Franzenfest T-3: A Bevy of Links

I know, you're tired of this already. Don't worry, it will be over soon.

• First, Amazon accidentally leaked the entire digital version of FREEDOM to some lucky readers on Thursday. And none of you notified me?! You're all furloughed. (New York Post)

• In an interview with the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Franzen slagged TIME Magazine, right-wing political movements and, bizarrely, his own significant other. Ah, he never did learn! Pretty sure that "Santa Cruz girl" will be making him sleep on the couch. (SCS via the New York Observer)

• Santa Cruz, by the way, is the first stop on Franzen's extensive book tour, including two stops in his hometown of St. Louis, three in New York and the National Book Festival in D.C.

• As mentioned earlier in the week, Jodi Picoult and Jennifer Weiner are continuing to criticize the Times for its literary bias with regard to Mr. Franzen. (The Times has now printed not one but two raves for FREEDOM ahead of publication.) I think that's how @emperorfranzen got started -- because both are avid Twitter users and Weiner started using the delectable term franzenfreude to refer to the hype machine we are busy feeding. (Guilty, so guilty.) I like that they are somewhat shifting the burden off Franzen himself for benefiting from what they perceive as a bias... and I don't think they're entirely wrong. (The Huffington Post)

• It's hilarious that Newsweek titled its story about J-Franz and the baggage his name brings up post-Oprah "The Man We Knew Too Much." Spencer Pratt should call his agent.

• Given what we now know per the TIME article about how Franzen writes -- taking extreme precautions to eliminate himself from distractions like the Internet -- he would be a great candidate for a celebrity endorsement of the Internet-blocking software also called Freedom. (I downloaded it but haven't used it because my current Secret Writing Trick is working fine. Mustn't break stride.)

• Finally: "The title could mollify some rightwing freakazoids who might think their Muslim president is spending his holiday reading a treatise on their favourite, if never fully defined, subject of Freedom. True, Franzen may have intended the title ironically, but as Bruce Springsteen, singer of Born in the USA (which, hilariously, was being blasted out during the non-mosque protests over the weekend in NY) could tell him, sometimes some fans don't quite understand the concept." The always perceptive Hadley Freeman on the President and his vacation reading. (Guardian.co.uk)