Off the Page

Less material? Simply other material?

What will be the fate of fodder for memoir and fiction — although in the case of Augusten Burroughs' and particularly his latest, A Wolf at the Table, it is probably both. Burroughs had a horrible childhood made glorious career thanks to a damnable dad. But there exists the possibility that there is no future in such a career.

No future fathers is the hypothesis of Bryan Sykes, who suggests in Adam's Curse that men could well become the spleen of procreation — something that once had a purpose evolution and science have "overcome."

The collateral damage to the father-child writer legacy (neither necessarily good nor bad) will include those such as Dmitri Nabokov, who believes his father Vladimir would want The Original of Laura published, even though the literary canon icon said he didn't. [Earlier: Advise and Content]

And it will preclude future father and son teams like the Van Ripers, Gary and Justin, who research and write a series (now up to eight) of adventure stories for kids 9-12 that began with The Adirondack Kids. Two guys pursuing and recapturing the father child bond on the page that will be lost when men have nothing to do at home but channel surf, quaff and scratch.

** Without procreative participation all men will be "uncles," not a bad job but certainly not the same one. **