyly, Harold Bloom, James Olney, and the Construction of John Kennedy Toole's Ignatius", Mississippi Quarterly 62 (1–2): 281–302. Simmons, Jonathan (1989), "Ignatius Reilly and the Concept of the Grotesque in John Kennedy Toole's ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’", Mississippi Quarterly 43 (1): 33–43.

Simon, Richard K (1994), "John Kennedy Toole and Walker Percy: Fiction and Repetition in ‘A Confederacy of Dunces’", Texas Studies in Literature & Language 36 (1): 99–116, JSTOR40755032. Zaenker, Karl A (1987), "Hrotsvit and the Moderns: Her Impact on John Kennedy Toole and Peter Hacks", in Wilson, Katharina M, Hrotsvit of Gandersheim: Rara Avis in Saxonia?, Ann Arbor, MI: Marc, pp.275–85. A Confederacy of Dunces Study Guide | Novelguide Total Votes: 145 Introduction A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which appeared in 1980, eleven years after Toole's suicide.

Published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a foreword) and Toole's mother, the book became first a cult classic, then a mainstream success; it earned Toole a posthumous Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981, and is now considered a canonical work of modern literature of the Southern United States. Author: John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces - Bajaepub A Confederacy of Dunces A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel written by American novelist John Kennedy Toole, published by Louisiana State University Press in 1980, eleven years after the author's suicide. The book, published through the efforts of writer Walker Percy (who also contributed a revealing foreword) and Toole's mother Thelma Toole, quickly became a cult classic, and later a mainstream success. Toole posthumously won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1981.

It is now considered a canonical work of modern Southern literature, in the USA.[1]The title derives from the epigraph by Jonathan Swift: "When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him." (Thoughts on Various Subjects, Moral and Diverting)The story is set in New Orleans in the early 1960s. The central character is Ignatius J. Reilly, an educated but slothful 30-year-old man still living with his mother in the city's Uptown neighborhood, who, due to an incident early in the book, must set out to get a job. In his quest for employment he has various adventures with colorful French Quarter characters. A Confederacy of Dunces - The Books - The Book Club - ABC TV A Confederacy of Dunces Reviewed 02/09/2008 Overview 'Do I believe the total perversion that I am witnessing?' Ignatius J Reilly lumbers reluctantly through his home town New Orleans in violent revolt against the modern world, and just about everybody in it.

Whilst outraged by the bad taste of all popular culture he scoffs it down in buckets full, leaving time for little else. When debt threatens to rob him of his comfortable maternal home Ignatius infiltrates the corrupted social system and fails, dismally, to bring it down from within. Author Profile "This city is famous for its gamblers, prostitutes, exhibitionists, anti-Christs, alcoholics, sodomites, drug addicts, fetishists, onanists, pornographers, frauds, jades, litterbugs and lesbians. If you have a moment, I shall endeavor to discuss the crime problem with you, but donï¿½t make the mistake of bothering me." This posthumous release became a modern American classic and introduced one of the most memorable characters in comic literature - antihero Ignatius J. Reilly - "who may very well the most disgusting lead character ever in a novel". Southern Literary Review.

"Full, pursed lips protruded beneath the bushy black moustache and, at their corners, sank into little folds filled with disapproval and potato chip crumbs." Set in New Orleans, Ignatius is 30 years-old, a self-proclaimed genius, expert in medieval history and prone to delusions, gluttony and flatulence. Loud and obese, Ignatius spends most of his time lying in bed, eating, masturbating and writing in his notebooks. On occasion, when he does leave his bed, people on the street are confronted with his ridiculing rhetoric - crusading against vice, modernity and ignorance. Living at home with his mother, his misanthropic sloth-like existence is compromised when Ignatius is forced into finding work, with unsuccessful yet comic results. John Kennedy Toole wrote A Confederacy of Dunces throughout the 1960s but was unable to have it accepted for publication. Tragically, in 1969 and at the age of 32, he committed suicide. His mother spent years taking the manuscript around to publishers. After novelist Walker Percy read it, he encouraged Louisiana State University Press to publish the novel which they did in 1980.

