Jim Knipfel

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Jim Knipfel

Jim Knipfel in his Brooklyn, New York apartment in 2006.
Born June 2, 1965 (1965-06-02) (age 43)
Grand Forks, North Dakota, United States[1]
Occupation Novelist, Journalist
Nationality American
Notable work(s) Memoir Slackjaw (1999)
Fiction The Buzzing (2003)
Influences
Official website

Jim Knipfel (pronounced Kah-nipfel) (born June 2, 1965), is an American novelist, autobiographer, and journalist.

A native of Wisconsin, Knipfel, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa, is the author of a series of critically acclaimed memoirs, Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, and Ruining It for Everybody, as well as two novels, The Buzzing and Noogie's Time to Shine. He wrote news stories, film and music reviews, the crime blotter, and feature articles until June 13, 2006 for the weekly alternative newspaper New York Press, where he was the only staff writer.

He also wrote the long-running and popular "Slackjaw" column for the Press. The first edition of "Slackjaw" appeared on October 25, 1987 in the Welcomat, a Philadelphia weekly (now renamed the Philadelphia Weekly), where he also reviewed restaurants and art exhibits.[2] "Slackjaw", a cynical, misanthropic look at daily life, has given Knipfel a small but loyal following of readers.

Contents

[edit] His character

The iconic image of Knipfel is captured in a well-circulated photograph of him taken by his long-time girlfriend Morgan Intrieri, in which he has long hair and wears a pearl-gray homburg;[4][3] in recent years he wears his hair short, however, this is not reflected in caricatures of him. In his day-to-day operations, he uses a cane with a custom-made Residents eyeball atop the handle.[3] While Knipfel's crabbed view of human nature suggests a surly manner, he is said to be beloved by his peers, and, according to interviewers, has a pleasant demeanor.[5][6] His memoirs are characterized by black humor and sardonic wit, which he has stated has helped him to get through the toughest of times.

[edit] Mini biography

Knipfel was born on June 2, 1965 in Grand Forks, North Dakota on the American air base where his father was then stationed.[1] Before he was a year old, the Knipfel family moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin where his father continued to work for the U.S. Air Force for many years and his mother worked in a variety of jobs.[7] In his teens, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which would progressively render him blind in later years. His first memoir, Slackjaw, chronicles the deterioration of his eye-sight.

"Yeah, I'm much happier than I used to be, for a number of reasons. I have an amazing girlfriend. I get to do what I want to do. You know, writing these silly [novels] here. And I don't have to scrabble for the rent so much anymore. I mean, I still live in the same place I always have but I don't have to answer phones ten hours a day to earn a living. So things are going alright. And, you know, I'm not going to deny that."
Jim Knipfel, on his current happiness in a 2003 interview with Leonard Lopate.[8]

His childhood in Green Bay, Wisconsin was idyllic, however, in his teens he suffered from bouts of severe depression. Between the ages of 14 and 22, Knipfel was incredibly prolific in his attempts at suicide, failing in the act a total of twelve times.[2] After his final attempt at suicide, in which he once again survived, he was committed to a locked-door psychiatric ward in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he spent six months before the hospital released him. He later recounted his time there in his second memoir. In a Salon.com interview, he expressed his own bafflement at his multiple attempts at suicide: "I can't explain why I [attempted suicide] so many times, and how I did such a horrible job of it."[9] In a 2003 interview with Leonard Lopate, he confirmed that he had left behind his suicidal tendencies, talking briefly about his overall happiness and explaining that he was too interested in life to attempt suicide anymore.[8]

He briefly studied physics at the University of Chicago, and then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he majored in philosophy.[2] When Knipfel and a friend nicknamed Grinch formed a campus political party called the Nihilist Workers Party they put together a flier promoting "telephone terrorism" that was published in the University of Wisconsin, Madison's student newspaper The Daily Cardinal without their permission. The prank earned a brief mention in Time magazine in 1987:

Late last year the Daily Cardinal student newspaper at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, ran a column advocating "telephone terrorism" and listed the 800 numbers of several targets, including Falwell.[10][11][2]

Knipfel planned, attempted, and committed many petty crimes in his youth. One of Knipfel's failed plans involved his friend Grinch in a gravedigging operation to unearth the corpse of the notorious American killer and graverobber Ed Gein, buried in the graveyard at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, Wisconsin, however, they were thwarted by the security arrangements surrounding the premises, and soon after Ed Gein's grave was moved to another graveyard where his family's plot was located.[12]

