I found the book "A Confederacy of Dunces" lying on a bench in the hallway of my Apartment building in Queens NY. After noticing it there for a few weeks I figured it was for the taking. I took it home and could not put it down. Great documentary! I googled John Kennedy Toole and found your film. Again great job on the film.
I purchased Confederacy for a dollar at a library used book sale in 2003. I can't imagine a better purchase. Toole's life reminds me a lot of Nikolai Gogol's life; Overbearing mother, talented mimic, professor, wrote his masterwork about his homeland while living far away. This film does him great justice.
It is a wonderful book. It is so tragic that he did not live to see that it was immensely popular and got a Pulitzer Prize. I’ve read it three times and it gets better every time.
I am re-reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" for the third time. I have just watched this excellent video about J. K, Toole. What a tragic loss of a brilliant mind! Suicide claims too many such geniuses.
theresa krug Sad bug of natural selection: Those who are the most introspective are more likely to die young (and not pass on their genes). It's a broad brush, but I think there's some truth to it.
what an incredible story of young man who wrote A Confederacy of Dunces, a masterpiece. I wish he could have lived to see his book a great success.This is what we call life of tragedy. RIP John Kennedy Toole
Good doc. His mother sounds like the kind of person you'd like to visit to be entertained for half an hour or so, but also like the kind of person you'd like to turn off after half an hour. Poor John. That being said we know his work because of his mother's tenacity, so we must give her credit for that.
Thanks for this. I am so amazed with mr. Tooles' genius. I find ACOD just keeps getting better every time I read it, which has been off and on since 1984. It lifts my spirits and makes me laugh and feel more intelligent than I am because at some basic level; far far from the pure gold center.... I get it.
A fine film about a tragic author who certainly wrote a wonderfully comedic treasure. Mr. Sanford, thank you for taking the care and time for this story.
The mother may have been bad, but does no one else find it odd that so many geniuses aren't "discovered" until they are dead and no longer a threat? Not all of the blame should be put on the mother here. So many "in charge" of teaching, publishing books, judging art, movie critics, and professors are threatened by those who are talented AND smart. You have to follow the rules, dumb yourself down, and have money and connections to get anywhere. That publishing company pushed him around because they were testing him and didn't want his genius to surpass those in their crowd. It happens all the time. The geniuses that make it, do so because they understand how it works and use their intelligence to play the game until they make it.
I think it also has to do with a “romance” of them being passed away. Like it adds to the effect of the work. Messed up but I have heard of this being a thing.
Thank you for this wonderful documentary about an extraordinary writer. To hear the lovely voices of these people who knew and loved him makes me feel closer to him. I have read "Confederacy" countless times, and will continue to read it and quote from it and enjoy the laughter it inspires.
Glad to watch this and gain some more insight into Toole's life and the circumstances that led to the creation of his literary work. Before this, all I knew about his mother was the story from Walker Percy's introduction, about how she was determined to see her son's work published. I got the impression of a grieving, loving parent trying to get some final justice for her son. But clearly the relationship wasn't as benign as that.
My friend in high school chemistry introduced me to this book - and I've almost got it memorized by now - since 1975/6. I appreciate my friend so much, what he saw in this. Also the book from the start, has made my cry and laugh. I was in my 30s when I finally learned that John Kennedy Toole had committed suicide. The book is poignant even without that - it's almost a eulogy in some ways I supposed for a whole era and a New Orleans a he knew it. I don't know - but thank you for the documentary, and God Bless John Kennedy Toole.
@@pelicanpix Did you make this Doc? I enjoyed it. I love his book. I have also just order the Consolation of Philosphy to read since it was a big part of the characters story.
@@BreezyE-d3n , if you go by history, written mostly by men, that's always the fault when someone goes astray. Lionel Daumer tried his damnedest to pin Jeffrey's behavior on the mother. He was an absentee dad. IIRC, it was Albert de Salvo's biography that discussed his father abandoning the family then blaming the mother who was left behind to bear the load, as being responsible for his aberrations. Time to stop!!!!
I have nearly 2,570 rejection slips from 36 novels and 40 short stories over a span of 34 years. I'm like a dog with a damned bone, I'll never quit and never let go, and that was my attitude. To give up after one submission was the absolute failure in Toole's life. I have since published 17 novels, radio plays, poems, thousands of content articles, non-fiction books and short stories. This fucking business is 99% rejection and if you don't realize that you have no business in it. I love Toole for who he was but not for the dismissive dolt he turned into because he thought he was being tortured unfairly by an editor, or even a marketing team. I'm terminally ill and fading, and yet I have just won another award, a major award for my YA fantasy fiction. I will go out with my hands on the keyboard until my very last breath. THAT is what a writer does.