The author never saw his work become a cult classic, or witness it soar to the top of best-seller charts. The book won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1981. " Here at any rate is Ignatius Reilly, without progenitor in any literature I know of -- slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one -- who is in violent revolt against the entire modern age..." Walker Percy First Aired: 8 August 2008 Panellists: Jennifer Byrne, Augusten Burroughs, Germaine Greer, Jason Steger, Marieke Hardy Now to our second book, which Chris Taylor, claimed last month, contained the best fart jokes in literature ï¿½ big call! Hereï¿½s John Kennedy Tooleï¿½s, A Confederacy of Dunces. [Tape Insert] Jennifer: Well Augusten asked to bring this book along and Marieke has been begging to bring it since, oh, the late 19th Century. Marieke: Oh, it takes ï¿½star powerï¿½ to bring it on the show, I know how it works!

Jennifer: Oh, donï¿½t be distressed! Go Augusten. Augusten: Well I knew nothing about this book when I read it, which is often the case, I picked it up because I liked the title and I read it in one sitting and when I reached the last page, I turned around and read it again, which Iï¿½ve never done. I read it every couple of years.

It is very difficult to describe this book; it is a portrait of this ï¿½ you know, eccentric is one of those words thatï¿½s become like delicious, it doesnï¿½t mean anything anymore ï¿½ ï¿½oh, theyï¿½re so eccentricï¿½ but this is a deeply, truly eccentric person, itï¿½s almost now like someone with Asperger Syndrome, it reminds me of my brother who has Asperger Syndrome; no social skills, completely oblivious in this peculiar little universe that he has created for himself and occupies; the thing I love about too is the eccentricity, when it rings false it rings very loud, and this book, feels to me, to have come out of the author, fully formed, as if it had to exist, much like a baby, I mean, this is not a book where the author thought; oh, what kind of crazy, wacky character can I think of that can get some attention?

This had to exist and the author had to write it and itï¿½s a flesh and flood being on the page Jennifer: And he says that itï¿½s based on someone he knew but I donï¿½t really care about that because this is the most extraordinary, panoramic, one-man character youï¿½ve ever seen, heï¿½s in a rage against the modern world ï¿½ which is basically everything after the enlightenment, was the modern world, ï¿½the day the locust arrivedï¿½ he writes ï¿½ extraordinary ï¿½ why did you love it? Marieke: Well this is my equal first favourite book of all time and so I guess my belief has always been; if you donï¿½t like this book, I donï¿½t really like you, but I had to make an exception to this because my dad doesnï¿½t like this book and you canï¿½t choose your family and then I found out the other day that David Sedaris doesnï¿½t like this book and now Iï¿½m incredibly conflicted and now I donï¿½t know what to believe anymore!

But I get so much immense joy out of this, every time I read it, I get something different from it every time, my teeth get all dry when I read it ï¿½cause I canï¿½t stop smiling, the whole time, the language, the humour, the story, everything about it is just a thorough delight. Jennifer: How often have you read it? Marieke: I think this is about the 6th time that Iï¿½ve read it and I was so excited because you always feel guilty going back to old books because thereï¿½s so much literature yet to explore and Iï¿½ve just wanted an excuse to read it again and Iï¿½m just thrilled that Iï¿½ve had it, itï¿½s been such a delight. Jennifer: I must admit, I started laughing at about page 22 and just went on and on and on Marieke: Which I canï¿½t believe! Iï¿½m so thrilled! Augusten: Itï¿½s a polarising book; you love it or you hate it. Jennifer: I turn hopefully to Germaine! Augusten: Over to Germaine!

Germaine: Well now ï¿½ do you really read every single sentence? Marieke: Yes! Germaine: Including his prose exordia? Do you read all of that, thatï¿½s in the little print? Marieke: But Iï¿½m not picking this apart for the grammar, Germaine: Neither am I Marieke: just or the prose, I dive into it though. Germaine: but I found it exhausting. Marieke: but I found it rich. Germaine: And sometimes I was really mired in those long essays of his Jennifer: I loved them. Germaine: Well maybe Iï¿½ve read too much of that kind of stuff in my great, long life; it was a bit like being offered a huge meal which consists entirely of Christmas Pudding; itï¿½s wonderful Christmas pudding Marieke: Well perhaps Iï¿½m a glutton because I am face first in this! Iï¿½m not looking up until Iï¿½m covered in sultanas.

