The Herring Wonder

I'm linking to this description of a recent boxing match between Craig Davidson and Jonathan Ames for three reasons. The first is that a few years ago Ames read at University Book Store in support of his wonderfully funny and weird, Wodehouse-inspired novel Wake Up, Sir, and it was a lot of fun. Ames is a peerless story-teller. The second is that Craig Davidson refers to the Lucero chapter of Leonard Gardner's novel Fat City, which is my favorite part of the book.

Finally, the piece mentions Davidson's expectation that the event will be seen as nothing more than a "gimmick" and not taken seriously as a literary promotion or a boxing match.

Well.

I've seen hundreds of author readings. It is possible to get up in front of an audience and read from one's book and entertain. It's also nice when someone decides to beak with tradition and put on a show.

And as for whether or not the fight going on between the ropes was a farce, this looks like a pretty good shot to me. I would suggest that anyone who thinks otherwise allow either of these two a free punch.