@@mohamedkarim2137 Thank you, Mohamed. You stay in there and give it your all. The fruits of your labor might come down the road, but you WILL make. Don't despair. Know that you can.
Thank you my friend, I want to know more about you and your works, I want to write something about you in a local newspaper here in my country, any links refering to you please
I picked up "A Confederacy of Dunces" for $2 on sale at a book shop in Melbourne. It's a great book. I would laugh out loud while reading it on the train to University. I really enjoyed this documentary.
I just finished my 7th round with this masterpiece. This is the most comprehensive backstory I’ve encountered about Toole, and I’m grateful for it. Now I’m off to find that Tom Snyder interview with Thelma...
I certainly agree that *A Confederacy of Dunces* is a comedic masterpiece and that this documentary has merit and is informative regarding the life and trials of its author. But I also have severe issues with the latter. For one thing, these posthumous attacks on the author’s mother are at best unseemly and perhaps mendacious. The woman is no longer here to defend herself. I also don’t buy into the paradigm of someone else ruining another’s life in cases like these. Mrs. Toole at least had the faith and perseverance to keep trying to get her son's novel published whereas he had given up after just one rejection. Who said anything about small press? Simon and Schuster was hardly the sole major publisher of fiction. Harry Potter was rejected by at least ten houses, just one of many eventual award winning, runaway bestsellers to have suffered that fate before publication. Finally, this documentary omits certain facts regarding Mr. Toole’s later life, most particularly his health problems. Here is a note left on the talk page of Mr. Toole’s *Wikipedia* article: “Has the possibility that Mr. Toole suffered from an undiagnosed brain tumor ever been mentioned? His headaches and increasingly erratic behavior and paranoia might seem to render such possible. The article states he refused to see a neurologist as a physician recommended. Perhaps he had feared this possibility himself regardless if it were true and never let on. Was an autopsy performed? Perhaps not as the cause of death was obvious so what would have been the point of exploring health concerns at that point. In any event, a real tragedy and loss.” We might never know the entire truth of this tragic story of a creative genius.
@@JackieSwisher619 It is true that some women are extremely possessive of their children, seemingly especially sons, into adulthood. In that category would be the mothers of: Franklin Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, Douglas MacArthur, Clifton Webb, Elvis Presley and my longtime best friend. All these men managed not only to survive but become very successful in life. Therefore, I iterate that I just don’t buy such overbearing mothers causing their sons to have ruined lives. Generally speaking, life is what one makes it. As for Mrs. Toole, I agree she seemed eccentric, but her son had every opportunity to escape her possessiveness if he had felt such necessary for his own good and happiness. He had served in the military and had a good teaching position. Nothing stopped him from flying the coop if that had been his desire,
Harry that's an excellent point recently I read of another author relatively famous who was extremely eccentric and erratic toward the end of his life and upon death they found out his brain was riddled with tumors so I think your point is spot-on and I think people should pay attention to that.
So sad that this brilliant writer got rejected in his time. I love his (second) novel. Already offered it to 4 or 5 friends, always with great response. Masterpiece.
Ive just finished the book after reading the auto biography of Billy Connelly who describes it as his 'favourite book ever'. It is unlike any book Ive ever read, challenging, funny , complex and yet simple . Quite ahead of its time regarding diversity issues . ? Its made me keen to visit New Orleans . Such a shame about the tragic end of JKT, and an irony that his Mother claimed so much attention on its success. I would love to see it translated onto stage or screen. Reilly could easily be a character out of the British comedy series The League of Gentlemen (or Monty Python !) , which is quite dark with lager than life characters who might be on the fringes of modern society. A very well put together programme . Many Thanks. R.
One image that stands out from the book is Ignatius looking over his holy cards. I remember being shocked, in high school, when a nun told us that New Orleans was a Catholic ghetto.
And theyve thrown so much dirt on his name. And made his mother into some boogie man of sorts. I'm a new Orleans dude and I recognize her as weird lady but a good lady nonetheless and a DEVOTED mother who championed her son.
Poor guy. He couldn't take rejection or having to work at something. He was great at school, lavished with praise from his mother and academia but couldn't handle rejection from one publisher. One writing contest. His talent was squandered. I like to think "what would charles bukowski think of toole?" Bukowski who "kept things in the mail". Short stories, poems and working his way up to novels. JT didn't get that "a writer writes", I guess. Toole reminds me of that monologue from Mark Wahlberg's character in The Gambler, completely: "There was a student... just the other day... who said that my problem, if one's nature is a problem, rather than just problematic, is that I see things in terms of victory or death, and not just victory but total victory. And it's true: I always have. It's either victory, or don't bother. The only thing worth doing is the impossible. Everything else is gray. You're born... as a man... with the nerves of a soldier, the apprehension of an angel, to lift a phrase, but there is no use for it. Here? Where's the use for it? You're set up to be a philosopher or a king or Shakespeare, and this is all they give you? This? Twenty- odd years of school which is all instruction in how to be ordinary... or they'll f***ing kill you, they f***ing will, and then it's a career, which is not the same thing as existence... I want unlimited things. I want everything. A real love. A real house. A real thing to do... every day. I'd rather die if I don't get it."
