Jim Knipfel
Encyclopedia
Jim Knipfel (born June 2, 1965), is an American
novelist, autobiographer, and journalist
.
A native of Wisconsin
, Knipfel, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa
, is the author of a series of critically acclaimed memoir
s, Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, and Ruining It for Everybody, as well as two novels, The Buzzing and Noogie's Time to Shine. He wrote news stories, film and music reviews, the crime blotter, and feature articles until June 13, 2006 for the weekly alternative newspaper New York Press
, where he was the only staff writer.
He also wrote the long-running and popular "Slackjaw" column for the Press. The first edition of "Slackjaw" appeared on October 25, 1987 in the Welcomat, a Philadelphia weekly (now renamed the Philadelphia Weekly
), where he also reviewed restaurants and art exhibits. "Slackjaw", a cynical, misanthropic look at daily life, has given Knipfel a small but loyal following of readers.
on the American air base where his father was then stationed. Before he was a year old, the Knipfel family moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin
where his father continued to work for the U.S. Air Force for many years and his mother worked in a variety of jobs. In his teens, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which would progressively render him blind in later years. His first memoir, Slackjaw, chronicles the deterioration of his eyesight.
In his teens, while the family was living in Green Bay, he suffered from bouts of severe depression. Between the ages of 14 and 22, Knipfel tried to kill himself twelve times. After his final suicide attempt he was committed to a locked-door psychiatric ward in Minneapolis, Minnesota
, where he spent six months. He recounted his time there in his second memoir. In a Salon.com
interview, he expressed bafflement at his multiple attempts at suicide: "I can't explain why I [attempted suicide] so many times, and how I did such a horrible job of it." In a 2003 interview with Leonard Lopate he said he'd found happiness and was too interested in life to attempt suicide again.
He briefly studied physics at the University of Chicago
, and then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he majored in philosophy. When Knipfel and a friend nicknamed Grinch formed a campus political party called the Nihilist Workers Party they put together a flier promoting "telephone terrorism" that was published in the University of Wisconsin, Madison's student newspaper The Daily Cardinal
without their permission. The prank earned a brief mention in Time magazine in 1987.
Knipfel writes that he planned, attempted, and committed many petty crimes in his youth. He wrote of a failed attempt to steal the corpse of the notorious American killer and graverobber Ed Gein
from the graveyard at the Mendota Mental Health Institute
in Madison.
In 1990, Knipfel moved to Brooklyn, New York with his then-wife Laura. He continued to write his weekly "Slackjaw" column for Philadelphia's Welcomat and tried to get the editor of the alternative weekly New York Press, John Strausbaugh
, interested in publishing "Slackjaw", but the Press did not want to share the column with the Welcomat. Knipfel kept "Slackjaw" at the Welcomat out of loyalty to his editor Derek Davis, but he began occasionally contributing articles and music reviews to New York Press;
In 1993, after Davis was pushed out by Welcomat management, Knipfel moved Slackjaw to the New York Press. Shortly thereafter Knipfel became a receptionist at the paper's offices, and later a full-time columnist and staff writer.
To promote Slackjaw, Knipfel went on a grueling 10-city tour, which was quite taxing physically due to his progressive vision loss. At readings, he read from computer printouts with large letters, using a magnifying glass and a bright, direct light from a strong lamp.
Slackjaw was well received by critics and was a popular success. A much-publicized blurb was provided by the reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon
, who received the galley proof
s of this and subsequent works, describing Slackjaw as "an extraordinary emotional ride, through the lives and times of reader and writer alike, maniacally aglow with a born storyteller's gifts of observation". Roger K. Miller in The Chicago Sun-Times described Slackjaw as "a volume to set opposite all those chirpy, slurpy books on maximizing your potential, enhancing your self-esteem and accessing your inner powers" and Ellen Clegg in The Boston Globe
summed it up succinctly as "a disease book with an attitude", elaborating that "Knipfel seems content to let the inner felon emerge."
A few years after his third memoir was published, Knipfel stated in a 2007 interview with Leonard Lopate
that he was finished writing memoirs, and instead would concentrate on fiction. His sentiment on his memoirs was: "I had three of them out before I was forty, and I think that's just asinine."
and his fiction has been categorized as such.
Several other attempts at fiction by Knipfel were rejected before his novel The Buzzing clicked with a publisher; his first novel was released by Vintage Books
in 2003. The Buzzing is about Roscoe Baragon, an aging journalist reduced to working the kook beat, who investigates an elaborate cover-up; the storyline was noted to contain similarities to Knipfel's former job at New York Press
and Knipfel has admitted that "Roscoe, to put it simply, represents what I would like to be." Critical reception was mixed. According to Emily White in The New York Times
, the novel entertains, however, "there are moments when the narrative stumbles or the dialogue slows".
