Author Topic: The amazing little-known Secret Life of Walter Mitty  (Read 8416 times)

Offline Front-Ranger

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The amazing little-known Secret Life of Walter Mitty
« on: September 17, 2016, 11:14:22 am »
I was lying in bed putting off getting up by thinking of all the reasons why I love "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". I will enumerate them in this thread and you are welcome to join in. First of all, though, there are several parallels between TSLWM and BBM. One of them is that both stories debuted in The New Yorker! Here's a link to TSLWM by James Thurber from 1939!

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1939/03/18/the-secret-life-of-walter-james-thurber
"chewing gum and duct tape"

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Re: The amazing little-known Secret Life of Walter Mitty
« Reply #1 on: September 18, 2016, 10:57:38 pm »
More parallels. . .Walter Mitty's mom (played by Shirley MacLaine) is long suffering and Madonna-like, understanding him better than he understands himself. AND, she bakes cake! In this case, it's Clementine Cake and it appears in the North Sea between Greenland and Iceland as well as in Afghanistan! Most of the recipes I found were really weird but here is one that sounds good and is gluten-free: http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016184-clementine-cake
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Re: The amazing little-known Secret Life of Walter Mitty
« Reply #2 on: September 12, 2018, 10:16:17 am »
Here's a cool interview with Ben Stiller and Kristin Wiig that appeared in a movie blog "Collider".

http://collider.com/secret-life-of-walter-mitty-ben-stiller-kristen-wiig-interview/
"chewing gum and duct tape"

Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The amazing little-known Secret Life of Walter Mitty
« Reply #3 on: September 12, 2018, 12:26:43 pm »
I was lying in bed putting off getting up by thinking of all the reasons why I love "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty". I will enumerate them in this thread and you are welcome to join in. First of all, though, there are several parallels between TSLWM and BBM. One of them is that both stories debuted in The New Yorker! Here's a link to TSLWM by James Thurber from 1939!

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1939/03/18/the-secret-life-of-walter-james-thurber

Ta-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-pocketa-queep-pocketa-queep. ...
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.

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Re: The amazing little-known Secret Life of Walter Mitty
« Reply #4 on: December 08, 2019, 04:07:28 pm »
Did you know? Today is the birthday of the humorist and cartoonist James Thurber (books by this author), born in Columbus, Ohio (1894), who once said “Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility.”

He's best remembered today for his short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty" (1944), which was made into a movie in 2013 staring Ben Stiller. It’s the tale of a henpecked husband who fantasizes about a life of daring adventure. As a young man, Thurber's own fantasy had been a little more tame: he dreamed of working as a staff writer for a new magazine called The New Yorker. He began submitting pieces to the magazine in 1926, when it had only been in print for about a year. He said, "My pieces came back so fast I began to think The New Yorker must have a rejection machine." He persisted, and the first story that was accepted was so impressive that editor Harold Ross offered him a job.

But the story must have impressed Ross a little too much, because instead of getting the staff writer position he longed for, Thurber found himself higher up the ladder as an administrative editor. Unhappy, he tried to get himself demoted by making mistakes on purpose, but it didn't work. He gave up and just kept submitting pieces to the magazine. When Ross found out how badly he wanted to write, he gave him the position and put him in an office with E.B. White. The two men became good friends, and collaborated on a self-help parody called Is Sex Necessary? (1929), which featured Thurber's cartoons.

(from The Writer's Almanac, Garrison Keillor)
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Offline Jeff Wrangler

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Re: The amazing little-known Secret Life of Walter Mitty
« Reply #5 on: December 18, 2019, 08:06:46 pm »
"Mitty" can also be found in a collection of Thurber pieces called My World--And Welcome To It, which includes lots of other interesting Thurber stories (not all of them funny).

I've probably mentioned this before, but MWAWTI was the name of a half-hour TV show in the 1970s that starred William Windom as a Thurber-like cartoonist. The show only lasted one season, but it still won an Emmy award.

I'm sure I've also mentioned that when I was in high school, I had the distinct pleasure of seeing William Windom in a one-man show of Thurber works.
"It is required of every man that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-men, and travel far and wide."--Charles Dickens.