He was from the south sure, but I wonder if some one can tell me more of how he was both influenced by the great southern literature, and how he remains influential in that style. I know the south at one point had a brilliant legacy in literature but that seems so alien a concept nowadays.
mathew idicula I think he was the last GREAT southern writer... unless America finds its soul again..even a John Kennedy Toole won't be appreciated... Of course he and Walker Percy are forever connected... Walker Percy and John Kennedy Toole are THE LAST GREAT SOUTHERN WRITERS...I ALWAYS re-read Confederacy of Dunces when I need to touch the childhood and teen years of growing up in DELICIOUSLY ECCENTRIC New Orleans... my family and extended family could have been the Gentilly Reilly's..... and after leaving home in high school to escape my savagely mentally ill mother..I lived two blocks from Dominican College on St Charles avenue with an old maid aunt from McComb who graciously took me in. I often walked down to Dominican and Tulane to think..and smell the magnolia fuscata and sweet olive and night blooming jasmine... I undoubtedly crossed paths with him...feeling the same hopelessness.. Amazing... my Aunt's friends from McComb frequently came to visit and graciously included a depressed 16 year old in their wonderful New Orleans adventures.. Foreign movies Private homes of their preservationist friends in the French Quarter Solari's Taking the streetcar from the cloying profusion of wisteria blooming all along Audubon Place to the seductive combined scents of horse manure and turpentine of Jackson Square artists.. Those fascinating school teachers who cried openly after a couple of Bourbons about the joy of tutoring after school their beloved tiny black students who "tried so hard" The daughters of Illinois Central conductors...who produced Peace Corps volunteer children Gave me Art books they bought in Europe Invited me to spend time in their historic home in Columbia Mississippi The racism and bigotry the South is ALWAYS accused of... SIMPLY did not infect my life Because the BEST of Southerners reached out to me in my time of crisis... I dutifully went back into the mess the was my mother's only talent... and fought the good fight... assumed responsibility quelled the chaos... BUT got a job after school and in the summers at a little ICE CREAM parlor behind the Cabildo ... AND the beauty and eccentricity of the "WORLD'S MOST INTERESTING CITY". saved me... Confederacy of Dunces is a periodic NECCESSITY for me... it is my road back to where I found myself THANK YOU FOR THIS WONDERFUL DOCUMENTARY... ..
I have just finished A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES MARCHES ON! My sequel to Mr. Toole's great book. Ignatius Lives!! Now I take him with Myrna to New York City where he causes upheaval and strife! LOOK FOR IT COMING IN DECEMBER 2019!!!!!
That mother is disgusting. The book is truly genius. imagine if he'd have lived to keep writing. Also wish Philip Seymour Hoffman were alive to play Ignatius in a film
She's not disgusting shes eccentric and she went thru the trauma of seeing her only child's dream be crushed. The Toole family were not losers. The people calling them losers are the same ones who drove John to his end, rejecting his book for a decade.
I'm so damn sick and tired of mothers getting the blame for everything. What about that Dad? Why do we hear nothing about him. Was he a failure? Was that the example Ken had? Did Thelma HAVE to take the reins in the home to keep the family afloat. If it had been the father behaving the way Thelma did, he'd be a hero. Why aren't we telling this story - in the 50's women stayed home and men were the breadwinners. Daddy Dear couldn't hold up his end of the bargain and poor Ken, burdened with the same tradition, believed it was his responsibility to keep the family financially solvent. Unable to live up to societal expectations, he crumbled and took his life.
@@roderickfernandez5382, I'm not a mother. What is unfortunate is that she's being vilified for behaviors, that had a father exhibited, would be completely reframed as heroic.
Last chapter, when Myrna is helping Ignatius pack, he says “Oh, of course. There are all of my notes and jottings. We must never let them fall into the hands of my mother. She may make a fortune from them. It would be too ironic.” This always makes me sad. Im glad his mother got his novel published but she has tainted it for me. I can't contemplate Toole as a human being or as a writer without her deluded and obnoxious ghost being present.
Toole's parents drove him crazy. Thelma's narcissism only allowed her to see John as a means to an end, rather than just as her son. She got her moment of fame at his expense.
[i have not read the book] Everyone keeps saying how funny and great it is, and that it illuminates New Orleans. However, no one in the documentary or the comments below states what the novel is actually ABOUT. What is the book, other than a description?
A Confederacy of Dunces is most unlikely to successfuly tranasfer onto film. The best chance for success would be to employ novelists to write the script and have Oliver Platt play Ignatius.