In 1990, Knipfel moved to Brooklyn, New York with his then-wife Laura.[13] He still continued to write his weekly "Slackjaw" column for Philadelphia's Welcomat, and even tried to get the editor of the alternative weekly New York Press, John Strausbaugh, interested in publishing "Slackjaw" at their paper, but the Press did not want to share the column with the Welcomat, desiring to have exclusive publication. Although Knipfel was unwilling to terminate "Slackjaw"'s run at the Welcomat, out of loyalty to his editor Derek Davis, he did occasionally contribute an article or music review to New York Press;[14] when the job of film critic opened up he submitted several sample reviews, however, he did not hear back from them.[15]

In 1993, when Davis was pushed out by Welcomat management, Knipfel had no remaining allegiances to the paper, and decided that after six years there it was finally time to move his column to New York Press.[14] "Slackjaw" was picked up by the alternative weekly New York Press, and shortly after Knipfel became a receptionist at the paper's offices, and later a full-time columnist and staff writer.[2]

[edit] Slackjaw: a memoir

At first Knipfel was dead set against writing a memoir, and was "content to publish in small publications" and was quite "happy with the sheer disposability of newspaper writing", however, when Penguin Putnam editor David Groff offered him a book deal in 1997, after a decade of writing his column for New York Press, he accepted, rationalizing "that maybe there wasn't anything all that wrong with leaving something a little more solid behind".[16][17] The first draft of Slackjaw was completed in two weeks and at 500 pages long it was largely a collection of several dozen independent stories drawn from his columns. Although Knipfel could not discern a greater theme in the first draft, his editor pointed out that the memoir generally chronicled his journey towards blindness. With this theme in mind, Knipfel rewrote several drafts of Slackjaw, "looking at the stories in a different way and trying to find something that flows and has a rhythm", which finally produced a leaner memoir of which 60% of the content was fresh.[9][18]

To promote Slackjaw, Knipfel went on a grueling 10-city tour, which was quite taxing physically due to his progressive vision loss. At readings, he read from computer printouts with large letters, using a magnifying glass and a bright, direct light from a strong lamp.[16]

Slackjaw was well received by critics and was a popular success. A much-publicized blurb was provided by the reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon, who received the galley proofs of this and subsequent works, describing Slackjaw as "an extraordinary emotional ride, through the lives and times of reader and writer alike, maniacally aglow with a born storyteller's gifts of observation".[8] Roger K. Miller in The Chicago Sun-Times described Slackjaw as "a volume to set opposite all those chirpy, slurpy books on maximizing your potential, enhancing your self-esteem and accessing your inner powers" and Ellen Clegg in The Boston Globe summed it up succinctly as "a disease book with an attitude", elaborating that "Knipfel seems content to let the inner felon emerge."[19][20]

[edit] Subsequent memoirs

After Slackjaw, Knipfel wrote two additional memoirs, Quitting the Nairobi Trio (2000) and Ruining It for Everybody (2004). In contrast to his first book tour, Knipfel remained in New York City to promote Quitting the Nairobi Trio, a chronicle of the six months he spent in a locked psychiatric ward in Minneapolis, Minnesota following a suicide attempt.[16] Critics were largely impressed with Knipfel's second memoir, although there was one recurrent caveat: the chapters containing descriptions of Knipfel's personal hallucinations while at the ward did not work.[21][22] Ellen Clegg in The Boston Globe believed that while personal hallucinations are "important to the beholder [they] don't always translate in the wider world" and Daphne Merkin in The New York Times expressed how her interest flagged "only when [Knipfel] went into lengthy descriptions of his wearyingly vivid dreams".[23][24] In the introduction to Quitting the Nairobi Trio, Knipfel explains that although he has had hallucinations in the past, "they've always faded in time", and yet the hallucinatory events of those first few days, as he settled into the psychiatric ward, are easier for him to recall than very recent events, because these hallucinations mysteriously have "a tenacity and clarity unattributable to any simple unconscious reaction in the brain's biochemistry".[25]

A few years after his third memoir was published, Knipfel stated in a 2007 interview with Leonard Lopate that he was finished writing memoirs, and instead would concentrate on fiction. His sentiment on his memoirs was: "I had three of them out before I was forty, and I think that's just asinine."[5]

[edit] Fiction

He is fond of pulp fiction and his fiction has been categorized as such.[26]

