The Believer isn’t the only rag eager to talk to Adrian Tomine. New York also snagged an interview with the Shortcomings artist as well, full of questions about why the book’s main character is so … unlovable:
Why is Ben so unable to view himself as critically as he views other people?
Because he’s a human being? It’s interesting, though: From the reaction to this story, I have learned that my scale of what is acceptable might be a bit different from other people’s. It reminds me that there’s been a lot of great works by other artists that I really admire and I assume must be universally acclaimed. And then I do some research and find out, oh, it turns out a lot of people hated Stanley Kubrick’s movies.