I don't think it would work as a movie at all. Toole was such a genius at describing his characters that we all have preconceived images of them as well as their voices and mannerisms. As a result I don't think we would find any of the actors convincing representatives of the characters. I heard that there was once a plan to make the movie and they were going to cast Anne Meara as his mother. She is nothing like the character's image I have in mind. Sort of like when they were getting ready to do the casting for The Godfather - they wanted to cast Robert Redford in what became Al Pacino's role. Can you imagine anything so ridiculous?
Subtitles that offers the documentary in English are not good , it therefore sought the documentary in Spanish or with a good subtitle. Thank you very much.
They never said anything about his alleged homosexuality. Some believe between his mother and his repressed homosexuality is what drove him to suicide.
Calling him a fruit is just another lie and EXCUSE the publishers came up with to explain why they wouldn't publish his book and thus absolve themselves from any guilt in his death. The man was clinically depressed
poor direction, 3:00 voices over the entire vintage clip of Toole's mother Thelma singing and playing the piano. This excruciating diatribe againstThelma throughout the film is an outrage.
Gottlieb engaged Toole for 2 years in extensive revisions, baiting him, before suggesting he begin a new novel!. He now claims Toole's breakdown was unrelated to this strategic effort to kill off his novel that went on to win a Pulitzer Prize. This one gent covering for Gottlieb in the film, blaming his mother for everything, probably hopes to get his own work published. It was not paranoia, it was a New York hustle.
The background music is too loud & makes it impossible to hear the narrator. "Confederacy" is my second favorite comedy novel after Celine's Journey to the End of the Night. Love both books. Both writers had a tough, difficult life. RIP.
He "took control", he "designed his own solution" - What utter nonsense! He killed himself. Ignatius would tell you that murdering yourself is still murder. His mother made him into a hateful man, but it was his responsibility to forgive her and he should have walked away from those people for good.
I found the book "A Confederacy of Dunces" lying on a bench in the hallway of my Apartment building in Queens NY. After noticing it there for a few weeks I figured it was for the taking. I took it home and could not put it down. Great documentary! I googled John Kennedy Toole and found your film. Again great job on the film.
Thank you for watching.
Some books..just find us..
I purchased Confederacy for a dollar at a library used book sale in 2003. I can't imagine a better purchase. Toole's life reminds me a lot of Nikolai Gogol's life; Overbearing mother, talented mimic, professor, wrote his masterwork about his homeland while living far away. This film does him great justice.
Defiantly someone wanted someone else to enjoy it 😊 Listening to it on Audio right now. Utterly fantastic can't stop laughing. Now I'm here 😊
I found it at a garage sale for a dime.
For anyone who really wants to know about the brilliant man behind the masterpiece, this is so deeply appreciated.
It is a wonderful book. It is so tragic that he did not live to see that it was immensely popular and got a Pulitzer Prize. I’ve read it three times and it gets better every time.
I am re-reading "A Confederacy of Dunces" for the third time. I have just watched this excellent video about J. K, Toole. What a tragic loss of a brilliant mind! Suicide claims too many such geniuses.
theresa krug Sad bug of natural selection: Those who are the most introspective are more likely to die young (and not pass on their genes).
It's a broad brush, but I think there's some truth to it.
Thank you for watching.
what an incredible story of young man who wrote A Confederacy of Dunces, a masterpiece. I wish he could have lived to see his book a great success.This is what we call life of tragedy. RIP John Kennedy Toole
I clicked on this randomly and was transfixed for 56 minutes.
Toole’s influence on a modern shift in storytelling is brilliant. Phenomenal, phenomenal book and author.
Good doc. His mother sounds like the kind of person you'd like to visit to be entertained for half an hour or so, but also like the kind of person you'd like to turn off after half an hour. Poor John. That being said we know his work because of his mother's tenacity, so we must give her credit for that.
There's an interview of her elsewhere on TH-cam. Look it up. She's actually quite a sweet lady, although a bit frazzled by age and predisposition.
hallerd
Thanks, I will.
@@hallerd Is it the one they mention in this doc with Tom Snyder?
Thanks for this.
I am so amazed with mr. Tooles' genius. I find ACOD just keeps getting better every time I read it, which has been off and on since 1984. It lifts my spirits and makes me laugh and feel more intelligent than I am because at some basic level; far far from the pure gold center....
I get it.
This is my favorite book. Beautiful job, thank you.
A fine film about a tragic author who certainly wrote a wonderfully comedic treasure. Mr. Sanford, thank you for taking the care and time for this story.
The mother may have been bad, but does no one else find it odd that so many geniuses aren't "discovered" until they are dead and no longer a threat? Not all of the blame should be put on the mother here.
