You are a human animal.

You are a very special breed.

Or you are the only animal.

Who can think, who can reason, who can read.

Hi, this is Michael Silverblad, and welcome to Bookworm.

My guest today is Mark Lainer, the author most recently of Et Two Babe, as well as my cousin,

my gastroenterologist, and an early book, I Smell Esther Williams.

I thought I'd begin by asking you.

I noticed that I was sent in the mail a book by Richard Grayson called Narcissism and Me,

and I wondered why it might be that narcissism, the comedy of narcissism, has been becoming a subject for fiction

prominently in Et Toubet, but it seems to be cropping up all over the wares.

Yeah, I've noticed that. I'm not sure why now in literature, I think that perhaps because

it's becoming more apparent to all of us, how narcissism

is an underlying principle of the world of media, certainly the world of celebrity making and notoriety,

manufacturing. And I just think

the transparency of that mechanism in the world of commerce, first and foremost, is such that it's becoming somewhat unavoidable.

You know, we look at the world on the television screen

and see the way that celebrities is manufactured almost in vitro now you know the sort of thing it's a sort of thing

where one says one is famous loud and long enough and one becomes famous um i think all of this

is somehow you know related related to narcissism. I'm suspicious of any sort of

trend and interest in the culture. There's always some reason for it beyond, beyond what should be

a rigorous look at the culture. So I'm not really sure what it's about.

...