Jason: One of the problems is Ignatius is such a fantastic character that some of the other characters do not get the credit they deserve, Jones is fantastic, Marieke: Do you mean by time on the page? Jason: No, I think the reader can pass them over a little bit, I think Miss Tricksy for example Marieke: Oh Miss Tricksyï¿½s fantastic! Jason: Miss Tricksy is wonderful. Jennifer: Miss Tricksy is a feeble, octogenarian secretary Marieke: Sheï¿½s not feeble, sheï¿½s terrifying! Germaine: Full of malice, full of serious malice. Jennifer: feeble minded and she never walks at more than 90 degrees to the floor. Jason: Thatï¿½s right, very Dickensian in that, Marieke: But thereï¿½s just enough of her I think, how much more can you go in to her? Jason: I think Ignatius is such a larger than life character that Miss Tricksy could pass under his tunny and not be seen occasionally.

Jennifer: I donï¿½t agree with you that Ignatius dominates; I think that whether itï¿½s the mink off Minks, his passionless flame as he describes her, Marieke: But the fact that every time one of us has mentioned a character all of us have gone; oh of course! Jason: Darlene and the cockatoo Marieke: Yes! Augusten: That what makes this such a wonderful book to read and read and read again and again and again because you really, truly get something new every time. Jennifer: And itï¿½s not just him, he is the great lump at the centre of it, Augusten: Well he is, itï¿½s a book about a Supernova and he is the Supernova but it occupies a very busy and interesting universe so when youï¿½re there you can look at the other dwarf stars and the comets and all the wonderful things but it is a Supernova. Jason: He does deflect your attention from them I think a fraction, Augusten: He sucks all the oxygen up in the room but he is welcome to it.

Jennifer: When it was knocked back by this guy whoï¿½d been a mentor, which was finally the thing that actually finally drove him to suicide I gather, when the guy who was almost going to publish it, Robert Gottlieb, very famous publisher, he said; with all its wonderfulness, this book has no reason, itï¿½s not actually about anything, I think thatï¿½s wrong but what do you think itï¿½s about?

Germaine: Youï¿½ve got to understand that Iï¿½m obsessive about my own work so what interest me about this work is the undercurrent of rage and complete inability to accept anything that is happening around him and his weddedness to his own indignation, so he goes to the movies to get mad and heï¿½s raging away at the screen and everyoneï¿½s going; oh God, get him out of here, heï¿½s spoiling everybody elseï¿½s fun and all the time stoking himself with trash food ï¿½ that kind of inability to gel with any system, like even selling the Winnies and all of that and the consistent misunderstanding of anything, his lack of social skills as we say, that is not unfamiliar to me; Iï¿½ve had to deal with it in my own family in some circumstances and itï¿½s not something I can feel entirely light hearted about but it may be because my eye is trained for the lava showing through the crack, that I find a lot of rage in the book and it scares me slightly.

Augusten: I do too, I think youï¿½re right, I think there is a lot of rage in that book, itï¿½s a lot about isolation and wanting to connect and being unable to connect, Germaine: About ugliness, Augusten: Yeah, itï¿½s about ugliness, itï¿½s about beauty and itï¿½s about being inside yourself, being stuck inside yourself and itï¿½s so many things, itï¿½s about his mother, my God, his relationship with oppression and feeling oppressed by his mother and hating his mother but I get the rage, I absolutely did get that, I think that was the first emotion that I sensed from it, was that this book was written in an explosion of rage, and itï¿½s rage thatï¿½s been recycled into madness and brilliant humour, Jennifer: Thatï¿½s the unusual connection isnï¿½t it? Rage and humour, rage and humour.