So many "in charge" of teaching, publishing books, judging art, movie critics, and professors are threatened by those who are talented AND smart. You have to follow the rules, dumb yourself down, and have money and connections to get anywhere. That publishing company pushed him around because they were testing him and didn't want his genius to surpass those in their crowd. It happens all the time. The geniuses that make it, do so because they understand how it works and use their intelligence to play the game until they make it.
I think it also has to do with a “romance” of them being passed away. Like it adds to the effect of the work. Messed up but I have heard of this being a thing.
Thank you for this wonderful documentary about an extraordinary writer. To hear the lovely voices of these people who knew and loved him makes me feel closer to him. I have read "Confederacy" countless times, and will continue to read it and quote from it and enjoy the laughter it inspires.
It was my favorite book and I have gifted it many times hoping to introduce others to the best book ever.
Glad to watch this and gain some more insight into Toole's life and the circumstances that led to the creation of his literary work. Before this, all I knew about his mother was the story from Walker Percy's introduction, about how she was determined to see her son's work published. I got the impression of a grieving, loving parent trying to get some final justice for her son. But clearly the relationship wasn't as benign as that.
Thank you for your work here. This was a touching and fantastic documentary that honors the life and work of Mr John Kennedy Toole
Thank you for watching.
I love "A Confederacy of Dunces" !!!
Un brillante y magnífico libro.
Gracias! John Kennedy Toole
Desde, Tegucigalpa 🇭🇳
Thank you for watching.
I just finished reading "A Confederacy of Dunces." Wow, what an experience. This was a great biography to explain some of the life of the author.
Taking the pigtail in one of his paws, he pressed it warmly to his wet mustache.
My friend in high school chemistry introduced me to this book - and I've almost got it memorized by now - since 1975/6. I appreciate my friend so much, what he saw in this. Also the book from the start, has made my cry and laugh. I was in my 30s when I finally learned that John Kennedy Toole had committed suicide. The book is poignant even without that - it's almost a eulogy in some ways I supposed for a whole era and a New Orleans a he knew it. I don't know - but thank you for the documentary, and God Bless John Kennedy Toole.
Beautiful. I cried.
BR549 Thank you for watching.
@@pelicanpix Did you make this Doc? I enjoyed it. I love his book. I have also just order the Consolation of Philosphy to read since it was a big part of the characters story.
"His Mother was his best friend and his worst enemy". Must be why i so identified with and enjoyed reading C of D.
I have a suspicion that many great writers had overbearing mothers. Hemingway and Lord Byron to name but two. And I'm a member of the club lol Peace.
@@BreezyE-d3n , if you go by history, written mostly by men, that's always the fault when someone goes astray. Lionel Daumer tried his damnedest to pin Jeffrey's behavior on the mother. He was an absentee dad. IIRC, it was Albert de Salvo's biography that discussed his father abandoning the family then blaming the mother who was left behind to bear the load, as being responsible for his aberrations. Time to stop!!!!
I have nearly 2,570 rejection slips from 36 novels and 40 short stories over a span of 34 years. I'm like a dog with a damned bone, I'll never quit and never let go, and that was my attitude. To give up after one submission was the absolute failure in Toole's life. I have since published 17 novels, radio plays, poems, thousands of content articles, non-fiction books and short stories. This fucking business is 99% rejection and if you don't realize that you have no business in it. I love Toole for who he was but not for the dismissive dolt he turned into because he thought he was being tortured unfairly by an editor, or even a marketing team. I'm terminally ill and fading, and yet I have just won another award, a major award for my YA fantasy fiction. I will go out with my hands on the keyboard until my very last breath. THAT is what a writer does.
Wow you're amazing sir, I'm writer and translator and sometimes I think to quit this business, we need to learn from special people like you
@@mohamedkarim2137 Thank you, Mohamed. You stay in there and give it your all. The fruits of your labor might come down the road, but you WILL make. Don't despair. Know that you can.
Thank you my friend, I want to know more about you and your works, I want to write something about you in a local newspaper here in my country, any links refering to you please
@@mohamedkarim2137 Here is my email, Mohamed, so you can contact me: stevenson_333@msn.com
Great attitude! 👌
Driving around and yet researchers have no real ideas exactly where he went. The sort of journey you could do in the pre credit card world.
I picked up "A Confederacy of Dunces" for $2 on sale at a book shop in Melbourne. It's a great book. I would laugh out loud while reading it on the train to University. I really enjoyed this documentary.
The Confederacy of Dunces was obviously at Simon and Schuster.
A masterpiece of a novel! I have never laughed so hard with anything else
I'be always admired him, now I know why. Great documentary!
I just finished my 7th round with this masterpiece. This is the most comprehensive backstory I’ve encountered about Toole, and I’m grateful for it. Now I’m off to find that Tom Snyder interview with Thelma...
