Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 21, 2011

Rick, support your son’s success; it probably won’t last that long.

Okay, what’s really going on between son Jeff and dad Rick?

Proving once again that hard work and honesty do not pay.

“Red Rascal” is the new “sparkly vampire” …

Purity of Rick’s motives aside, the occasional dose of reality is a parental obligation.

Bookstores order as many books as they think they can sell, BUT if they don’t sell them, they can return them to the publisher. So, at this point, Jeff hasn’t SOLD book one. (ALSO: over 80% of books that are printed and sent to bookstores are returned, after which they usually end up in landfill. It’s an incredibly wasteful system in so many ways.)

I hope he does a book tour. I hear Kelly Ripa is looking for a new co-host.

BTW, now that Jeff is seemingly coming into some money, did he ever reconcile his problem with Overkill? It would seem his ex-employer may not have fond memories of the “Red Rascal” and his losing $50,000,000; Overkill might want some compensation if Jeff’s pockets get a little deeper.

Has Roland Hedley reviewed the book? He’s done with that other review assignment.

For those who want to know what PalinDrome is talking about, here’s a plot summary of the great novel ZULEIKA DOBSON BY MAX BEERBOHM (Oxford University, UK, 1911). Godspeed you through it. (Source: Wikipedia.) Zuleika Dobson is a stunningly attractive young woman of the Edwardian era, a true femme fatale, who is a prestidigitator by profession, formerly a governess. Zuleika’s current occupation (though, more importantly, perhaps, her enrapturing beauty) has made her something of a small-time celebrity and she manages to gain entrance to the privileged, all-male domain of Oxford University because her grandfather is the Warden of Judas College (based on Merton College, Oxford, Beerbohm’s alma mater). There, she falls in love for the first time in her life with the present Duke of Dorset, a snobbish, emotionally detached student who—frustrated with the lack of control over his feelings when he sees her—is forced to admit that she too is his first love, impulsively proposing to her. As she feels that she cannot love anyone unless he is impervious to her charms, however, she rejects all her suitors, doing the same with the astonished Duke. The Duke quickly discovers that Noaks, another Oxford student, also claims to have fallen in love her, without ever having even interacted with her. Apparently, men immediately fall in love with her upon seeing her. As the first to have his love reciprocated by her (for however brief a time) the Duke decides that he will commit suicide to symbolise his passion for Zuleika and in hopes that he will raise awareness in her of the terrible power of her bewitching beauty, as she innocently goes on crushing men’s affections.Zuleika is able to interrupt the Duke’s first suicide attempt from a river boat, but seems to have a romanticised view of men dying for her, and does not oppose the notion of his suicide altogether. The Duke, instead pledging to kill himself the next day—which Zuleika more or less permits—has dinner that night with his social club where the other members also affirm their love for Zuleika. Upon telling them of his plan to die, the others unexpectedly agree to also commit suicide for Zuleika. This idea soon reaches the minds of all Oxford undergraduates, who inevitably fall in love with Zuleika upon first sight.The Duke eventually decides that the only way he can stop all the undergraduates from killing themselves is by not committing suicide himself, hoping they will follow his example. By an ancient tradition, on the eve of the death of a Duke of Dorset, two black owls come and perch on the battlements of Tankerton Hall, the family seat; the owls remain there hooting through the night and at dawn they fly away to an unknown place. After debating whether to follow through with his suicide, while seeming to decide at last to embrace his life as just as valuable as Zuleika’s, the Duke receives a telegram from his butler at Tankerton, reporting the portentous return of the owls. The Duke promptly interprets the omen as a sign that the gods have fated his doom. He proudly tells Zuleika that he will still die, but no longer for her; she agrees as long as he makes it appear that he is dying for her by shouting her name as he jumps into the river. Later the same day, a thunderstorm overwhelms the May Week boat races while the Duke drowns himself in the River Isis, wearing the robes of a Knight of the Garter. Every fellow undergraduate, except one, promptly follows suit.All of the Oxford undergraduates now dead, including, with some delay, the cowardly Noaks, Zuleika discusses the ordeal with her grandfather, who reveals that he too was enamoured by all when he was her age. While Oxford’s academic staff barely notice that all of their undergraduates have vanished, Zuleika decides to order a special train for the next morning… bound for Cambridge.

prestidigitator, noun (Source: Miriam Webster)

Definition: • One who practices tricks and illusions for entertainment (a skilled prestidigitator can make entire buildings seem to disappear.) • Synonyms: conjurer (or conjuror), illusionist, prestidigitator, trickster. • Related Words: charmer, enchanter, enchantress. Example: Becca Bickle (Source: dtπ). And more power to her if you can’t control yourself!

