Joe Gould’s writing style is descriptive without overwriting. However, feature article writing is not exclusively in narrative voice.
Professor Sea Gull (1942) has a lot of details but profiling includes research beyond an interview. If Mitchell had asked to read the Oral History before forming a relationship with him, he would not have been surprised to find that the History never materialized.
His 1942 profile includes purposefully outdated language. He gave his opinion about Gould’s mission to document history.
“The Oral History is…an omnium-gatherum of bushwa, gab, palaver, hogwash…” he went on.
He conveys Gould’s character originally with amusement. He highlights Gould’s Harvard wit as a contrast to his erratic behavior and appearance. He described Gould’s behavior in the winter where he would layer his shirt with newspapers.
“I only use The Times,” he said. “I’m snobbish.”
Mitchell’s observations portray Gould as a phenomenon but in Joe Gould’s Secret (1964), he writes about him with an air of sympathy. He uses some of the same quotes he used in the first profile, including himself in the scenarios. Instead of saying that Gould drowns his eggs in ketchup, he says that he was there with him at the diner and was blamed for emptying the ketchup bottles.
He did this so that he could show his motive for waiting to tell Gould’s secret that the Oral History was not what he claimed it was. He formed a relationship with him at that point. Gould’s mission was to compile all the “informal history” there was. Mitchell captured that mission and exposed it as a mask he preferred Professor Sea Gull to keep on.