Knipfel's second novel is Noogie's Time to Shine. His third novel Unplugging Philco was released in April 2009 by Simon & Schuster
and first black
governor, David Paterson
. In an April 2008 column, "The Statistics of Contempt", Knipfel harangued mothers of Park Slope, Brooklyn
for their inconsiderate use of their baby strollers on the local sidewalks, provoking a strong reaction from readers according to Knipfel:"I can't remember anything like this - at least not since the early days". The Brooklyn blog Brownstoner wrote that Knipfel's "new rant about Park Slope stroller culture ... sets the bar high for future diatribes on the subject".
's death and also wrote about Charlton Heston
's obituary and, for a number of years, wrote an annual column on notable passings.
Knipfel's childhood in Green Bay, Wisconsin is the subject of many of his essays, as well as his memoirs. He often recalls pleasant or defining moments from his youth, usually describing the state of his vision loss in those years.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist, autobiographer, and journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
.
A native of Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, Knipfel, who suffers from retinitis pigmentosa
Retinitis pigmentosa
Retinitis pigmentosa is a group of genetic eye conditions that leads to incurable blindness. In the progression of symptoms for RP, night blindness generally precedes tunnel vision by years or even decades. Many people with RP do not become legally blind until their 40s or 50s and retain some...
, is the author of a series of critically acclaimed memoir
Memoir
A memoir , is a literary genre, forming a subclass of autobiography – although the terms 'memoir' and 'autobiography' are almost interchangeable. Memoir is autobiographical writing, but not all autobiographical writing follows the criteria for memoir set out below...
s, Slackjaw, Quitting the Nairobi Trio, and Ruining It for Everybody, as well as two novels, The Buzzing and Noogie's Time to Shine. He wrote news stories, film and music reviews, the crime blotter, and feature articles until June 13, 2006 for the weekly alternative newspaper New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
, where he was the only staff writer.
He also wrote the long-running and popular "Slackjaw" column for the Press. The first edition of "Slackjaw" appeared on October 25, 1987 in the Welcomat, a Philadelphia weekly (now renamed the Philadelphia Weekly
Philadelphia Weekly
Philadelphia Weekly , is an award-winning alternative newspaper in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, published every Wednesday.The paper was founded in 1971 as a sister publication to the South Philadelphia Press. In 1995, the paper became Philadelphia Weekly...
), where he also reviewed restaurants and art exhibits. "Slackjaw", a cynical, misanthropic look at daily life, has given Knipfel a small but loyal following of readers.
Youth and early career
Knipfel was born on June 2, 1965 in Grand Forks, North DakotaGrand Forks, North Dakota
Grand Forks is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota and the county seat of Grand Forks County. According to the 2010 census, the city's population was 52,838, while that of the city and surrounding metropolitan area was 98,461...
on the American air base where his father was then stationed. Before he was a year old, the Knipfel family moved to Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay, Wisconsin
Green Bay is a city in and the county seat of Brown County in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, located at the head of Green Bay, a sub-basin of Lake Michigan, at the mouth of the Fox River. It has an elevation of above sea level and is located north of Milwaukee. As of the 2010 United States Census,...
where his father continued to work for the U.S. Air Force for many years and his mother worked in a variety of jobs. In his teens, he was diagnosed with a rare genetic disease called retinitis pigmentosa, which would progressively render him blind in later years. His first memoir, Slackjaw, chronicles the deterioration of his eyesight.
In his teens, while the family was living in Green Bay, he suffered from bouts of severe depression. Between the ages of 14 and 22, Knipfel tried to kill himself twelve times. After his final suicide attempt he was committed to a locked-door psychiatric ward in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Minneapolis , nicknamed "City of Lakes" and the "Mill City," is the county seat of Hennepin County, the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota, and the 48th largest in the United States...
, where he spent six months. He recounted his time there in his second memoir. In a Salon.com
Salon.com
Salon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
interview, he expressed bafflement at his multiple attempts at suicide: "I can't explain why I [attempted suicide] so many times, and how I did such a horrible job of it." In a 2003 interview with Leonard Lopate he said he'd found happiness and was too interested in life to attempt suicide again.
He briefly studied physics at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
, and then transferred to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he majored in philosophy. When Knipfel and a friend nicknamed Grinch formed a campus political party called the Nihilist Workers Party they put together a flier promoting "telephone terrorism" that was published in the University of Wisconsin, Madison's student newspaper The Daily Cardinal
The Daily Cardinal
The Daily Cardinal is a student newspaper that serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison community. The sixth oldest daily student newspaper in the country, it began publishing on Monday, April 4, 1892...
without their permission. The prank earned a brief mention in Time magazine in 1987.
