"I have the uncanny feeling that I’m making up the world as I’m going along"

March 2, 2011 1:13 PM

"Like most committed crystal meth smokers, when he wants to share his pipe Duze does not take no for an answer." Clancy Martin, the author of How to Sell and a contributing editor of Harper’s Magazine, is hitchhiking from Kansas City, Missouri, to New York City in order to catch the last day of Christian Marclay's The Clock at the Paula Cooper Gallery. Part I, Part II

“Pull over,” I say. My hourglass is filling with sand. I lick my lips. “I have to get out of this truck.”

Duze unsubtly accelerates. He swings into the left-hand lane.

“We’re up on Columbus now. But I’m telling ya’ we gots to head north. I need your help with my dog, man. My girlfrined ain’t gonna let me have that dog back lessun I have a buddy with me, someone she can trust. Not to mention if there’s another man there. That’s just like her. It doesn’t take her twenty-four hours before her legs are back up in the air. That bitch. That cold-hearted whore. She never appreciated my music neither.”

posted by not_the_water (12 comments total)

This is an interesting read but isn't this the same guy who is an unabashed liar?
posted by ghharr at 1:20 PM on March 2, 2011

I don't know how I missed that when I searched to see if there was a similar post.
posted by not_the_water at 1:30 PM on March 2, 2011

Utterly strange... but, knowing now what a big liar he is, it does all ring like some of the whoppers I've heard. I don't know if that's good or bad...
posted by From Bklyn at 1:37 PM on March 2, 2011

And supposedly in recovery from alcoholism— which rarely includes indulgence in crystal meth. I'm also dubious of the guy *insisting* on sharing it. This may sometimes happen. More often, heavy users are quite happy to keep all that they have for themselves.
posted by Maias at 2:14 PM on March 2, 2011

fake
posted by grouse at 2:27 PM on March 2, 2011

I don't even think he was telling the truth about the whole lying thing.
posted by Astro Zombie at 2:31 PM on March 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

1985 me was pretty convinced that drugs were scary because OMG DRUG USERS WILL GRAB YOU AND FORCE YOU TO DO DRUGS EVEN IF YOU DON'T WANT TO!! 1985 me was ten years old and being indoctrinated by D.A.R.E. program bullshit.

2011 me doesn't buy this for half a second.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:02 PM on March 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Also the pull quote has like four different cliched types of talking mashed together, and no in real life has ever talked like even one of them.
posted by drjimmy11 at 3:04 PM on March 2, 2011

1985 me was pretty convinced that drugs were scary because OMG DRUG USERS WILL GRAB YOU AND FORCE YOU TO DO DRUGS

No, I think what's scary is you forcing you to do drugs.
posted by gagglezoomer at 5:01 PM on March 2, 2011

Haha, this guy was my existentialism teacher. He was a good guy but definitely a little out there.
posted by saul wright at 5:02 PM on March 2, 2011

Really not sure what the point of this exercise is. A glance at his other writing shows that he's better than this. If he were an undergraduate who'd just seen a road trip comedy like The Sure Thing and read Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and had a creative writing exercise overdue and didn't have any better ideas for it, then yeah, sure.
posted by Halloween Jack at 5:42 AM on March 3, 2011

I'd rather read more about the Marclay exhibit...
posted by Theta States at 9:51 AM on March 3, 2011