Germaine: But rage inspires a lot of this kind of grotesquery where we really are in the realm of the grotesque, all these bulging, big, extraordinary, leaking, dripping things where this is [canï¿½t decipher] country. Augusten: But I think thatï¿½s too easy to dismiss it as a grotesquery, Germaine: Itï¿½s not a dismissal, believe me. Augusten: Ok, well I think what itï¿½s created is something; thatï¿½s how the universe was created, through rage, every cell in our body was at one point a lithium molecule, and I think thatï¿½s whatï¿½s so wonderful about it, that itï¿½s the result of this explosion, it is an incredibly creative and incredibly powerful ï¿½ love it or hate it ï¿½ book, that could only be the product of such emotion. Jennifer: Whatï¿½s it about for you? Marieke: I donï¿½t necessarily think itï¿½s about anything but neither is the White Album, how do you explain it?

I just think itï¿½s this cartoonish monstrous, exhilarating, intoxicating; the language, the shrieking, the bellowing, the screaming, the thundering is just, makes me giddy every time I dive into it. Germaine: Whatï¿½s going to happen when you read Rabalay? Marieke: I donï¿½t know, I might cease to exist! Jennifer: It is a sensational book, isnï¿½t it? Jason: Itï¿½s a blast, itï¿½s a real blast. Germaine: What would he write if he had the Rudd government to contend with? What kind of a ballooning, exploding, teeth grinding thing would it be! The sheer relentless mediocrity; come back, come back John Kennedy Toole! Augusten: We have you, we have you!

Jennifer: We do and itï¿½s been lovely to have you both, that it time for us but next month, some further weirdness to kick things off; Pandora in the Congo, by Albert Sanchez Pinol, a romp through the jungle with some anti-imperialist satire thrown in for good measure, a book, I venture to suggest, unlike anything youï¿½ve read before, then itï¿½s Jasonï¿½s turn to bring a favourite and he has chosen The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, a breakthrough novel by Irish born writer, Brian Moore. A very big thanks to tonightï¿½s Book Clubbers, thank you Augusten Burroughs, Marieke Hardy, Jason Steger and Germaine Greer. We, I hope will see you this Sunday at 4.30 for an encore screening, remember you can watch the pod cast any time at all and we will I hope, see you back in the Club on the first Tuesday in October, thank you very much for coming in, see you then and very happy reading. [End credits] One of the all-time great novels that should be on every school curriculum's must read list -- the students would not complain !

Rutegar Not funny. Not about anything in particular. Waste of time really. Dean Briggs 21 Aug 2013 5:42:55pm I'm a third of the way through this book and it is quite funny. Supposedly the author was a riot to be around and I believe it. The characters are like out of some classic comedy movie. Ignatius is th origina 'Comic Book Guy/ Eric Cartman'. The very first chapter when a policeman tries to arrest Ignatius for looking weird, is brilliant. Am really enjoying it. Elisa 19 Oct 2012 4:47:28pm I very much enjoyed this book and all the memorable characters in it. It's hard for me to think of another work of literature that has so many great characters and adventures. Looking on my shelf, maybe Alice in Wonderland? Which is also another favourite. My enjoyment of Confederacy was somewhat tempered by the question of Ignatius' mental state. Is he suffering from unhealthy delusions? Or is he just different and not able to fit into the narrow society he finds himself in?

This theme seems not to be discussed much in reviews even though it is flagged in the book. While Ignatius is vile to many readers, his motivations and frustrations cannot be unfamiliar to anyone who has ever questioned their world. This is one reason why he is such a great character. Christine 28 Dec 2011 3:14:58pm To say that the book is about nothing is obscence. There are several major themes presented within the text. Modern Slavery: The plight of African Americans The American Work Ethic Anti-Capitalism: Mr. Levy is the richest yet unhappiest of the characters The Nature of Fate Oh, Fortuna! Why must you direct my life at the whim of your wheel? >>>>? John 26 Jun 2011 6:12:51pm Without doubt one of the most deliciously witty dark comedies I've ever read. Yes, the main character is repulsively vile and completely useless, but by the same token he's absolutley amazing and utterly entertaining. And then there's all the other friends, family and innocents trying to deal with him/egging him on/running the other way.. just brilliant.