Knipfel writes that he planned, attempted, and committed many petty crimes in his youth. He wrote of a failed attempt to steal the corpse of the notorious American killer and graverobber Ed Gein
Ed Gein
Edward Theodore "Ed" Gein - July 26, 1984) was an American murderer and body snatcher. His crimes, committed around his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin, gathered widespread notoriety after authorities discovered Gein had exhumed corpses from local graveyards and fashioned trophies and keepsakes...
from the graveyard at the Mendota Mental Health Institute
Mendota Mental Health Institute
Mendota Mental Health Institute, formerly known as Mendota State Hospital, is a psychiatric hospital located in Madison, Wisconsin north of Lake Mendota. Opened July 14, 1860, it was the first mental hospital in Wisconsin. It is operated by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services. Accredited by...
in Madison.
In 1990, Knipfel moved to Brooklyn, New York with his then-wife Laura. He continued to write his weekly "Slackjaw" column for Philadelphia's Welcomat and tried to get the editor of the alternative weekly New York Press, John Strausbaugh
John Strausbaugh
John Strausbaugh is an American author, cultural commentator, and host of the New York Times "Weekend Explorer" video podcast series on New York City....
, interested in publishing "Slackjaw", but the Press did not want to share the column with the Welcomat. Knipfel kept "Slackjaw" at the Welcomat out of loyalty to his editor Derek Davis, but he began occasionally contributing articles and music reviews to New York Press;
In 1993, after Davis was pushed out by Welcomat management, Knipfel moved Slackjaw to the New York Press. Shortly thereafter Knipfel became a receptionist at the paper's offices, and later a full-time columnist and staff writer.
Slackjaw: a memoir
At first Knipfel was dead set against writing a memoir, and was "content to publish in small publications" and was quite "happy with the sheer disposability of newspaper writing", however, when Penguin Putnam editor David Groff offered him a book deal in 1997, after a decade of writing his column for New York Press, he accepted, rationalizing "that maybe there wasn't anything all that wrong with leaving something a little more solid behind". The first draft of Slackjaw was completed in two weeks and at 500 pages long it was largely a collection of several dozen independent stories drawn from his columns. Although Knipfel could not discern a greater theme in the first draft, his editor pointed out that the memoir generally chronicled his journey towards blindness. With this theme in mind, Knipfel rewrote several drafts of Slackjaw, "looking at the stories in a different way and trying to find something that flows and has a rhythm", which finally produced a leaner memoir of which 60% of the content was fresh.To promote Slackjaw, Knipfel went on a grueling 10-city tour, which was quite taxing physically due to his progressive vision loss. At readings, he read from computer printouts with large letters, using a magnifying glass and a bright, direct light from a strong lamp.
Slackjaw was well received by critics and was a popular success. A much-publicized blurb was provided by the reclusive novelist Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
, who received the galley proof
Galley proof
In printing and publishing, proofs are the preliminary versions of publications meant for review by authors, editors, and proofreaders, often with extra wide margins. Galley proofs may be uncut and unbound, or in some cases electronic...
s of this and subsequent works, describing Slackjaw as "an extraordinary emotional ride, through the lives and times of reader and writer alike, maniacally aglow with a born storyteller's gifts of observation". Roger K. Miller in The Chicago Sun-Times described Slackjaw as "a volume to set opposite all those chirpy, slurpy books on maximizing your potential, enhancing your self-esteem and accessing your inner powers" and Ellen Clegg in The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
summed it up succinctly as "a disease book with an attitude", elaborating that "Knipfel seems content to let the inner felon emerge."
Subsequent memoirs
After Slackjaw, Knipfel wrote two additional memoirs, Quitting the Nairobi Trio (2000) and Ruining It for Everybody (2004). In contrast to his first book tour, Knipfel remained in New York City to promote Quitting the Nairobi Trio, a chronicle of the six months he spent in a locked psychiatric ward in Minneapolis following his last suicide attempt. Critics were largely impressed with Knipfel's second memoir, although there was one recurrent caveat: the chapters containing descriptions of Knipfel's personal hallucinations while at the ward did not work. Ellen Clegg in The Boston Globe believed that while personal hallucinations are "important to the beholder [they] don't always translate in the wider world" and Daphne Merkin in The New York Times expressed how her interest flagged "only when [Knipfel] went into lengthy descriptions of his wearyingly vivid dreams". In the introduction to Quitting the Nairobi Trio, Knipfel explains that although he has had hallucinations in the past, "they've always faded in time", and yet the hallucinatory events of those first few days, as he settled into the psychiatric ward, are easier for him to recall than very recent events, because these hallucinations mysteriously have "a tenacity and clarity unattributable to any simple unconscious reaction in the brain's biochemistry".A few years after his third memoir was published, Knipfel stated in a 2007 interview with Leonard Lopate
Leonard Lopate
Leonard Lopate is host of the public radio talk show The Leonard Lopate Show, broadcast on WNYC. He first broadcast on WKCR, the college radio station of Columbia University—where his brother Phillip was a student—then later at WBAI, before ultimately moving to WNYC. -Biography:Lopate came to...