Beautiful. Thanks for posting.
I certainly agree that *A Confederacy of Dunces* is a comedic masterpiece and that this documentary has merit and is informative regarding the life and trials of its author. But I also have severe issues with the latter. For one thing, these posthumous attacks on the author’s mother are at best unseemly and perhaps mendacious. The woman is no longer here to defend herself.
I also don’t buy into the paradigm of someone else ruining another’s life in cases like these. Mrs. Toole at least had the faith and perseverance to keep trying to get her son's novel published whereas he had given up after just one rejection. Who said anything about small press? Simon and Schuster was hardly the sole major publisher of fiction. Harry Potter was rejected by at least ten houses, just one of many eventual award winning, runaway bestsellers to have suffered that fate before publication.
Finally, this documentary omits certain facts regarding Mr. Toole’s later life, most particularly his health problems. Here is a note left on the talk page of Mr. Toole’s *Wikipedia* article:
“Has the possibility that Mr. Toole suffered from an undiagnosed brain tumor ever been mentioned? His headaches and increasingly erratic behavior and paranoia might seem to render such possible. The article states he refused to see a neurologist as a physician recommended. Perhaps he had feared this possibility himself regardless if it were true and never let on. Was an autopsy performed? Perhaps not as the cause of death was obvious so what would have been the point of exploring health concerns at that point. In any event, a real tragedy and loss.”
We might never know the entire truth of this tragic story of a creative genius.
@@JackieSwisher619 It is true that some women are extremely possessive of their children, seemingly especially sons, into adulthood. In that category would be the mothers of: Franklin Roosevelt, J. Edgar Hoover, Douglas MacArthur, Clifton Webb, Elvis Presley and my longtime best friend. All these men managed not only to survive but become very successful in life. Therefore, I iterate that I just don’t buy such overbearing mothers causing their sons to have ruined lives. Generally speaking, life is what one makes it.
As for Mrs. Toole, I agree she seemed eccentric, but her son had every opportunity to escape her possessiveness if he had felt such necessary for his own good and happiness. He had served in the military and had a good teaching position. Nothing stopped him from flying the coop if that had been his desire,
Harry that's an excellent point recently I read of another author relatively famous who was extremely eccentric and erratic toward the end of his life and upon death they found out his brain was riddled with tumors so I think your point is spot-on and I think people should pay attention to that.
@@LadyBug1967 Thank you.
Outstanding documentary..
What an incredible story. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for posting. This has many great insightful moments.
I think the graphic novel would be a worthwhile path to take for ‘Dunces’.
That's a fantastic idea, why hasn't this been done akready?
Thanks for this video. Great job and very insightful.
So sad that this brilliant writer got rejected in his time. I love his (second) novel. Already offered it to 4 or 5 friends, always with great response. Masterpiece.
Ive just finished the book after reading the auto biography of Billy Connelly who describes it as his 'favourite book ever'. It is unlike any book Ive ever read, challenging, funny , complex and yet simple . Quite ahead of its time regarding diversity issues . ? Its made me keen to visit New Orleans . Such a shame about the tragic end of JKT, and an irony that his Mother claimed so much attention on its success. I would love to see it translated onto stage or screen. Reilly could easily be a character out of the British comedy series The League of Gentlemen (or Monty Python !) , which is quite dark with lager than life characters who might be on the fringes of modern society. A very well put together programme . Many Thanks. R.
Awesome film!
Every time I watch this I am staggered at it's understanding of New Orleans.....
AND...
about child abuse...parentification of an intelligent child...
Really touching thank you.
Great film and fitting tribute to John.
Em Aidekay Thank you for watching.
Beautifully done. I'm reading the book for the fourth time now.
One image that stands out from the book is Ignatius looking over his holy cards. I remember being shocked, in high school, when a nun told us that New Orleans was a Catholic ghetto.
Tx for the upload
Thank you for watching.
One of the best novels every
wonderful to find this documentary, from years ago. I’ve lost track how many times I’ve dove back into CoD and the Neon Bible.
After watching half of this it seems the publishing industry is a bunch of vultures waiting for an author to die so they don't have to pay royalties.
And theyve thrown so much dirt on his name. And made his mother into some boogie man of sorts. I'm a new Orleans dude and I recognize her as weird lady but a good lady nonetheless and a DEVOTED mother who championed her son.
His Army Sojourn in Puerto Rico sounds like it would make a good movie.
