DAVE EGGERS

Truth: Author, screenwriter, and staggering genius, Dave Eggers is one of the great-granddaddies of Hip culture. His incredibly clever memoir A Heartbreaking Work…etc. came out in 2000 and rocked brilliantly misunderstood twenty-somethings everywhere. He also started the insanely cool literary journal McSweeny’s (it’s never the same twice!) and founded the 826 literacy project (he cares!). Plus, that’s right, now he’s writing Hip movies with names like Away We Go and Where the Wild Things Are.

Hearsay: In all seriousness, though, Dave Eggers was just one of the first people to articulately diagnose what post-college youth has been going for a while now, which is this: we just feel like we should be famous by now. After all, we did what our parents told us (before they died, sad) -- we partied and learned and made art. But now we know too much and we don’t want to actually work. Work would crush our souls! Thus, we want to keep learning! We want to travel! We want to eat a lot of interesting food and sleep with a lot of interesting people and write a lot of books and songs about it! Why doesn’t the world support this? Why hasn’t the world thrown itself at our feet? We are smart and pretty; why can’t you people see that?!?

BS and Speculation: The amazing thing is, to Dave Eggers, the world said, “Okay! We will pay you to do this!" And Hollywood lifted him to its shoulders. Which is, my friends, his true victory. It's not enough to demand something of the world. To be impressive, you have to get the world to agree to give it to you. And Eggers, who wrote a very funny book about very not-funny things (i.e. becoming an orphan, trying to raise his little brother, selling his soul), actually happens to have a rare, magical combination of three gifts: 1) knowing how to feel deeply, 2) being able to write poignantly, and 3) being able to make a living at it. Plus, he’s pals with Spike Jonze and David O. Russell. Hip Champion.