Literary genius James Franco thinks 'honey' is one syllable, uses a lot of ... - New York Daily News (blog)

James Franco (actor, director, poet, professor, etc) is, one would presume, a very smart man. For one, he’s in the process of receiving a doctorate in comparative literature from Yale University â€" a program that, according to Petersons.com, accepts only 11 students per admission period. He was also a professor at NYU. He reads William Faulkner and has read J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Silmarillion” twice.
 
And yet.
 
In a March interview for Akashic Books’ “Literary Lions” series, Franco â€" dare I suggest it? â€" gives rise to worries that he may not be up to snuff.
 
The interview starts out ordinarily enough with Franco crediting a college creative writing professor for encouraging him to be a writer. Franco says true crime books have given him nightmares, his favorite author that everyone’s heard of is Denis Johnson (and that no one’s heard of, Stephen Dobyns) and that if he could invite one living person to dinner, it would be President Obama (who was the subject of a recent poem by Franco, which we do not know if the president has taken time to appreciate).
 
Things start to get a little funny around the time he calls “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” the best movie of the 70s (because, ahem, “The Godfather” and “Taxi Driver,” duh).
 
“What’s your favorite single syllable word?” asks interviewer Johnny Temple, founder of Akashic Books.
 
Franco: “Honey.”
 
Say what? “Honey?” What’re they teaching you at Yale, Franco? One would expect someone with a forthcoming book of poetry to have a better grasp on, you know, syllables.
 
From there on out, Franco’s vocabulary â€" which one would hope would at least have the presentation of being somewhat literary â€" fails him altogether. Even when he’s asked to make up a word.
 
Let’s just say, we can’t publish his made up word here because it’s really a hybrid of two words, the first being a four-letter-word-beginning-with-C and the second being “stuff.”
 
Moving right along to the next question, ”What existing word would you prefer had a different definition? State word and redefine.”
 
Franco’s word? “’The Atlantic’ Blog” (which obviously isn’t “a word” and isn’t even really a blog, either).
 
His definition? “A bunch of faceless [plural of same four-letter-word-beginning-with-C] that can suck my [just guess].”
 
Why does he hate the Atlantic so much? Is it because they called his Obama poem “pretty terrible?” Did Page Views miss a Franco shout-out because we refrained from commenting?
 
At this point, I think we’re going to have to let go of our high hopes for Franco’s poetry book (and whatever other literary endeavors he’s probably working on).
 
Our advice: Stick to the cornrows and Britney Spears sing-along, Franco. And don’t sell the bike shop just yet.

(Photo: AP)

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/pageviews/2013/04/literary-genius-james-franco-thinks-%25E2%2580%2598honey%25E2%2580%2599-is-one-syllable-uses-a-lot-of-naughty-