Running with Scissors

[Yeti]

OK, I have read 2 of Augusten Burroughs memoirs..Running with Scissors and Dry. I am a fan of dark comedy/tragedy yet I wonder how this film will be recieved. I am guessing it will bomb. Augusten Burroughs has a flair for the ridiculous and I wonder what color the sky is in his world. After reading his works I always wondered if he fictionalized his life. I actually asked him at a reading of Dry about his childhood documented in Running with Scissors. He blankly stared at me and said.... HOW could I make that up? I just find a psychiatrist getting his family to fish his bowel movement out of a toilet to dry in the sun to be unbelieveable. Not to mention that the psychiatrist had a masturbatorium in his office. This film will be thought by most to be way over the top and of very bad taste. I just have a really really hard time believing the author's account of his childhood. I do know that relatives have gone on record saying that it is a total fabrication. If he is lying how can he continue to market his work as a memoir and not pure fiction. I doubt I will go see the film although it has a good cast...Alec Baldwin, Annette Benning, Gweneth Paltrow.....
Rotten Tomatoes has a wide array of reviews. Is anyone familiar with Augusten Burroughs work?





http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/running_with_scissors/

[QueenAdrock]

You know, I thought this was about Weird Al's album which doesn't make sense cuz this isn't in Other Music.

[beastiegirrl101]

I have read Running with Scissors and loved it...when the news came out about the film being made I had my serious doubts because seriously there are so many characters / senerios / issues going on that IMO it would be virtually impossible to adapt this book into a film. I'll probably go see it, but I am not holding my breath.

[Yeti]

The trailers almost remind me of The Royal Tennenbaums.
When you read Burrough's book did you question its authenticity? I am sure his childhood was totally dysfunctional........but that he lived in his head and created elaborate accounts of oddities in his life. After attending his book reading and Q&A session I remember thinking that he was a bit self-absorbed. When my wife asked about the Bookstore Q&A I commented...I really think Augusten Burroughs' glasses are foggy and he can't see beyond his nose.
I really enjoyed reading Running with Scissors and Dry yet somehow I felt like they were contrived. It is just a feeling like you have when someone tells a tall tale and you just know that the person has a need to be recognized.
Do you get what I am saying?
Maybe, I am just a cynic....but I have a real problem with the influx of memoirs documenting a fucked up childhood full of dysfunctional activity, drug use, odd characters...etc. It just seems to me that the authors are passing off fiction as real life. Some is true yet all of the printed word should be true to the t for it to be a memoir.

[adam_f]

Speaking of Weird Al, why the hell was Donny Osmond in the "White and Nerdy" video?

[ericlee]

I have no clue about the bood but, the title of the thread just reminded me of the mischief mascots on South Park.

What was his name? I think Mike, the don't run around the house with scissors in your hands dog.

[adam_f]

I don't agree with writing multiple memoirs. Against my religion.

[Yeti]

Originally Posted by Skye

Augusten Burroughs rules, I have read all of his memiors

I definitely like his style and use of metaphors. He does make me laugh and cringe in the same paragraph.

[HEIRESS]

Im a huge memoir addict and Ive been close to picking his books up a couple times but always end up getting something else

[monkey]

i think the movie might translate because theyre not doing it in the same way the book was written. im not properly explaining this, i dont even know what words to use.

im really looking forward to seeing this movie. the book is funny. it's not like the best memoir ever, but it is quite entertaining.

[beastiegirrl101]

I cant wait to see the cat scene...I got such great visuals of that scene from the book. (the one with the sister in the basement and the cat in the laundry basket)

actually there are a few scenes I cant wait to see....the ceilling one as well.

[monkey]

ok i saw it. i was kinda right. it's not just the same as the book, but the key 'funny' stories are there. i liked it. it was funny, but not so much in a "this was my family" funny, more like "this is a silly movie about a bad shrink" funny.

[zorra_chiflada]

running with scissors made me so damn uncomfortable. i really liked it all the same.

[Dorothy Wood]

that movie was pretty crap and really boring. the story seemed forced, artificial. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't turn out to be a liar.

[ms.peachy]

Having grown up in a pretty fucked up family situation myself, I really do not have any problem with accepting his authenticity.

[Dorothy Wood]

Originally Posted by ms.peachy

Having grown up in a pretty fucked up family situation myself, I really do not have any problem with accepting his authenticity.

oh, I don't doubt that it's possible that those kinds of people were around, they just didn't have the kind of depth they'd have if he really knew them. maybe something gets lost in the movie interpretation.

I had a pretty fucked up family situation as well. trauma-rama. also, just odd things like my grandmother's friend who was very rich, but lived with her mother in a bad neighborhood in a filthy old house with an overgrown yard and no lights. I mean, there were lights, but she kept them off mostly. when I went with my grandma for a visit, I was terrified. the living room was pretty big, with high ceilings, but all the furniture was in the center of the room in a circle on a rug. some of it was covered in plastic. there were papers stacked everywhere. and one lamp on. the rest of the house was dark. it was like they'd started painting and remodeling 10 years before and just stopped. curious.

AND THAT'S WHY I SHALL WRITE A NOVEL!