Poor guy. He couldn't take rejection or having to work at something. He was great at school, lavished with praise from his mother and academia but couldn't handle rejection from one publisher. One writing contest. His talent was squandered. I like to think "what would charles bukowski think of toole?" Bukowski who "kept things in the mail". Short stories, poems and working his way up to novels. JT didn't get that "a writer writes", I guess. Toole reminds me of that monologue from Mark Wahlberg's character in The Gambler, completely:
"There was a student... just the other day... who said that my problem, if one's nature is a problem, rather than just problematic, is that I see things in terms of victory or death, and not just victory but total victory. And it's true: I always have. It's either victory, or don't bother. The only thing worth doing is the impossible. Everything else is gray. You're born... as a man... with the nerves of a soldier, the apprehension of an angel, to lift a phrase, but there is no use for it. Here? Where's the use for it? You're set up to be a philosopher or a king or Shakespeare, and this is all they give you? This? Twenty- odd years of school which is all instruction in how to be ordinary... or they'll f***ing kill you, they f***ing will, and then it's a career, which is not the same thing as existence... I want unlimited things. I want everything. A real love. A real house. A real thing to do... every day. I'd rather die if I don't get it."
He was from the south sure, but I wonder if some one can tell me more of how he was both influenced by the great southern literature, and how he remains influential in that style. I know the south at one point had a brilliant legacy in literature but that seems so alien a concept nowadays.
mathew idicula I think he was the last GREAT southern writer...
unless America finds its soul again..even a John Kennedy Toole won't be appreciated...
Of course he and Walker Percy are forever connected...
Walker Percy and
John Kennedy Toole are THE LAST GREAT SOUTHERN WRITERS...I ALWAYS re-read Confederacy of Dunces when I need to touch the childhood and teen years of growing up in DELICIOUSLY ECCENTRIC New Orleans...
my family and extended family could have been the Gentilly Reilly's.....
and after leaving home in high school to escape my savagely mentally ill mother..I lived two blocks from Dominican College on St Charles avenue with an old maid aunt from McComb who graciously took me in.
I often walked down to Dominican and Tulane to think..and smell the magnolia fuscata and sweet olive and night blooming jasmine...
I undoubtedly crossed paths with him...feeling the same hopelessness..
Amazing...
my Aunt's friends from McComb frequently came to visit and graciously included a depressed 16 year old in their wonderful New Orleans adventures..
Foreign movies
Private homes of their preservationist friends in the French Quarter
Solari's
Taking the streetcar from the cloying profusion of wisteria blooming all along Audubon Place to the seductive combined scents of horse manure and turpentine of Jackson Square artists..
Those fascinating school teachers who cried openly after a couple of Bourbons about the joy of tutoring after school their beloved tiny black students who "tried so hard"
The daughters of Illinois Central conductors...who
produced Peace Corps volunteer children
Gave me Art books they bought in Europe
Invited me to spend time in their historic home in Columbia Mississippi
The racism and bigotry the South is ALWAYS accused of...
SIMPLY did not infect my life
Because the BEST of Southerners reached out to me in my time of crisis...
I dutifully went back into the mess the was my mother's only talent...
and fought the good fight...
assumed responsibility quelled the chaos...
BUT got a job after school and in the summers at a little ICE CREAM parlor behind the Cabildo ...
AND
the beauty and eccentricity of the "WORLD'S MOST INTERESTING CITY". saved me...
Confederacy of Dunces is a periodic NECCESSITY for me...
it is my road back to where I found myself
THANK YOU FOR THIS WONDERFUL DOCUMENTARY...
..
I have just finished A CONFEDERACY OF DUNCES MARCHES ON! My sequel to Mr. Toole's great book. Ignatius Lives!! Now I take him with Myrna to New York City where he causes upheaval and strife! LOOK FOR IT COMING IN DECEMBER 2019!!!!!
great book and lovely documentary
"Don´t be an ass, of course I want you to be here. Come on"
BEst friend´s line ever
Enjoyed it! Many thanks!
Thank you
That mother is disgusting. The book is truly genius. imagine if he'd have lived to keep writing. Also wish Philip Seymour Hoffman were alive to play Ignatius in a film
Check out Paul Walter Hauser. He could play Ignatius I bet.
She's not disgusting shes eccentric and she went thru the trauma of seeing her only child's dream be crushed. The Toole family were not losers. The people calling them losers are the same ones who drove John to his end, rejecting his book for a decade.
The american Cervantes
Anyone know what the manuscript at 33:26 is?
Google didn't return anything for a couple phrases I tried searching for.
Me enamore de todo y de todos. Gracias!!!!
I'm so damn sick and tired of mothers getting the blame for everything. What about that Dad? Why do we hear nothing about him. Was he a failure? Was that the example Ken had? Did Thelma HAVE to take the reins in the home to keep the family afloat. If it had been the father behaving the way Thelma did, he'd be a hero. Why aren't we telling this story - in the 50's women stayed home and men were the breadwinners. Daddy Dear couldn't hold up his end of the bargain and poor Ken, burdened with the same tradition, believed it was his responsibility to keep the family financially solvent. Unable to live up to societal expectations, he crumbled and took his life.
