Follow TV Tropes

Following

Literature / The Art of Asking

Go To

The Art of Asking is a memoir by Amanda Palmer, expanded on her TED talk of the same title. In Anachronic Order, she details how she went from portraying a moving statue to touring nationally as an alternative rock singer and fell in love with various men before marrying Neil Gaiman.

Tropes for this book include

  • Affectionate Nickname: As Amanda puts it about her husband Neil Gaiman, "He's British. He calls me darling." Also, her close friend and mentor Anthony often called her "Clown".
  • Break the Cutie: Amanda gets this plenty of times, in part thanks to critics.
    • When her best friend and mentor Anthony becomes diagnosed with cancer.
    • After having to terminate a pregnancy for medical reasons and Neil doesn't comfort her. He later reveals that he was taught not to cuddle sick people, since it would be seen as bothering them.
    • The real-life Hype Backlash from her reaching a Kickstarter goal of one million dollars. Humans Are Bastards with their thoughtlessness.
    • After her "Poem for Dzhokar" hit the media and was misinterpreted as Sympathy for the Devil, and she got death threats. Amanda after that didn't write a song for a year.
  • Catchphrase: "Take the fucking donuts."
  • Cluster F-Bomb: What Amanda is known for.
  • Cool Old Guy: Anthony Martignetti, Amanda's neighbor and eventual confidante.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Anthony at times.
  • Dogged Nice Guy: A sweet example of this trope and a funny one in another.
    • The funny example occurs when one of Amanda's boyfriends was told it was best to give her space; he then showed up the next day with a bouquet of flowers.
    • The sweet example involves Neil constantly proposing to Amanda. He says yes to all her questions about if they can live apart (given her constant touring) and if they can go without children.
  • Executive Meddling: Attempted and averted. Amanda's label wanted her to remove shots from her video that showed her belly. Amanda said no, blogged about it, and started a temporary campaign of belly pride.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Amanda after blogging about a piano store owner that kicked out her for no reason. She calls herself a diva for posting his name and address and posted a retraction, deleting the address.
    • A massage therapist on her birthday also gets this when realizing who Amanda is, and confesses to posting several hate blogs during Amanda's wildly successful Kickstarter campaign. Amanda goes through with the massage and takes the woman's CD, but she cries on the table.
  • No Periods, Period: Averted to hell and back. Amanda asks loudly for tampons in public bathrooms or in drugstore aisles, and she mentions becoming extremely irritable during her period. Neil eventually sets up an app on his phone that monitors her cycle.
  • Poor Communication Kills: A happy inversion; Amanda knows about this trope, and goes to high lengths to avoid it.
  • Surprise Pregnancy: Amanda gets pregnant with Neil's child, but didn't know until after taking an antibiotic that causes severe birth defects. She gets an abortion (her second, she had one in her early 20's as well), but this one causes her a great amount of emotional distress, as she finally felt ready to be a mother and now wasn't going to be.
  • Sympathy for the Devil: Amanda does a mild version of this for Dzhokar, or so her critics claim. In actuality she was tweeting a stream of consciousness poem that received flak from national news.
  • Trust-Building Blunder: Played for Drama, and usually redeemed. Amanda tends to be very trusting around strangers, leading to more than a few episodes of them taking advantage of it.
    • While on tour in the UK, her ukelele got stolen at a bar. Fortunately, when Amanda tweeted it, two drunk fans messaged her, apologized and returned it.
    • Similarly, on another tour a couple was following her around proceeding to cop a feel during a nude photo outing.
  • You Didn't Ask: The book's point is that people should avoid this trope.
    • After Amanda is sick from her abortion, she's angry at Neil for not comforting her while sick. After she talks to him about it six months later, he tells her that he was raised to not cuddle sick people but just sit still and be quiet.

Top