Great setting and an easy read. Can't recommend enough Danny 29 Apr 2011 10:37:16am Just finished reading this for the first time and absolutely loved it. You don't have to like Ignatius to appreciate that he is one of the most entertaining characters in 20th Century literature. While it goes without saying that all the characters jump from the page, the plot and the weaving of all aspects of the story into the climactic scene is also brilliantly done. It is such a shame that this is the only work we have from JKT. Chris 11 Jan 2011 4:03:17pm This book sounded great and caught my imagination in every way possible, but proved to have a main character so vile, so downright annoying, that I was unable to finish it. Life is far too short to be spending extended periods with characters, real or fictional, like Ignatius. Jenny 04 Nov 2009 10:19:31am I still consider A Confederacy of Dunces to be my favourite book of all time.

Even now 40+ years after it was written it still seems fresh and new. Such rage and humour, such larger than life charactors. If you have not read this give it a go, you only need 15 minutes because by then you will either be totally hooked and will not put it down or throw it away in disgust. John Kennedy Toole Born 7 December 1937, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA Died 26 March 1969, Biloxi, Mississippi, USA John Kennedy Toole's father was a car salesman, there is little mention of his father in any biographical articles so it is uncertain what relationship, if any, they shared. His mother, Thelma Ducoing Toole, was a drama and elocution teacher who was responsible for getting A Confederacy of Dunces published. John Kennedy Toole (nickname Ken) completed his graduate studies at Tulane University in 1958 and then received his Masterï¿½s Degree in English from Columbia University. From 1959 to 1968 he taught at colleges in New York and Louisiana including St.

Mary's Dominican College, Hunter College and the University of Southwestern Louisiana (USL) but his teaching career was interrupted by military service. Toole began writing A Confederacy of Dunces during the early 1960s whilst serving in Puerto Rico as an Army Corporal teaching English to Spanish-speaking recruits. And no, Ken Toole was nothing like Ignatius. The model for the outrageous Reilly was one Bobby Byrne, a colleague of Toole's at the USL English faculty in Lafayette during the early '60s. Byrne was more coherent than Ignatius, but just as large, bombastic and eccentric in dress. The Washington Post 07/08/2005 Toole tried many times to get the novel published. Respected publisher Robert Gottileb was in New York working for Simon and Schuster. He shared a long correspondence with Toole and worked through successive revisions. In 1966, Gottileb lost interest and rejected the novel. "With all its wonderfulness," wrote Gottlieb, the book "does not have a reason. It isn't really about anything.

And that's something no one can do anything about." Toole flew to New York to plead for his book, and was barred from the sanctum. He went on to do away with himself, five years later, having fallen out of fiction and into delusion and depression, and Robert Gottlieb went on to edit the New Yorker. New Statesman 05/03/1999 After suffering severe bouts of depression, Toole committed suicide in 1969. Toole's distraught mother took the manuscript for A Confederacy of Dunces to numerous publishers for 7 years. The manuscript was continually returned accompanied by letters of rejection. Finally, in 1976, she forced the faded, dog-eared carbon copy of the manuscript onto novelist Walker Percy. After his leaving the world so tragically, I was determined that the manuscript would be handed down to posterity. But every time it was returned, I died a little. Then I read that Walker Percy would be teaching at Loyola university right here in New Orleans. I tried to reach him and after the third time finally did.

Maybe a week later he wrote to me saying the book was ï¿½the most flavorful novel of New Orleansï¿½ he had ever read. Chicago tribune Jun 29, 1980 Initially reluctant to read the manuscript, once he did start, Percy was so impressed that he persuaded the Louisiana State University Press to publish it. The reaction to the novel was huge both critically and commercially. More than 50,000 copies were sold in the first year of publication. A Confederacy of Dunces has since been published worldwide in 18 languages. When prominent writers are asked to name favourites or influential works of American fiction, this book consistently makes the lists. A Confederacy of Dunces was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1981 and following that success, there was much interest in a second manuscript of Tooleï¿½s called The Neon Bible. Toole had written this work while still a teenager. The novel is narrated by a young boy and is about a working class southern family during World War II. Apparently Thelma had not wanted The Neon Bible to be published.

