Originally published at: Sixty years of A Confederacy of Dunces' Ignatius J. Reilly | Boing Boing
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At the moment, I’ve got the Barrett Whitener-read audiobook in my Libby shelf. My library apps are connected to my local library but you might try browsing for a membership through one of the bigger public library systems that allow remote membership. Hoopla and Libby are just two apps, there must be more.
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Not every book should be made into a movie. Stephen King has proven that true numerous times over the years. Far too much of the dialogue in Dunces happens inside the characters heads and would require torturous exposition in a screenplay in order to make any sense whatsoever.
There’s no chance that a studio/producer/director can pull off the exquisite balance of farce and seriousness that Toole managed to create in the book. I also can’t image any actor being able to bring a character like Ignatius to life without totally fucking it up. In short, best just to let it be and not ruin it.
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The long-running BBC Radio Four “A Book at Bedtime” series had a 15-part adaptation (each running to 15 minutes) back in 1982.
Not sure if it’s out there anywhere online.
Yes, BBC Radio Four knows when your bedtime is.
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Reading this book upgraded my appreciation of my next visit to New Orleans, and the residents’ sense of pragmatic yet sideways humor.
Ignatius and his entirely oblivious existence.
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I think Stephen King has proved the exact opposite: sometimes we should forget the book and just remember it inspired a better film.
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I just finished reading Butterfly in the Typewriter, a biography of Toole. Highly recommended. The author makes a compelling case that Toole slipped into paranoid schizophrenia.
I’m reading Toole’s first novel, The Neon Bible, now. Not as great as Confederacy but still interesting.
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I loved the book Managing Ignatius: The Lunacy of Lucky Dogs and Life in New Orleans. It’s a non-fiction work about the New Orleans characters and features that inspired Confederacy.
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The Neon Bible is great. Like you said, very different, but he wrote it when he was sixteen. I only wish I had an ounce of that kind of talent now, never mind at the age of sixteen.
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A fantastic book! The MC 900 Ft. Jesus track “New Year’s Eve” always reminded me of Ignatius New Year's Eve - YouTube
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I read them both when I was young, under the influence of American friends as they would have been unknown in Europe, and I enjoyed Neon Bible more. Maybe there were just too many things that I had no point of reference to in Confederacy? I did read Neon Bible when I was living by a church with neon signs on it…
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Oh, absolutely.
So tragic to have lost him.
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Reading the list of potential actors to play this role, I screeched to a halt at the utter, perfect, ideal embodiment: Zach Galifinakis. He exudes the exact sort of delusional hauteur the character breathes. A man-baby with everything to say and infinite excuses for his laziness. If it can be made into a film, that’s the actor that can do it.
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… except of course he’s too old now
The right guy to play a thirty-year-old character in a new movie (or series) will always be somebody we think of as “a kid” in his previous work 
Another reason why this really can’t exist as a movie: In my head, the overly verbose inner dialog (50s style) is entirely done by Gilbert Gottfried.
… well there’s this
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