I did the same ...

I did the same yesterday in the bookshop...regardless whether we are in our fifties, thirties or 5 years old , this is how we behave when we meet our favourite writer or sthg else and we want to say it all in two sentences...

when i was 15 and i guess i was supposed to behave like a fan of someone, screaming and fainting , I despised this attitude. Then later on, without any intermediary stage, I switched to the other end I admired , adored was fan of ..not rock stars but other people...but I wanted to respect them so much that I approached them with fear and fascination as one is supposed to behave in front of sthg sacred...
words are the most fragile and powerful tools i have..i did not want to throw sthg ridiculous and hyperbolic to you "knower of words" and as 3 seconds are quite short to figure out a good sentence..there I was... making a ratatouille of what came up to me. I wanted to say that it was worth learning Dutch for your works...though half-way I realized this would be a lie because I promised myself to learn Dutch before knowing you, just to be able to read the diaries of Etty Hillesum...
on the other hand it was true that you were among my first readings of Dutch literature..I started reading you when I was rather able to grasp what you meant then the first meaning of your words... and I continued because I felt that I would surely love your insights...but there were also the others...like Saskia de Coster where I could taste Dutch words...or Nolens who would make me feel sensulally in Dutch....

but you have monopoly on one thing :) when I was taught the paradoxal combination of lekker gestoord, the first association on my mind map was always You ...with your techniek van het lijden ...by the way I discovered that booklet on a day after a break-up,...I was thinking if I was not masochistic enough , you could surely teach me some new tricks...

so back to our sheep or women ...you will surely hear lots more of clumsy compliments dressed up in mumbling and half-sentences or fake ones wrapped in coherent speeches learnt by heart...but you know how to differentiate between them...

Idols

Many young people would like to be famous. There is a whole industry based on this. A good example is the American TV-show American Idol ('Idols 'in the Netherlands). A writer generally of course likes his books to be widely read as well but I can imagine that becoming famous is not a writer's first concern. There are many drawbacks to fame, I imagine. There even is a very dark side to this aspect of being a well known writer, at least if there is any truth to the theme of Stephen King's book 'Misery' where a famous writer (not unlike Mr. King) is held in captivity by his 'number one fan'. The writer also said 'we should not continue like this' but the 'number one fan' was not persuaded that easily. Arnon, do you feel your fame is sometimes a burden?

no mumbling

There certainly was no mumbling on the radio show just now. Mark is a pro. Very nice interview. Much better, I thought, then the one in Leuven.
And very entertaining to hear you as a 17-year old. You made more sense then then I did at that age. Come to think of it, more sense than I do at 40 as well.

Reinout

Mumbling is not always related to other people being famous, or not.
Some people happen to mumble.

Mumblemania

A lot of schitzofrenic people tend to mumble. Also lonely people, or people listening to their i-pod (listening to a great track, such as "sweet thing" by Van Morrisson). Personally i don't mind a little Mumblemania now and than.

I don't think I'm a mumbler, but I do have to repeat myself a lot. I just blame it on my dazzling good looks.

Mumble!

I think more people should mumble, especially people that say stupid things or only want to sell stuff to you. And if they don't mumble it's still fun to act as if they do and just hang up the phone or walk by, because you just can't understand what they are saying.