The concentrated direction of positive energy toward my distributer fellow – plus the threat of litigation – finally produced the sales figures for my books. That’s the good news. The bad news is the figures themselves. The weird news is that “The Schiz” outsold “Cheesesteak” and “I Will Keep You Alive.”
Also, Ivana Armanini credits my article at www.tcj.com about her and Komikaze with earning her an invitation to exhibit work from the French Institute Zagreb. Personally, I doubt my influence (or that of tcj) in Zagreb, but I am happy for her regardless.
The article also received several posted comments. An artist/cartoonist, whose work I highly admire, called it “Great.” Another fellow, whom I don’t know, called it “typical Levin,” probably not in a good way. My favorite response came from someone named “chi-go-go,” who wrote, “who the hell is [Name of Character]?… that seems like an important detail that is completely absent from the article,” allowing me to cheekily reply, “Who are you? That seems an important element that is completely absent from your comment.”
This delighted me because, in 1967/68, I had tacked to the wall of my apartment at 47th & Michigan, in Chicago, when I was in VISTA, a clipping from the Sunday NYT of an exchange of letters between a woman, who had seen “The Homecoming,” and Harold Pinter. The woman had posed three questions, the first of which was “Who is [Name of Character]?” and Pinter’s first answer, which I had found cheekily brilliant, was “Who are you?”. Now here I was, more than a half-century later, maybe the only person in America who remembered this exchange, getting to lay it on “chi-go-go.”
Ain’t life grand?