houellebecq, lipsyte, and topless dancers

What drew me to the Hammer was the scheduled conversation between Michel Houellebecq and Sam Lipsyte on Houellebecq's recent publication of a book on H.P. Lovecraft. A few hundred people filled the Hammer courtyard before we were let in to the auditorium. I was surrounded by quite a few elderly museum-goers, out for an afternoon of literary stimulation, when the man below took the stage. The "museum snobs," as he called them, were in for it when he started telling jokes about things like a new Viagra for women called Oil of Old Lay. The woman next to me, clearly horrified, said, "Isn't this supposed to be a lecture?"