Errata and Marginalia 001: Hoban

I started doing these over at a different short-lived blog of mine, but since I might as well accept the fact by this point that Six Foot Turkey is the only authorial home for me -- the final and comprehensive repository of my personality -- I think I'll move the series here, as well as add the latest entry. So, here it is, entry one:

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Phoebe Hoban’s Basquiat: A Quick Killing in Art (London: Quartet Books, 2015 paperback ed., 2008 second ed., 1998 original): Great, great book. In need of a final proofreader. I offer my services free of charge.

p. 7. Not an error, since the author correctly adds a “sic” to the quotation from the Langston Hughes poem “Genius Child”: “Free [sic] him and let his soul run wild.” In case you’re curious about the original line, though: it’s “kill him and let his soul run wild.” More apt wording for Basquiat’s tragic fate – but would no doubt have been out of place in the memorial service.

p. 23. Says “Gerard Basquat,” rather than “Basquiat.” Sadly, will not be the last Basquat misprint.

p. 78. Marring the otherwise felicitous phrase: “She was also the Mudd Cub’s [sic – should be “Club’s”] unofficial den mother.”

Not blaming Hoban. I make typos all the time. I will probably leave several in this post before I’m through, and the gods of irony shall heap scorn upon my head. No, I accuse the editors. They are the ones whose job it is to catch these things.

p. 83 “use to go dance.” Admittedly, a person is being quoted here. So maybe it’s just a quirk of their speech? But there’s no sic.

p. 125 “Basquat’s former home.” Gah! Basquat again! Who’s he?

Also on this page, there’s a reference to “An art-world Trump, he has perfected the art of the art-deal.” No error here. I just had to observe that a thrill of horror passes through me every time I see a reference to Trump, pre-2015. It’s like suddenly stumbling upon, say, the innocent-seeming late-19th century school records of a promising young seminary student named Jughashvili.

p. 214. “Andy would says to me.” Again, it’s a person speaking. Could be an odd verbal tic. But there’s no sic.

p. 222 “Call Robert Mnuchin.” No error here, just another thrill of horror. Had to look this up, and yes, it turns out that the  “Mnuchin” here who’s a famous art dealer is in fact the father of Trump administration figure Steve Mnuchin. Yes, it would in fact seem that the world of 1980s Manhattan consumerist excess translated directly into our post-2016 ruling class. Government by American Psycho.

p. 250 “looked like a crown prince disdaining his bave new world.” Should obviously be “brave”– unless the author intended a reference to “basement raves,” in which case this book would be truly ahead of its time.

p. 275. “Money was the fit priority.” Come on, editors! Wake up!