Several other attempts at fiction by Knipfel were rejected before his novel The Buzzing clicked with a publisher; his first novel was released by Vintage Books in 2003. The Buzzing is about Roscoe Baragon, an aging journalist reduced to working the kook beat, who investigates an elaborate cover-up; the storyline was noted to contain similarities to Knipfel's former job at New York Press and Knipfel has admitted that "Roscoe, to put it simply, represents what I would like to be."[27] Critical reception was mixed.[28] According to Emily White in The New York Times, the novel entertains, however, "there are moments when the narrative stumbles or the dialogue slows".[29]

Knipfel's second and latest novel is Noogie's Time to Shine. His third novel is set to be released in April 2009 by Simon & Schuster.[30]

[edit] Slackjaw moves to Electron Press

In June 2006, Knipfel was fired by a "paranoid moron" at New York Press, concluding thirteen years with the paper.[31] Fortunately, his "Slackjaw" column continued at Electron Press, yet published exclusively online with a much diminished readership.[32] Since Electron Press began publishing "Slackjaw" in October 2006, some of Knipfel's most notable columns have been, "History Lesson, Pt. 986", introducing Slackjaw's history; and "You Must Be Very Proud", about the inauguration of New York's first legally blind and first black governor, David Paterson.[33][34] In an April 2008 column, "The Statistics of Contempt", Knipfel harangued mothers of Park Slope, Brooklyn for their inconsiderate use of their baby strollers on the local sidewalks,[35] provoking a strong reaction from readers according to Knipfel:"I can't remember anything like this - at least not since the early days".[30] The Brooklyn blog Brownstoner wrote that Knipfel's "new rant about Park Slope stroller culture ... sets the bar high for future diatribes on the subject".[36]

[edit] Writing characteristics

Mythologizing minor events

Knipfel's narrative strength lies in the captivating tales he manages to squeeze out of the most ordinary events, through an uncanny ability to inflate any circumstance. When Current Biography wrote a biography of Knipfel in 2005, he reviewed it in a "Slackjaw" column titled "Ghost of My Future", and characteristically pondered its greater significance, drolly speculating that he was reading his own obituary though admitting to a tendency to veer towards what others term "Jim's Cheap Symbolism".[37]

Obituaries

In Knipfel's early corporeal form, he had a dream encounter with Jesus Christ and as a result developed a morbid childhood fascination with the crucifixion. Although this interest, as well as his more deadly interest in suicide, subsided in later years, he still manages to spotlight the more macabre elements of life in his writing. At the turn of recent years, he writes an account of significant people who died, yet whose passing did not receive a deserved amount of attention. Aside from this annual "Book of the Dead", "Year in Death", or "Obituary Round-Up", he occasionally expounds upon the subject of obituaries when inspired, such as his rant on the excessive media coverage of Heath Ledger's death or his remembrance of Charlton Heston.[38][39][40][41][42][43]

Childhood

Knipfel's childhood in Green Bay, Wisconsin is the subject of many of his essays, as well as his memoirs. He often recalls pleasant or defining moments from his youth, usually describing the state of his vision loss in those years.[44][2]

[edit] Selected bibliography

Memoirs
  • Jim Knipfel (1999). Slackjaw. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. 
  • Jim Knipfel (2000). Quitting the Nairobi Trio. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam. 
  • Jim Knipfel (2004). Ruining It for Everybody. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin. 
Fiction
  • Jim Knipfel (2003). The Buzzing: A Novel. New York: Vintage Books. 
  • Jim Knipfel (2007). Noogie's Time to Shine: A Novel. New York: Virgin Books. 
Short stories and essays
Liner notes, Narrations

