bookfilter: protagonist is government remover of "deleted" artists

April 8, 2007 11:46 PM

bookfilter: main character is a government collector of "deactivated" artists / works of art

SF / slipstream

Set in a world where the supply of art is kept on a constant level (or somesuch), the main character's job is to go around and collect e.g. all Vonnegut novels once Vonnegut has been marked for deletion from the canon (e.g. to make room for a new artist, I think). Plot features protagonist's transgressions, underground resistance, in a somewhat Philip K. Dickish manner.

Think it also featured a type of drug addicts (grinders? crunchers? shifters? diggers?) whose drug induced them to go digging through landfill for treasure, but that could be a different novel.

Help me mefi mind!

posted by cps to media & arts (6 comments total)

Grrrrr. I am 99% certain this is a book called "The (something) Man" and the cover shows a guy standing facing away from the viewer wearing a dark suit and a distinctive bowler hat. My brain refuses to do better and I'm sitting here tearing my hair out. Thanks.
posted by Justinian at 1:07 AM on April 9, 2007

The Pickup Artist by Terry Bisson.

Looking at it now, the guy on the cover is probably facing the viewer; the silhouette probably fooled my memory. And "The Pickup Artist" is close enough to "The (something) Man" that I managed to track it down, at least.
posted by Justinian at 1:53 AM on April 9, 2007

p.s. never do this to me again. I spent an hour finding this.
posted by Justinian at 1:54 AM on April 9, 2007

(marks self as BEST ANSWER for all my work)
posted by Justinian at 9:34 AM on April 9, 2007

Justinian, thanks x 1000!!! I really appreciate that. I kept thinking the title was "the collector" or some synonym.

I was just reading the story "Bears Discover Fire" the other day, too, and completely didn't think of Terry Bisson as the author of this novel.

Thanks again!
posted by cps at 9:17 PM on April 9, 2007

That cover looks a lot like a Magritte painting, btw. He did bowler hat guys in cloudscapes.
posted by cps at 9:23 PM on April 9, 2007