This prompt took me forever because the prospect was outrageously fun but the possibilities were endless. I'm pleased with the result but I think I settled for low hanging fruit and didn't have to stretch very far from channeling my own voice or even Andy's voice to get in the ballpark with this one.
The prompt is inspired by Lee Israel's infamous literary forgeries, detailed in her book and the subsequent movie, Can You Ever Forgive Me?.
Prompt: Write a forged letter. Could be from a favorite celebrity or a fictional character or a historical figure or your ex-mother-in-law. Could be one of Lee Israel’s forgery victims writing her back, or from Lee herself. The point is to inhabit a perspective and channel a voice—and in doing so, to reflect on what makes your own distinct.
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Larry David writes to The New York Times' The Ethicist column:
Dear Ethicist,
Perhaps you can settle a debate I'm having with my friend, Jeff. Before COVID, it was perfectly plausible to turn down invitations, for lunch or what have you, by claiming to be busy. Now, obviously, we're doing the distancing and the sheltering and nobody's doing lunch anymore. We are living in the Post Lunch Era.
But now it's Zoom. Everyone wants to Zoom. Zoom meetings, Zoom happy hour, Zoom Passover, Zoom with your pets, Zoom with your kids. I didn't want to interact with your kids in real life. You think I want to do it now, on a tiny laptop screen over a weak connection? Give me a break!
My problem is this: I can't say I'm busy anymore. Nobody's busy! We're all at home, staring at the wall, counting down the seconds until our merciful deaths!
My plan is to tell people, no more Zoom, I have the coronavirus, not feeling up to it. Jeff says that's unethical, it will upset people, it's unfair to people who are actually sick. I say, times are tough all over.
What say you, Ethicist?
-Larry David
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