that he was finished writing memoirs, and instead would concentrate on fiction. His sentiment on his memoirs was: "I had three of them out before I was forty, and I think that's just asinine."
Fiction
He is fond of pulp fictionPulp magazine
Pulp magazines , also collectively known as pulp fiction, refers to inexpensive fiction magazines published from 1896 through the 1950s. The typical pulp magazine was seven inches wide by ten inches high, half an inch thick, and 128 pages long...
and his fiction has been categorized as such.
Several other attempts at fiction by Knipfel were rejected before his novel The Buzzing clicked with a publisher; his first novel was released by Vintage Books
Vintage Books
Vintage Books is a publishing imprint founded in 1954 by Alfred A. Knopf. Its publishing list includes world literature, fiction, and non-fiction...
in 2003. The Buzzing is about Roscoe Baragon, an aging journalist reduced to working the kook beat, who investigates an elaborate cover-up; the storyline was noted to contain similarities to Knipfel's former job at New York Press
New York Press
New York Press was a free alternative weekly in New York City, that was published from 1988 to 2011. During its lifetime, it was the main competitor to the Village Voice...
and Knipfel has admitted that "Roscoe, to put it simply, represents what I would like to be." Critical reception was mixed. According to Emily White in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, the novel entertains, however, "there are moments when the narrative stumbles or the dialogue slows".
Knipfel's second novel is Noogie's Time to Shine. His third novel Unplugging Philco was released in April 2009 by Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster, Inc., a division of CBS Corporation, is a publisher founded in New York City in 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. It is one of the four largest English-language publishers, alongside Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins...
Slackjaw moves to Electron Press
In June 2006, Knipfel was fired by the New York Press, concluding thirteen years with the paper. His "Slackjaw" column continued at Electron Press, yet published exclusively online with a much diminished readership. Since Electron Press began publishing "Slackjaw" in October 2006, some of Knipfel's most notable columns have been, "History Lesson, Pt. 986", introducing Slackjaw's history; and "You Must Be Very Proud", about the inauguration of New York's first legally blindBlindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
and first black
Black people
The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...
governor, David Paterson
David Paterson
David Alexander Paterson is an American politician who served as the 55th Governor of New York, from 2008 to 2010. During his tenure he was the first governor of New York of African American heritage and also the second legally blind governor of any U.S. state after Bob C. Riley, who was Acting...
. In an April 2008 column, "The Statistics of Contempt", Knipfel harangued mothers of Park Slope, Brooklyn
Park Slope, Brooklyn
Park Slope is a neighborhood in western Brooklyn, New York City's most populous borough. Park Slope is roughly bounded by Prospect Park West to the east, Fourth Avenue to the west, Flatbush Avenue to the north, and 15th Street to the south, though other definitions are sometimes offered. Generally...
for their inconsiderate use of their baby strollers on the local sidewalks, provoking a strong reaction from readers according to Knipfel:"I can't remember anything like this - at least not since the early days". The Brooklyn blog Brownstoner wrote that Knipfel's "new rant about Park Slope stroller culture ... sets the bar high for future diatribes on the subject".
Themes
Knipfel often spotlights death in his writing and has written columns complaining that obituaries do not do justice to notable people. He has complained about excessive media coverage of Heath LedgerHeath Ledger
Heath Andrew Ledger was an Australian television and film actor. After performing roles in Australian television and film during the 1990s, Ledger moved to the United States in 1998 to develop his film career...
's death and also wrote about Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
's obituary and, for a number of years, wrote an annual column on notable passings.
Knipfel's childhood in Green Bay, Wisconsin is the subject of many of his essays, as well as his memoirs. He often recalls pleasant or defining moments from his youth, usually describing the state of his vision loss in those years.
External links
- Jim Knipfel's official website, Slackjaw Online, collecting many of his columns dating back to 1990.
- Novelist Jim Knipfel's Park Slope Liebestod, Who Walk In Brooklyn interview July 14, 2009