The 'A Confederacy of Dunces' Curse

I just finished reading a book that has been sitting on my bookshelf unread for years, 'A Confederacy of Dunces'.

Once Trump was voted into office last year, I decided it was time for me to read it, not that I know what made me think of doing that;-)

A Confederacy of Dunces is a novel by American novelist John Kennedy Toole which reached publication in 1980, eleven years after Toole's suicide.
Lots of people have told me how much they liked this book and what a classic it was, including my Okie mate Andrew West Griffin, who even wrote a post about it at the Red Dirt Report titled -

 Hot dog!
In Andrew's 'Hot Dog!' article linked above about his 'A Confederacy of Dunces' dream Andrew writes about meeting Seth Rogen on a school bus.

Andrew writes that he was on board this bus with other people (who seemed to be members of the media) who were there to talk to Rogen about his new film role, playing – you guessed it – 
Ignatius J. Reilly in A Confederacy of Dunces.

Andrew wrote that post in April 2016, so I guess looking back from a 2017 perspective we would now see that incident on the bus as "fake news" I guess?-)

Seth Rogen

"A Confederacy of Dunces"
Audio book Side 1

Toole committed suicide in 1969 and I see that Seth Rogen is starring in a James Franco directed movie titled 'Zeroville' about a young actor who arrives in Hollywood in 1969 during a transitional time in the industry.

Zeroville

Andrew wrote in his post that "this year (2016), Rogen is starring in a 3D computer animated adult comedy called Sausage Party!
Yes, Rogen is the lead in this film playing a sausage (hot dog!) named Frank, of course."

A "Lucky Dogs" cart from
 the era of the novel

Andrew even wrote, "So, back in my dream, the bus is taking the curves pretty quickly. 
I am trying to stay in my seat, but getting nervous as we speed ever faster. 
All the while I’m waiting my turn to ask Seth Rogen a question about being Ignatius and if certain scenes – like the above scene at Paradise hot dogs – would be included (back in 1999, I interviewed the operator of New Orleans’ Lucky Dogs, Jerry Strahan, after reading his book about life as a hot dog vendor in the French Quarter called Managing Ignatius)."

I've got to admit after seeing Seth hand out an award ... and the right one too, I might add ... with Michael J Fox at the Oscars the other night, that Seth would have to wack the weight back on or put on a fat suit now to play Ignatius J. Reilly.
So, Seth would have to go back in time to get to that former weighty actor that Andrew probably had in mind when he associated Rogen with Reilly.

Hot (War) Dogs?-)

Maybe Seth's fellow co-star from 'Sausage Party', Jonah Hill would be better suited in the weight stakes to play Reilly?

I've got to confess that I found the novel a bit of a slog to read and while it got better near the end of the book, for me there is no way I would back a film of this book for the big screen, but I'm quite interested to see if anyone will back it and get the movie to the big screen while living to see it hit the screen.

Because this novel really does seem to be cursed for some reason.

Andrew wrote in his post that,"director and Louisiana native Steven Soderbergh said, “I think it’s cursed. I’m not prone to superstition but that project has got bad mojo on it.”"

And if you watch those two You Tubes directly above then you will find out why.
"Various reasons are cited as to why the Soderbergh version has yet to be filmed. 

They include disorganization and lack of interest at Paramount Pictures, the head of the Louisiana State Film Commission being murdered, and the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans.

When asked why the film was never made, Will Ferrell has said it is a "mystery".".

It's not only the film that seems to be cursed, but the city of New Orleans, as well it seems to me.

The day I finished reading the novel I saw this story in the news, which kind of reinforced that idea in my mind -

New Orleans: At least 28 injured after vehicle ploughs into mardi gras crowd

Andrew in his post seems to think his dream points to another major flooding of the city, or something along those lines, but his post is now almost a year old.

But to be frank, I think the whole planet is under a curse at the moment.

But, if I was Seth ... or any other actor for that matter, I'd steer well away from taking on the role of Ignatius J. Reilly for the big screen.
That film really does seem cursed and there was enough cursing in 'Sausage Party' to last a lifetime:-)

To any actor of thinking of taking on that role for the big screen I would look to the advice of the hot dog above when frank says,"don't you f#cking do it" and consider those wise words indeed.

Maybe a good role for Ben Affleck to consider though, with all of the luck he has in picking movie roles;-)

Nice try Ben, but the Academy can't
 be fooled a second time:-)

And where did you guys get the idea to name the "Dark Lord" in the movie 'Sausage Party' Darren?

Have you guys been reading my blog?-)

And on a trivial note, I notice the actor who plays Darren (Paul Rudd) in that movie was born about a week after John Kennedy Toole killed himself.

UPDATE: 2019

The Red Dirt Report: Another Blog Bites the Dust/That's All Folks?