
Girls creator Lena Dunham is writing a book. This should come as no surprise, since she has already made a movie and a critically-acclaimed television show, and had her essays published in numerous highfalutin magazines, all by age 26. Based on all that the bigger surprise should be that she hasn’t written a book yet. Slate has the rundown of her proposal, and it sounds almost exactly like what you’d think a Lena Dunham book proposal would sound like.
In the intro, Dunham is self-deprecating about the idea that she has any wisdom to share, but says that if the book can help anyone avoid some of the mistakes she’s made it will be worth it. She cites Helen Gurley Brown’s Having It All as a kind of inspiration, even though she thinks much of what Brown specifically advised is totally nuts.
What’s to follow that intro, according to the proposal, are candid accounts of losing her virginity, trying to eat well (detailed diet journal included), obsessing about death, and so on, along with tips about how to stay focused on work, how not to ruin a potential relationship, and what have you. One section will recount various ways in which older men continue to be condescending and sexist, and will describe “the most awkward date ever with an older director.” Another will describe travel to various places, including Israel and Japan. [Slate]
And all that can be yours for the low, low price of $3.6 million. Or more. Holy moley.
Let me back up. I liked the first season of Girls quite a bit, and I have nothing against Lena Dunham as a human person. I mean, her productivity is a little infuriating to me because I write like 3-4 posts a day and reheat some leftover gnocchi and I am SPENT, but that one’s on me, not her. And I think a lot of the criticism of her is wrapped up in a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with her actual work, which leads to her being a really divisive figure for some people. That sucks. But, it’s just… $3.6 million dollars. That is so much money. So, so much money. I would be an incredible hypocrite (and probable sexist) if I held that figure against her one day after claiming to not be upset at Guy Fieri for his $100,000 personal appearance fee, but … it’s just so much money. So very much.
I don’t know. I suppose I’m just jealous. I think the real lesson here is that I need to get back to work on my memoir The Things I’ve Done Between Viewings of Space Jam. The bidding starts at “someone buy me lunch.”



I can’t. I hate this.
Dammit Danger that last paragraph just earned so many stares from my coworkers.
If they can work a clause into the deal requiring all of her nude scenes in Girls be given instead to Allison Williams, then the money shall be well spent.
I like her thicker, poorly tattooed body. I just want to hang out with her and watch TV and eat junk food and have totally awkward relations.
I can’t wait to read about that awkward date with Brett Ratner, who did not share the shrimp cocktail.
Is there anything Lena Dunham does that *isn’t* awkward? That seems to be her whole shtick.
Negotiate book deals, apparently.
I’d like to thank you for not using the photo of her naked on the toilet and eating a cake as the banner pic.
‘The Things I’ve Done Between Viewings of Space Jam’, go on, tell me more….
I think New Yorkers should stop writing books/making HBO TV series/blogging about indie music and spare the rest of America.
I just watched the pilot for this show on an airplane and that is exactly what I thought. I may or may not watch more episodes but the thing that really turned me off on the show was how hideously insular it was. It was a look into some bizarre, spoiled, and boring tribe of lost natives-totally removed from what I’ve known society and reality to be.
CBS has a bunch of those.
Nope.
…Never gonna get it, Never get it.
Wait, she is? Ooom, Bop.
haven’t seen girls. her movie -w/e the hell it was called (what is this, the internet?)- was so up it’s own ass that i could barely get through it, and then when I did I was pretty disappointed in myself.
Sounds about right in relation to “Girls”.
“I think the real lesson here is that I need to get back to work on my memoir The Things I’ve Done Between Viewings of Space Jam.”
Chapter 1: Fuck Yeah, Bill Murray!
Yeah, but a tit job is only $5k and lip is only, what, $3? The rest is going to go to cupcakes and Valtrex, let’s be honest.
“Oh, you’re life has been/is so interesting 26 yr old privileged American, tell me more about it”
-never said by anyone rooted in reality.
I…just…what does she have to say? If her book is anything like her films and show, then it will be all about the incredibly narrow life of a girl with very little perspective. I have no use for Miss Dunham’s navel-gazing.
It’s basically a collection of all the messages she ever sent on Facebook.
Most people are aware that the world is a really, truly fucked up place, but every now and then you’ll come across something like “Lena Dunham is writing a book, and the current bid is $3.6 million” just because the cosmic powers that be feel the need to emphatically ram the point up your ass. Lena Dunham fucking sucks, and yet her shitty TV show is “critically acclaimed” and someone’s about to give her 7 figures for her useless life story. This is why we can’t have nice things.
I liked the first season of Girls quite a bit, and I have nothing against Lena Dunham as a human person.
Dammit DG, not you too! You better make up for this with an extra awesome corgi Friday tomorrow.
Lena, I looked up to Nora Ephron. I read Nora Ephron. Nora Ephron was a imaginary friend of mine. Lena, you’re no Nora Ephron.
YES. Nora Ephron had a sharp wit couched in a sly femininity. She also had actual interesting things to say. Urgh. Lena Dunham needs to go back to small NYC film fests where she belongs.
People knock Girls for being sheltered and insular, when that’s kind of the whole fucking point. She’s making fun of her weird, insular life because that’s what she was born into, and she’s good at it. She’s a good comedy writer. And ballsy. She uses female nudity for comedic effect the way Jason Segel and others have used male nudity.
Anyway, I like her, obviously, but $3.6 million for a book advance is fucking ridiculous. People in publishing think Lena Dunham’s book is worth that much because the publishing world is such a closed circle that they think she’s just as famous outside of uber-literate urban centers, which I highly doubt.
What bothers me is that this is someone in their mid-twenties is writing a fucking memoir. You haven’t lived enough to fill a book with something interesting.
Also see her show, which is why I don’t like it. I don’t care the characters or what they are doing.
How long do you think she can sell the idea that her life is nothing but a comedy of errors? Learn from the mistakes she’s made? lolwut?
I’ll start the bidding for Danger’s memoir at a large 1-topping pizza and a pitcher of beer.
Actually, wait, I’ll up the ante to a steak no larger than 14 ounces, one salad and one side dish and 2 glasses of mid-level bourbon.
Anyone want to bid higher?
I see your bid and raise it by adding a case of these: [iwantpizza.files.wordpress.com]
To be drunk out of the back of this: [www.missionmission.org]
If you think voting is like sex you are doing one of them wrong.
If Dunham and Michael Cera had a kid it would just implode.