Suspend Your Disbelief

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When Fiction Becomes Reality


Is it just me, or have the lines between the real world and fiction been even more blurred lately? According to the New York Times‘s ArtsBeat, Grove/Atlantic will publish Sterling’s Gold: The Wit & Wisdom of an Ad Man—a fictional memoir written by the fictional Roger Sterling of AMC’s Mad Men:

In a deeply facetious news release Grove Press said a box containing the book “has been found in the basement of the home he once shared with his wife, Jane.” The release continues, “Though it has been out of print for many years, Sterling’s groundbreaking book gave readers a unique look at the burgeoning advertising world of the 1960s when it was first published in 1965, and was noted for its unconventional approach to the memoir.”

Grove’s news release even includes snippets of “contemporary” reviews by the likes of the Saturday Evening Post. The book will be released in November and will retail for $16.95.

In Turkey, GalleyCat reports that Orhan Pamuk wants to build his fictional Museum of Innocence, from the novel of the same name, as a real-life museum:

The museum will be located in Pamuk’s hometown Istanbul, Turkey, and he hopes to open before the end of 2010.

Turk Net Haber reports: “Pamuk has been carrying out the preliminary activities for the establishment of the museum in Istanbul’s Cukurcuma district for a long time. The museum is expected to make a poetic and documentary representation of the culture of Istanbul from 1950s until the present day, through various objects used in daily life, photographs, paintings and movies.”

And perhaps most exciting, food blog Slashfood reports that the world’s first Wonka Candy Store has opened in New York’s Times Square:

With candies dangling from the rafters and bulk-candy bins housed inside mushroom-shaped tables, the Wonka candy store is like the movie and iconic book by Roald Dahl come to life — a world of pure imagination. […]

While walking under the 21-foot tree of pixy stix and kazoozles, customers are tempted with the scent of chocolate being piped into the air. The Wonka store sits right before the Toys R Us exit, so every customer will have to pass by.

Reality check, anyone?


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