Salon.com > Jonathan Ames

How to write a TV show, sort of

Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:01:00 +0000

I've never been good at making things. I'm not mechanically inclined. My hands are tormented grasping instruments that struggle with the most basic motor functions. In kindergarten, it was noted on my report card that I was "poor with scissors." As I walk through a park, I often envy the dexterity of the common squirrel, who can grasp and fondle acorns with grace and ease.

But I do like to make up stories, which, though not very craft-oriented, is a form of making. In the first grade, I wrote my first tale -- it was about an astronaut stranded on the moon. Somehow he attaches an engine from his broken-down spaceship to a rock and flies home. In addition to the text, I provided cartoons. I've always liked to doodle. I can't handle a screwdriver but I'm not bad with a pencil. I then improved upon this classic bit of science fiction, many years later, during my sophomore year in high school, when I wrote a Kurt Vonnegut-inspired apocalyptic short story, titled "Keep Out of the Reach of Children." As a sign that I had a future in the arts, I lifted the ending from an Isaac Asimov story. I submitted this bit of fiction and plagiarism to my English class and received an A+.

Jonathan Ames

Thu, 05 Oct 2000 21:24:00 +0000

Jonathan Ames is the author of "I Pass Like Night" and "The Extra Man"-- which was banned in Turkey for its sexual content despite Ames' wild popularity in that country. He also wrote a New York Press column, "City Slicker," which has served as fodder for his recent collection, "What's Not to Love? The Adventures of a Mildly Perverted Young Writer" (Crown). Ames performs frequently as a storyteller in theaters and nightclubs; his one-man show, Oedipussy, debuted off-off-Broadway in 1999. He was recently awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.

According to Salon, in "What's Not to Love?" Ames "calmly and amiably dissects his everyday anxieties and perversions -- everything from his idiosyncratic style of masturbation to an impromptu trip to a dominatrix to his grown-up-mama's-boy thing for much older women." Ames calls the book "exaggerated nonfiction" because the voice alternates between his own and another (more outrageous) "persona."

Bold Type features an interview with Jonathan Ames and a short story from his new book.

From "What's Not to Love?" ) 2000, Jonathan Ames. Used by permission of Random House, Inc. No reproduction of this material is authorized without the express written consent of the Licensor.