Comments on: Candy Girl makes my stomach hurt

By: Jodi

Jodi — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:44:41 +0000

Circumstantial, I know, but of the 22 people who gave the book a five-star review on Amazon, only five of them identified themselves as Minnesotans.

By: Peabo

Peabo — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:05:16 +0000

Ah yes–there I agree with you. I was thinking that it didn’t really matter to me if she was honest or not–but it *should* matter to me in a memoir. Very interesting, at any rate. I wonder how someone who doesn’t live in MN would read it–a lot of what I liked was that I knew exactly the places she was talking about.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:20:10 +0000

On some level I agree with you. I don’t think she’s planning a career as a novelist or an author. I also don’t think she intended to write a hard-hitting expose on the porn industry. It’s a memoir, and I went into reading it with those sorts of expecatations. I don’t expect the same thing from Cody as I would from Wolff or D’Ambrosio.

However, as a reader I deserve a modicum of emotional honesty in a memoir. I don’t think she was honest. She probably left out the rough stuff, the bad stuff because she was entirely too busy trying to portray herself as an adventurous, hedonistic, devil-may-care wondergirl with a lot of wit.

I could have gotten that from her blog, you know? I guess when I read a book I want something that’s more than just amusing. I want some sort of substance too.

By: Peabo

Peabo — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:57:07 +0000

I think you’re totally right–with the amusement and nothing more–but did she want to do more than that? It’s obvious she didn’t want to write a hard-hitting expose on the porn industry, and I don’t think she’s going to be planning a long career as a writer. Could she write another character besides Diablo Cody? Probably not, but is that a strike against her?
I read this as I read the “Stephanie Plum” Janet Evanovich books (which of course you won’t demean yourself to read, hehe). It was a nifty little read. It won’t change my life; I don’t want to think about how much of it is true/not true/could be true. I don’t need to read it again. That’s about it.
In terms of your ideas of the book itself–couldn’t agree more. But I think you’re looking at this book with the same eyes you’d look at Wolff or D’Ambrosio and I don’t think she’s trying to be that writer.

By: christa

christa — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:52:50 +0000

nicely stated. i’m a bit torn on diablo cody. i liked juno, i agree with you on candy girl — although i didn’t think it through nearly as coherently.

i want to like her, but there is a strong level of bullshit that she hides behind in interviews ie: david letterman and when she was on fresh air. i get exhausted for her, keeping up this snarky, “let me shock you” banter. i feel like she hasn’t figured out who she is yet, but she’s really honed what she thinks she is.

that said, i’ll continue to watch and read her things.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:51:11 +0000

That’s a really good point. I think for her to have done that would have been cause for too much reflection or self-awareness and that’s not something she was willing to do in any depth.

Also, after reading Candy Girl it has cemented my idea that Cody’s really good at writing about herself and it’d be interesting to see if she can write a character that’s not Diablo Cody.

By: Max "Bunny" Sparber

Max "Bunny" Sparber — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:30:53 +0000

My complaint is that she deliberately paints other strippers as being as freakish as possible, without really investigating their lives or experiences. If you are going to be a dilettante, dipping your toes into the world of stripping a few days a week for less than a year, it might be nice if you actually investigated the world of full-time sex workers as being subject of something more than comic anecdotes.

By: Jodi

Jodi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:05:09 +0000

Thank you.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:23:43 +0000

Spot on.