Dickens and Prince

From Dickens and Prince by Nick Hornby:

“I would not be a reader without the excruciating, never-ending, no-football-on-TV, shops-closed boredom that drove me toward the local library and, later, bookshops- neither open on Sunday, of course. My younger sons, both born in the twenty-first century, have never found themselves in the kind of stupor that would cause them to look upon literature as an escape, and though this is a cause for regret, I am also happy for them. Part of me wishes that I hadn't been bored enough to spend half my life with my head stuck in a book.”

I've read Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch when I was getting into soccer. I haven't read anything else, and honestly haven't seen any of the movies he wrote either. This book is fun. I'm not sure if he's importing Prince to talk about Dickens or whether he's importing Dickens to be able to talk about Prince. 

I listened to Prince's memoir last night. Prince lived 1958-2016. Born and died in Minnesota of a fentanyl overdose at age 57. 

He's a pure American. He goes for what he wants, which is sex and self fulfillment, which for him is being a musician. He also has this undercurrent of strict religion which he hardly takes notice of, but is there rattling around in his brain. Reading Prince's Wikipedia page, I didn't know he was vegan and vegetarian for parts of his life. Can you imagine Prince knocking on your door, and he tries to talk about Jehovah's Witness stuff? I didn't know he was married twice, and the son from his first marriage didn't survive because of a rare genetic disorder. Imagine Prince the father. 

I'm listening to Dirty Mind (1980), Prince (1979) and For You (1978), the stuff before Controversy (1981), 1999 (1982) and Purple Rain (1984).

My friend took me and a couple of girls to see Purple Rain. My friend died of a heart attack, but going to the movie became part of our lore. I saw Prince in Manchester once, with my first wife. My memory was that he let someone I didn't know sing a lot. 

I've read Pickwick Papers, Barnaby Rudge and Bleak House, but honestly I don't remember anything about them, read them 30 years ago. I've been eying a run at reading his work. I have a few books on my to be read pile.

I didn't know that Dickens was plagued by imitators (Oliver Twiss) and that people were raking it in doing play versions of his novels. Early version of intellectual property theft. When you watch a pirated movie, you are channeling the spirit of Americans who published his books without paying him a dime. 

Copyright wasn't even a thing in Shakespeare's day. That's why he didn't publish his plays. He made his money by owning the theater troupe of which he provided content, plays, and he acted minor roles. It was years after his death that two major actors who were owners of the troupe that published the prompt books from his plays.  

I kind of lost interest in Prince when he got into the fight with his record label and changed his name. I didn't know that he snapped out of it and did a lot of shows. Hornby thinks Sign Of The Times is his great double album. If I can stomach the endless commercials on Spotify, I'm going to listen to his studio oeuvre, and the Super Deluxe Editions. 

There's something very midwestern about Prince.

Links:

Illustrations for Dickens' Novels (V&AM)

Phiz is one of the illustrators.

Zadie Smith doesn't want to write like Dickens (7/10/23). 

Prince Album Links (Discography):

Welcome 2 America (2021) Posthumous.

The Versace Experience: Prelude 2 Gold (1995)

The Gold Experience (1995)

Sign o' the Times (1987)