In August of 1984, Thelma died at the age of 82 in a New Orleans Hospital. The Neon Bible was published in 1989. A Confederacy Of Dunces | FUN BLOG Home Literature A Confederacy Of Dunces A Confederacy Of Dunces Liceo Cultural Británico A Confederacy Of Dunces , Literature A Confederacy of Dunces , Big Chief Tablets , crusader , Don Quixote , green hunting cap , Ignatius , Ignatius J. Reilly , Irene , John Kennedy Toole , Levi's factory , New Orleans A Confederacy of Dunces is a picaresque novel written by American writer John Kennedy Toole. The novel presents the misadventures of Ignatius Jacques Reilly, who is depicted as a modern Quixote because he is eccentric, idealistic and a little bit off his rocker . He is a monument of fat and flatulence with a bushy black moustache and he’s always wearing a ridiculous green hunting cap with earflaps. Picture by Todd Murray . Creative Commons Public Licence.

Our hero, “with the wisdom of Don Quixote and physique of Sancho Panza”, is 30 years old, still lives with his mother in New Orleans, has never worked and what is even worse is that he’s reluctant to get a job. He looks down on modern era and anything that has to do with capitalism. He thinks that materialistic comforts are “offenses against taste and decency” and spends most of the day writing his Big Chief Tablets, where he expresses his disdain of the twentieth century and explains the reason why he wants to become a noble crusader against this chaotic, pagan and capitalist era. However, Ignatius’ quiet and comfortable life suddenly suffers an unexpected turn of events when his mother, Irene, decrees he must go to work. In his quest for employment, he has various adventures with a lot of funny and grotesque characters. The climax of the novel comes when he organizes a magnificent and hilarious revolt in a Levi’s factory. Picture by Kimberly Vardeman . Creative Commons Public License. Practical guide for blog interaction: Articles, exercises and related posts .

Share this: A Confederacy of Dunces | NEA A Confederacy of Dunces confederacy.jpg John Kennedy Toole received posthumously the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for A Confederacy of Dunces. The comic novel was published by Lousiana State University Press, with support from the Arts Endowment. "Here at any rate is Ignatius Reilly, without progenitor in any literature I know of--slob extraordinary, a mad Oliver Hardy, a fat Don Quixote, a perverse Thomas Aquinas rolled into one . . ." --Walker Percy from the foreword to A Confederacy of Dunces Ignatius Reilly, the anti-hero of John Kennedy Toole's tragicomic novel A Confederacy of Dunces , is one of the most memorable characters in American literature. Yet when Toole committed suicide in 1969, the novel was still in manuscript, having been rejected by numerous publishers. It wasn't until more than a decade later that the novel was published, thanks to vigorous lobbying efforts by Toole's mother Thelma.

Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, Toole penned most of A Confederacy of Dunces while stationed with the army in Puerto Rico where he taught English to Spanish-speaking recruits. After Toole's death, Thelma Toole continued to send the manuscript to various publishers. The project was seen as a bad commercial risk, however, because the author was not available to publicize the book and no future novels were forthcoming. Finally, in 1976, Mrs. Toole showed the smeared and fading manuscript to novelist Walker Percy who was then teaching at Loyola. Percy in turn recommended it for publication to the Louisiana State University Press (LSUP), which had just started to publish literary fiction. One of the oldest university presses in the U.S., LSUP applied to the Arts Endowment for a grant to help with the publishing costs for the novel. The press received a grant of $3,500, and the novel was finally published in 1980. In the first year alone, the novel sold more than 50,000 copies. Toole also was awarded the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction posthumously, beating out fellow finalists Frederick Buechner and William Maxwell.

A Confederacy of Dunces has since been published worldwide in 18 languages, and there are nearly two million copies in print. A Confederacy of Dunces continues to be recognized as a classic American novel. As a Rolling Stone reviewer once wrote, "A Confederacy of Dunces has been reviewed almost everywhere, and every reviewer has loved it. For once, everyone is right."

Question: Who wrote the picaresque American novel 'A Confederacy of Dunces'?
Answer: John Kennedy TOOLE