{"product_id":"9781555976736","title":"Directing Herbert White : Poems","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eDirecting Herbert White\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): James Franco\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDirecting Herbert White is the debut poetry collection by the actor, director, and writer James Franco\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI'm a nocturnal creature,\u003cbr\u003eAnd I'm here to cheat time.\u003cbr\u003eYou can see time and exhaustion\u003cbr\u003eTaking pay from my face—\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn fifty years\u003cbr\u003eMy sleep will be death,\u003cbr\u003eI'll go like the rest,\u003cbr\u003eBut I'll have played\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAll the games and all the roles.\u003cbr\u003e     —from \"Nocturnal\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"There's never been a book quite like this. Hollywood—fame, celebrity, the promise of becoming an artist—is the beast at its center. Franco knows it like Melville knows whaling. Hollywood in this book devours its young. Obsessed with myths about its own past, it can be survived only by finding a vantage point that is not Hollywood. Bold yet subtle, fearless yet disarming, Franco has made a book you will never forget.\" —Frank Bidart\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A star-studded cast moves like ghosts across the screen of James Franco's poetic consciousness, imbuing the writing with scenes of icons who are also humans replete with sorrow and presence in our own psyches. James Dean, Monica Vitti, Catherine Deneuve, Sal Mineo, Heath Ledger, pass and fade. The author has a wonderful, self-reflexive insouciance about his own fame and roles inhabited, from Hart Crane to Allen Ginsberg to Harvey Milk's lover. Franco is a gifted contemporary Renaissance kind of guy, surveying the waterfront of illusion, suffering, and impermanance. We leave the movie theater a little wiser.\" —Anne Waldman\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e“Franco's bold and magnetic examination of life in the mirrored hall of make-believe and fame taps deeply into our collective mythology.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“The stories in \u003ci\u003eDirecting Herbert White\u003c\/i\u003e disconcert and titillate, they swagger and collapse, andthey explore what it feels like to be a character. \u003ci\u003eHow did we get to be this way?\u003c\/i\u003e is the unspoken question--\u003ci\u003eweird, ugly humans, on and off stage, trying and failing?\u003c\/i\u003e Franco's poems are brave and whip-like, and in the center of their mirrored labyrinth, they house and refine a vulnerable, curious, and very distinct poetic sentience.” —\u003ci\u003eTony Hoagland\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“A star-studded cast moves like ghosts across the screen of James Franco's poetic consciousness, imbuing the writing with scenes of icons who are also humans replete with sorrow and presence in our own psyches. James Dean, Monica Vitti, Catherine Deneuve, Sal Mineo, Heath Ledger pass and fade. The author has a wonderful self-reflexive insouciance about his own fame and roles inhabited, from Hart Crane to Allen Ginsberg to Harvey Milk's lover. Franco is a gifted contemporary Renaissance kind of guy, surveying the waterfront of illusion, suffering, and impermanence. We leave the movie theater a little wiser.” —\u003ci\u003eAnne Waldman\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“There's never been a book quite like this. Hollywood--fame, celebrity, the promise of becoming an artist--is the beast at its center. Franco knows it like Melville knows whaling. Hollywood in this book devours its young. Obsessed with myths about its own past, it can be survived only by finding a vantage point that is not Hollywood. Bold yet subtle, fearless yet disarming, Franco has made a book you will never forget.” —\u003ci\u003eFrank Bidart\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Individually and collectively, the poems in James Franco's \u003ci\u003eDirecting Herbert White\u003c\/i\u003e dramatize the fever dream of American celebrity culture while coolly taking that fever's pulse. In a style both direct and elusive, as anguished as it is ironic, Franco shows us what it feels like to be, at one and the same time, looked at and invisible, acting and acted upon. But what makes this book so distinctive and powerful is the disturbing image of ourselves we see reflected back at us from the funhouse mirror of our public fantasies.” —\u003ci\u003eAlan Shapiro\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781555976736\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Graywolf Press","offers":[{"title":"Paperback \/ softback","offer_id":40595569737934,"sku":"9781555976736","price":16.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_fc354b5b-ae65-4769-83f5-5eb02b6030f1.jpg?v=1637835127","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781555976736","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}