Unfortunately X it is a mother are you a mother
@@roderickfernandez5382, I'm not a mother. What is unfortunate is that she's being vilified for behaviors, that had a father exhibited, would be completely reframed as heroic.
Hola , dónde puede conseguir el video en español o subtitulado? Muchas gracias.
what we read when we get homesick
Still want more.
If you have a swig every time you hear “New Orleans” you’ll have to go to the emergency room.
Last chapter, when Myrna is helping Ignatius pack, he says “Oh, of course. There are all of my notes and jottings. We must never let them fall into the hands of my mother. She may make a fortune from them. It would be too ironic.” This always makes me sad. Im glad his mother got his novel published but she has tainted it for me. I can't contemplate Toole as a human being or as a writer without her deluded and obnoxious ghost being present.
and one of the reasons he didn´t
beautiful job. the catholic church and the napoleonic code... yeah... RIP JKT!
*barstoolsandbusstops
Toole's parents drove him crazy. Thelma's narcissism only allowed her to see John as a means to an end, rather than just as her son. She got her moment of fame at his expense.
Why I feel this documentary is bad. Rich and beautiful fragmented shots of everything piled together with no clear story line.
A Genius!
funniest book ever written, RIP JK Toole the legend
[i have not read the book] Everyone keeps saying how funny and great it is, and that it illuminates New Orleans. However, no one in the documentary or the comments below states what the novel is actually ABOUT. What is the book, other than a description?
A Confederacy of Dunces is most unlikely to successfuly tranasfer onto film. The best chance for success would be to employ novelists to write the script and have Oliver Platt play Ignatius.
+Jesus Tamayo I always thought it should be animated.
bishopvelasquez I agree. That's a great idea.
I don't think it would work as a movie at all. Toole was such a genius at describing his characters that we all have preconceived images of them as well as their voices and mannerisms. As a result I don't think we would find any of the actors convincing representatives of the characters. I heard that there was once a plan to make the movie and they were going to cast Anne Meara as his mother. She is nothing like the character's image I have in mind. Sort of like when they were getting ready to do the casting for The Godfather - they wanted to cast Robert Redford in what became Al Pacino's role. Can you imagine anything so ridiculous?
His mom gives me anxiety.
what's the song at the end?
Subtitles that offers the documentary in English are not good , it therefore sought the documentary in Spanish or with a good subtitle. Thank you very much.
The interpretation of Thelma is too negative. She's no beast. Without her, there'd be no John. She's great. And no one is perfect.
Hello , where you can get the video in Spanish or subtitled? Thank you very much
So cheeky a guy!
Tragic 😞
Nice.
thelma sounds a bit like bukowski
Good documentary. Would be better if the narrator didn't insert himself and his personal conjecture into it.
Thank you for watching, and thank you for your comments.
Good Lord, Thelma was a crazy bI#@ ! Poor JKT...
❤
Thank you for watching.
They never said anything about his alleged homosexuality. Some believe between his mother and his repressed homosexuality is what drove him to suicide.
They didn't even acknowledge it. It was obvious to everyone.
Calling him a fruit is just another lie and EXCUSE the publishers came up with to explain why they wouldn't publish his book and thus absolve themselves from any guilt in his death. The man was clinically depressed
JK Toole, SS 427 driver.
This novel almost never happened!
poor direction, 3:00 voices over the entire vintage clip of Toole's mother Thelma singing and playing the piano. This excruciating diatribe againstThelma throughout the film is an outrage.
Gottlieb engaged Toole for 2 years in extensive revisions, baiting him, before suggesting he begin a new novel!. He now claims Toole's breakdown was unrelated to this strategic effort to kill off his novel that went on to win a Pulitzer Prize. This one gent covering for Gottlieb in the film, blaming his mother for everything, probably hopes to get his own work published. It was not paranoia, it was a New York hustle.
RCarsen You would not say that if you had a crazy mother
'crazy mother' a sexist cliche. it was his father that was mentally ill, so why not blame the father. answer, sexist cliches.
and what about that third novel they mentioned? mmm suspect
spanish subtitles please
Why do I dislike all of these people?
Doco, shallow. What about some intellectual depth? Sounds sick. Funny book.
Gottlieb, like so many in NY/east coast publishing, was a no nothing clown. Thelma Toole was right: A Confederacy of Dunces is a masterpiece.
The background music is too loud & makes it impossible to hear the narrator. "Confederacy" is my second favorite comedy novel after Celine's Journey to the End of the Night. Love both books. Both writers had a tough, difficult life. RIP.
He "took control", he "designed his own solution" - What utter nonsense! He killed himself. Ignatius would tell you that murdering yourself is still murder. His mother made him into a hateful man, but it was his responsibility to forgive her and he should have walked away from those people for good.
Thank you