“The idiot liar son beat the hard working honest dad at an easy success book deal.” Thanx, Radish, for that. And thanx also, PalinDrome, for the “evil enchantress” angle and the Max Beerbohm app.  These are helpful, though I’m still looking for a more socio-psychologically derived understanding of the intimate father-son relationship Trudeau portrays here. And maybe Joanie’s role in it. Notice in both Sunday’s strip and in Monday’s, she appears to be trying to protect Jeff against Jeff’s clearly unjustified onslaught against his own, well-behaved, though perhaps too cynical father. Question for any trained, degreed, evidence-based socio-psychologists out there? Your answers will interest me.

Which sells more, fiction or non-fiction? Baslim: “Fantasy sells better than non-fiction.” I worked for publishing houses for 30 years in publishing houses in Tennessee, Bay Area Silicon Valley Peninsula of California, and in Washington State first as both book editor, then as periodical editor. In all those years, I read the professional literature. Verdict: non-fiction CONSISTENTLY outsold fiction (which includes fantasy) every year.

@DylanThomasPi:

Yes, but that statistic doesn’t include those who constantly confuse the two. ;-7

Well the son was shoving it in his Dad’s face, or turn about is fair play. "Bring him down in bit.

Stop beating on the Rascal, guys. Let him enjoy success for once.

I don’t believe the Jeff or anybody else intends to kill themselves for Becca.

I’m glad I am only auditing this class.

I did not know that The Red Rascal also ran Samsung

word.

So, Joanie … how’s the Warren campaign going?

don’t see Becca as evil – just successful in the world of Trump, $ & well-meaning mammon.

Re Zuleika Dobson:Like all Wikipedia summaries, the one Pi quotes (above) buries the vitality and brilliance of Beerbohm’s novel. (I won’t let my students quote Wikipedia.)The high points that readers of the actual novel will grasp is that (a) ZD despises men who fall for her charms and pursues only those who resist her; and (b) all the undergraduates at Oxford fall in love with her and—-inspired by Duke’s misunderstood example, publicly endorsed by ZD—-actually drown themselves.I merely suggest that GBT is familiar with Beerbohm’s fantasy of the airheaded sorceress who thrives on adolescent puppy-love (note that ZD, having destroyed Oxford, plans to move on to Cambridge). I can’t remember the strip, but in an arc focusing on M.I.T. the nerdy students offer to die for Drew.To reverse *lwp*’s maxim from yesterday, Alex is the antidote to Becca.

@Ira NaymanHaving worked for three NY-based publishing houses, I can say if 80 percent of all the books they printed were returned, they’d be out of business. They do expect returns, but the average number of books that are unsold (returns, giveaway copies for reviews, books that never leave the warehouse) is closer to 20 percent per title. (This is not to say there aren’t books that do have a sell-through rate of closer to 20 percent, but those are more the exception than the rule.)

Work for a publisher in New York City since 1980. Non-fiction does outsell fiction.

Man, what I learned today! from the strip and the comments…thanks, one and all.What a gang of world-changers YOU all would make…

Does non-fiction include textbooks which people are required to buy?My first thought was economics would dictate how many were published and shipped. But after reading all the above comments, I am horified by the wastefulness.

More like 49,999 returned.

I’m just amazed by how many here have worked in publishing houses! With e-books and “print on demand”, I suspect the remainder piles will be going down, along with advances?? We’ve done pretty well with our anthologies “print on demand” to bring in a little cash. There are new ways out there, Jeff and Becca should do okay. “Red Rascal” after all is as non-fiction as any of the “political biographies” making money out there.

Taking a whiz? More like he’s having a bowel movement….Honestly! Is Rick so used to hearing about his son’s failures that he’s actually looking forward to another one?.Or maybe he’s still hurting over Jeff giving that Palin book to Hedley instead of him?

Am beginning to understand the Controversial Comic Commentary Culture. Since my previous posting was vaporized, I shall not further interfere with your admiration of your shared intellectual superiority.

“Are they gonna name the kid “Kindle”?” I once thought Jeff and Becca should start dating, fall in love, marry, have kids, etc., but when she called him “a dim bulb”, I agreed and changed my mind.

Speaking of Becca, I wonder how Trff’s book is going.