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Ruining It for Everybody (2004), pp. 9–12
  2. ^ a b c d e f g (2005) "Knipfel, Jim", in Clifford Thompson: Current Biography Yearbook, 2005, 66th annual cumulation, New York: H. W. Wilson, pp. 294–298. OCLC 64391316. 
  3. ^ a b c Who Walk In Brooklyn » Blog Archive » Jim Knipfel: A Swell Looking Babe
  4. ^ Photograph of Jim Knipfel taken by Morgan Intrieri
  5. ^ a b Knipfel, Jim. Interview with Leonard Lopate. Jim Knipfel: Noogie’s Time to Shine. The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC New York. 2007-12-18.
  6. ^ Russ Smith (2008-04-23). "Mugging for the Camera", New York Press. "And there was no one who wouldn’t interrupt their work when 'Slackjaw' columnist Jim Knipfel—before he became the paper’s receptionist and then staff writer—stopped by and offered a slug from his pint bottle of blackberry brandy to anyone who was interested." 
  7. ^ Ruining It for Everybody (2004), p. 78
  8. ^ a b c Knipfel, Jim. Interview with Leonard Lopate. Jim Knipfel shares his novel, The Buzzing.. The Leonard Lopate Show. WNYC New York. 2003-04-15.
  9. ^ a b Christopher Dreher (2004-07-27). "Dark victory", Salon.com. Retrieved on 2008-05-01. 
  10. ^ "Toll-Free Woes", Time (1987-01-26). Retrieved on 2008-04-01. 
  11. ^ Slackjaw (1999), pp. 34–38
  12. ^ Quitting the Nairobi Trio (2000), pp. 220–221
  13. ^ Ruining It for Everybody (2004), pp. 52–53
  14. ^ a b Slackjaw (1999), pp. 129–130
  15. ^ New York Press - JIM KNIPFEL - Slackjaw: So You Want To Be A Film Critic?
  16. ^ a b c Robert Fleming (2000-05-22), "PW Talks with Jim Knipfel", Publishers Weekly 247(21): 86 
  17. ^ Ruining It for Everybody (2004), pp. 99–100
  18. ^ Geeta Sharma-Jensen (1999-02-15). "Fate betrayed Knipfel, but he's not complaining", The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  19. ^ Roger K. Miller (1999-02-14). "A comic raging against darkness", The Chicago Sun-Times. 
  20. ^ Ellen Clegg (1999-02-11). "'Slackjaw' a disease book with an attitude", The Boston Globe. 
  21. ^ Laura Ciolkowski (2000-07-30). "IN BRIEF; Memoir", The Washington Post. 
  22. ^ Michael Hopkins (2000-05-14). "Psych ward sojourn offers entertaining peek into the human mind", The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  23. ^ Ellen Clegg (2000-06-02). "Knipfel's latest is a study in self-destruction", The Boston Globe. 
  24. ^ Daphne Merkin (2000-06-25). "If These Walls Could Talk", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-04. 
  25. ^ Quitting the Nairobi Trio (2000), pp. 4–5
  26. ^ Writers tell the secrets of their workspace - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  27. ^ Laurence Daw (2003-05-20). "Laurence Daw interviews Jim Knipfel; The Buzzing", The Modern Word. 
  28. ^ Irving Malin (2003-06-22). "The Buzzing.(Book Review)", The Review of Contemporary Fiction. 
  29. ^ Emily White (2003-03-30). "The Nut Beat", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-01. 
  30. ^ a b Andy Heidel (2008-05-06). "Slackjaw Skewers Stroller Set -Take Back the Island Launches Book Club", Mediabistro.com. 
  31. ^ Jim Knipfel (2008-06-08). "The Age of No Consent", Electron Press. 
  32. ^ Dylan Stableford (2006-06-12). "Longtime Columnist Jim Knipfel Out at NYPress", Mediabistro.com. 
  33. ^ Jim Knipfel began writing the Slackjaw column for Philadelphia's Welcomat in 1987
  34. ^ Gothamist: Jim Knipfel, Author
  35. ^ Jim Knipfel (2008-04-27). "The Statistics of Contempt", Electron Press. 
  36. ^ Gabby (2008-05-06). "Slope Stroller Overabundance Making One Guy a Shut-In", Brownstoner. 
  37. ^ Jim Knipfel (2005-03-16). "Ghost of My Future: There's a date missing on this obituary", New York Press. 
  38. ^ Jim Knipfel. "BOOK OF THE DEAD: Last Round-Up, 2005", New York Press. 
  39. ^ Jim Knipfel. "THE BOOK OF THE DEAD: From Pooh to the Pope", New York Press. 
  40. ^ Jim Knipfel (2007-01-07). "2006: The Year in Death", Electron Press. 
  41. ^ Jim Knipfel (2008-01-06). "Obituary Round-Up 2007", Electron Press. 
  42. ^ Jim Knipfel (2008-02-03). "Keith Who?", Electron Press. 
  43. ^ Jim Knipfel (2008-04-13). "'He Was Better Than You'", Electron Press. 
  44. ^ Quitting the Nairobi Trio (2000), pp. 149–151
  45. ^ Jim Knipfel (2004-08-10). "THE WERNER HERZOG COLLECTION: ANCHOR BAY", New York Press. 
  46. ^ Jim Knipfel (2001-10-30). "Animating Edgar", New York Press. 

[edit] External links

[edit] Interviews and profiles

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Knipfel"
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