Julie Powell, author of JULIE & JULIA, came to speak at little old W&M last night. She shook like a leaf but trudged through her speech as only a Julie Powell could. I'd like to recap her talk because she made it easy for chronic, nerdy note takers like me. She listed the top ten or twelve questions that she gets asked nearly all the time:
1. Why did you choose Julia Child?
Powell discussed information that, if you read her funny and heartfelt memoir, you would already know the answer to this question. It must be disappointing for her to walk into rooms of know-it-all 20 year old students and have to answer that question. Anyway, for those of you busy adults with lives who have not gotten around to her book yet, she discovered Julia Child's MASTERING THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING in her mother's cabinet and found its words and strange drawings (diagrams for boning a duck, for example) fascinating. (She also found her father's copy of THE JOY OF SEX with its words and strange drawings fascinating, but, you can read her thoughts on that yourself.) So, this was really just what was available (as in the Edna Lewis or Nigella Lawson books were simply not hanging out in her mom's house when she was picking up things to take on the move to NY). She felt motivated to pick this book up during the year of this cooking experiment thanks to her equal-opportunity eater husband who taught her to be a less picky eater.
2. What is your favorite recipe from MtAoFC?
The answer: Beouf Bourguignon. I can see that. The dish itself is exquisite and just so simple (albeit time-consuming) to make. It's best to make it the night before because the dish tastes better after a night soaking in its red wine and juices. She talks about it in the book with fantastic hilarity... she was preparing this dish the night before an important dinner for the editor who backed Julia Child's cookbook (who, as it turns out, never shows up), but fell asleep while it was cooking and burned it to a crisp... forcing her to start all over again from scratch the following morning.
3. What is your least favorite recipe from MtAoFC?
The answer: Any aspic (meat jello) but, most specifically, cold poached eggs in aspic. Powell said, "Between stewed brains and aspic, I'd take stewed brains... every time."
4. What is the hardest recipe to prepare from MtAoFC?
The second best part of her answer was when she said, "You know, I never thought that I'd end up using the phrase 'boning a duck' so much in my life!" The dish is called Paté de canard en croute which is a whole duck baked in a pastry dough encasing... oh, after you bone the duck. (The best part of her answer: "You know that pastry covered dish at the end of the movie? I made mine just like the one Amy Adams brought out... only I actually ate mine...")
5. Where did the movie fail in particular for you and your story?
The four major things that really got under her skin about the movie are the following: 1) Julie Powell was never the editor of the Amherst College Literary Magazine despite what Amy Adams says in the movie. 2) Julie Powell would never stand in front of a chocolate fountain saying, "Oooh... Chocolate Cream Pie..." 3) Julie Powell avoids Dean & Deluca like the devil, though the character in the movie happily shopped there. If you read her book, you see that she thinks Dean & Deluca is the devil (or, to quote the book, "Grocery of the Anti-Christ"). 4) Julie Powell would never say "The 'F' word"... she would just come out and say what she means!
6. How much weight did you gain during the Project?
"20 pounds - and that's none of your business!"
7. Why did you choose to write a blog about this experience?
Okay. Here's another question that can be answered if you actually read her book. She wrote the blog in 2002. At that time, blogs were not a dime-a-dozen as they are now. It was still a new thing and people were not yet receiving book deals left and right for the rantings they publish on-line for the world to see. It was a suggestion made by her husband to help her hold herself accountable to the project she was using to do something with her life rather than just rot at her desk job. At the time, she figured it would be something only her husband, mother, and brother would be reading. She never anticipated the attention her "year of cooking dangerously" brought forth...
8. How involved were you in the making of the movie?
Not really at all. She had lunch with the "terrifying and prespecious Nora Ephron" who (Get this!) brought in the whole blog printed on pink paper. While Powell calmly said many nice things about Nora Ephron, my wicked hope is that she is about as disappointed with the saccharin, sappy, Sleepless in Seattle approach Ephron puts towards every single film she makes. The rights to Powell's story were bought, she had this lunch, and that was that (well, she has met some famous people here and there, of course...)
9. The depiction in the movie of the call Julie gets from the journalist who tells her that Julia Child hates her is so upsetting... Did it really happen?
Apparently, a lot of people are upset by the lack of a fairy tale kinship between Julia Child and Julie Powell. But, it happened... someone felt the need to inform Powell that Julia Child was less than complimentary when asked about Powell's project. This was naturally devastating to her... and in some ways, it still is. She moves forward, however, unable to change Child's mind... the only person Powell can answer to is herself, and she stands by the fact that Julia Child taught her to cook and gave her a new spark to her existential crisis of a life.
10. Do you still blog?
Not really... she thinks of herself as "someone who blogs" sometimes rather than a real "blogger." It's not really her style. I've visited her original blog as well as her current blog. While we all know what happened with her entertaining and unique first blog, her current blog simply keeps us in touch with what she's up to now, what she cares about now... Life after The Project.
The last FAQ was so disappointing that I didn't bother write it down or commit it to memory... so unoriginal... must be frustrating for a lot of decent writers to answer some of these questions all the time.
After listening to her answer the questions of others, here are my favorite Julie Powell approximate quotes:
If you want to be a writer, you have to find what obsesses you and write about it until you are empty.
If my life doesn't suck, what am I supposed to do? As a writer, I think it's good to always be a little afraid of what's next. (Her new book CLEAVING comes out at the end of the year and she's terrified!)
All in all, you could see an honest and humble personality at that podium.
I was less humble when I asked my question... particularly on the note that her book (and Julia Child's) is much more interesting than any Nora Ephron movie and that I was pissed about Amy Adams being casted as this dynamic, wild force of a woman. She laughed one of those laughs of relief... as if to say, Someone gets it...
When I finally had my turn to talk to her in line, we joked together about the gaggle of giggling 20 year old kids. Then she signed my book (she's a lefty for those of you, like Daddy, who care about that sort of thing) and shook my hand. I know a real woman when she can shake my hand with the firm hand that Daddy always taught me to extend... I think I'll be mourning the fact that we're not neighbors or old school friends so we can let our hair down and complain out loud... she has a talent for making it a humorous release rather than a bashing session.
I walked away, happy that this event had been suggested to me (and that I went despite my stupid stomach sprain)... and then I read what she wrote in my book and it made the whole evening:
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