Comments on: Echo Maker Roundtable #1

By: Roundtable Discussion Coming in September : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:10:20 +0000

[...] during September. For those readers who have enjoyed our previous roundtable discussions of Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker, Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke, Eric Kraft’s Flying, Ellen Ruppel Shell’s Cheap, [...]

By: Roundtable Discussion Coming in July : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits

Roundtable Discussion Coming in July : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 19:32:03 +0000

[...] the week of July 8, 2009. For those readers who have enjoyed our previous roundtable discussions of Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker, Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke, Eric Kraft’s Flying, and various other books, this [...]

By: Coming in March : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits

Coming in March : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 04:45:37 +0000

[...] those readers who have enjoyed our lengthy roundtable discussions of Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker, Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke, and various other books, let it be known that, during the [...]

By: New Richard Powers Novel Has Title and Release Date : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:48:46 +0000

[...] And if you somehow missed out on the comprehensive roundtable discussion of Powers’s last novel, The Echo Maker (which included a contribution from Powers himself), you can revisit the conversation here. [...]

By: The Future of Newspapers and Litblogs: A Thought Experiment : Edward Champion’s Reluctant Habits

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:21:35 +0000

[...] discussions of books, running during the week of pub date, including T.C. Boyle’s Talk Talk, Richard Powers’s The Echo Maker, and Nicholson Baker’s Human Smoke. (Powers and Baker both joined in during the final [...]

By: Judy

Judy — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 00:43:53 +0000

Powers’ characters experience a loss of self because they see themselves in a very post-modernist vision–as mirrored in the opinions of others. When their self-images and the distorted or critical attacks of others on their identities collide, they rationalize, hide, flee, or seek other more physical forms of gratification. Though they attempt tocouch their responses to others in reasoned arguments, their underlying motivations are more primal and emotional. Thus, Powers tears away the veneer of civilizaton, showing how fragile our identities are and how easily they can disappear in the modern world where image is everything.

By: judith gintz-aminoff

judith gintz-aminoff — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 12:16:54 +0000

point of information, please…
Is “A Guide to Unseeing: 100 Artists Who Gave Us New Eyes” (p 241) a Powers invention or a wink towards an exisitng book? Many thanx for a response….

By: fred lapides

fred lapides — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:50:15 +0000

everyone but Daniel seemsto learn something from what has taken place…and he flees to be protected within his moral absolutes.

By: clare

clare — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 03:13:16 +0000

I thought it a bit strange that Powers casually inserts that Mark’s dad died of fatal familial insomnia. It is a very rare prion disease, and the combination of that with Mark’s Capgrass sybndrome felt a little forced. Oh well, still a wonderful, imaginative, and brave book.

By: Fausto

Fausto — Mon, 16 Oct 2006 19:30:58 +0000

Very interesting start to the roundtable! Looking forward to the other parts. I am currently about midway through “The echo maker”, and I was wondering if Powers wasn’t somehow making the point that post 9/11 america is suffering some sort of Capgras syndrome? The WTC and Pentagon attacks as well as the subsequent reaction do feature quite a lot in the narrative so far – and I can certainly see how some of the characters seem to be struck by a metaphorical capgras syndrom when they are justifying and accepting the governement betrayal of civil liberties – making an alien of what used to be much loved about the USA. Maybe this is a bit far-fetched, but I would be interested in knowing your views on this.