{"id":5676,"date":"2022-10-27T15:06:48","date_gmt":"2022-10-27T20:06:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/?p=5676"},"modified":"2022-10-24T16:14:13","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T21:14:13","slug":"dealer-investigates-how-many-4pm-cigarettes-outside-the-reg-does-it-take-to-write-the-great-american-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/27\/dealer-investigates-how-many-4pm-cigarettes-outside-the-reg-does-it-take-to-write-the-great-american-novel\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealer Investigates: How Many 4pm Cigarettes Outside the Reg Does It Take to Write The Great American Novel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Third-year classics, history, and CMST triple-major Alan Bloomsbury leans against the Reg\u2019s limestone facade, looking effortlessly cool through a cloud of cigarette smoke. He\u2019s agreed to put a brief pause in his literary machinations to speak to the <\/span>Dealer<\/span><\/i>, since, in his words, \u201cthis interview will be important in five years. I\u2019ll be published then.\u201d Alan, like many of his peers, is on a journey to write the Next Great American Novel. But unlike his peers, he asserts, he knows just how to do it.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re too caught up in the themes,\u201d says Bloomsbury, stubbing out his cigarette against the handrail. He reaches into his tweed vest for another. He struggles to light it for about 45 seconds, turning away to avoid an alleged \u201cfaint breeze.\u201d Once the second cigarette is successfully lit, he pockets the pack. \u201cI look broodingly over the shining egg of Mansueto sitting like a hen on the horizon,\u201d he tells me. After a few seconds, he offers a cigarette to me. I politely decline. I don\u2019t want to go to my evening class smelling like a budding novelist or French international student. \u201cThe real secret is the vibes. Like Wittgenstein says, you know? What you write means what you make it\u2013\u201d he takes a long drag from his cigarette, coughs, and drops it on the ground\u2013 \u201cso you just have to make it.\u201d I nod, impressed by his knowledge of 20th-century analytic philosophy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I ask him what his novel is about.. \u201cIt\u2019s about American consumerism and the ephemerality of it all, \u2018cause everything now\u2019s so digital,\u2019\u201d he says eloquently. \u201cThere\u2019s this beautiful woman. Unconventional, yet conventional. She moves all around in time, and her lovers can only remember her through film photographs.\u201d He lights a third cigarette. \u201cI got the idea standing right here one afternoon during finals, having a smoke, watching everyone go past. Nobody was living in the moment, you know? I felt so alienated.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Bloomsbury shows me a Live Photo of the Reg steps. A couple of harried students dart through the frame, looking down at their phones. \u201cCool photo, right? Did numbers on Twitter.\u201d (At the time of printing, the post had 4 retweets and an impressive 63 likes.) While I\u2019m holding his phone he goes in to light a fourth cigarette. That one burns his fingers and he drops it and lights another. When asked how the novel is progressing, he heaves a sigh.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis place is a real creativity drain, you know? Between my three majors I hardly have time for my novel. Just have to write when the muse comes to me. But I started about six months ago and I\u2019m making good progress.\u201d He opens the Notes app on his phone and scrolls through a couple paragraphs. \u201cIf you give me your Snap I\u2019ll send you an early draft. Anyway, I\u2019m gonna work on the 5th floor now. It\u2019s always so\u2026 <\/span>still<\/span><\/i> up there, you know? Placid seas. Smoothest sailing. Hope that was enough for your article.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

More than five cigarettes, it seems. The investigation remains ongoing. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s agreed to put a brief pause in his literary machinations to speak to the Dealer, since, in his words, \u201cthis interview will be important in five years. I\u2019ll be published then.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":902,"featured_media":5677,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/902"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5678,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5676\/revisions\/5678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chicagoshadydealer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}