Patton Oswalt
Author of Zombie Spaceship Wasteland
About the Author
Patton Oswalt is an actor, comedian, and author. He has appeared on numerous television shows and in more than twenty movies including Young Adult, Big Fan, and Ratatouille. He has released four TV specials and four comedy albums including My Weakness Is Strong. His books include Zombie Spaceship show more Wasteland and Silver Screen Fiend: Learning about Life from an Addiction to Film. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Patton Oswalt
Ghost Box II 8 copies
Ghost Box III 6 copies
Minor Threats #1 3 copies
Dating a Stripper is A Recipe for Perspective: An Essay from Things I've Learned From Women Who've Dumped Me (2008) 2 copies
Minor Threats #2 1 copy
Minor Threats #4 1 copy
Big Fan 1 copy
Associated Works
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer (2018) — Afterword — 3,486 copies
The Thrilling Adventure Hour: Thrilling Tales of Adventure and Supernatural Suspense! (2013) — Introduction — 108 copies
Courage Is Contagious and Other Reasons to Be Grateful for Michelle Obama (2017) — Contributor — 38 copies
Your Friend the Rat [2007 short film] — Actor — 5 copies
Happy!: Season 2 — Actor — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1969-01-27
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Portsmouth, Virginia, USA
- Places of residence
- Burbank, California, USA
- Education
- College of William and Mary
- Occupations
- comedian
actor - Relationships
- Salenger, Meredith (wife)
McNamara, Michelle (wife, died 2016)
Members
Reviews
Silver Screen Fiend: Learning About Life from an… by Patton Oswalt
Fun read. Learned a lot about Patton )not that I neeeded to), but loved hearing his take on some movies I had never heard of. Also liked the time he spent going to all those movies - sounds like fun!. A fun relaxing read,
This was an interesting read. Oswalt found a way to make his descent into addiction interesting.
I felt like he could have been a lot more addicted. Still, he's congenial company.
A successful, creative comedian/actor mistaking randomness for creativity. Let me be clear, my estimation of this book is not some puritan knee-jerk reaction to base material — I have no such prejudice — but simply a reader responding to the lack of structure or vision in the material. A memoir by any other name does not a memoir make: many forget that a memoir not written explicitly and carefully for an audience is just a diary or journal written in retrospect. Better writers than Oswalt have forgotten this. I recently read Venice Observed by Mary McCarthy, an esteemed writer apparently. She likewise failed to connect the reader with the material. You could make a convincing argument that this is the primary job of all writers. Fail at this and nothing else matters. The comparison between McCarthy and Oswalt is an interesting one, I think. The writing style and subject matter could be no further apart, and yet both authors fail in very much the same way. Random memories are just that, your random memories. If you expect a reader to care you need to make those memories the reader’s, vicariously, so that the reader can invest. Oswalt tells us he understands this on some level. About half way through the book, the origin of the book’s title is made clear. He says:
I think this book is for you, Patton, not us, and this is disrespectful of the reader’s time, this the most cardinal of writerly sins.… (more)
But for me, and my circle of high school friends, it came down to Zombies, Spaceships, or Wastelands. These were the three doors out of the Vestibule of Adolescence, and each opened onto a dark, echoing hallway. The corridors twisted and intertwined, like a DNA helix. Maybe those paths were a rough reflection of the DNA we were born with, which made us more likely to cherish and pursue one corridor over another.
I’m going to try to explain each of these categories (and will probably fail). And then I’ll figure out where I came out, on the other end, once the cards were played. I think this chapter is more for me than for you.
I think this book is for you, Patton, not us, and this is disrespectful of the reader’s time, this the most cardinal of writerly sins.… (more)
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Awards
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Statistics
- Works
- 29
- Also by
- 44
- Members
- 1,620
- Popularity
- #15,895
- Rating
- 3.8
- Reviews
- 81
- ISBNs
- 30
- Languages
- 1
- Favorited
- 1