Roundup
Written byPosted on March 7, 2007
Filed Under Roundup
- I was extremely bothered by this piece of wankery from the NBCC. And it wasn’t because my “nemesis” Lev Grossman was involved. The NBCC, you see, is hosting a panel on just how gosh darn hard it is to look at them crazy genre spooks that threaten to drive down the neighborhood property values, when the critic’s goal is to remain high-minded. “High-minded,” of course, meaning elitist. After all, the Grand Wizard told us that NOTHING WHATSOEVER OF LITERARY WORTH can come from mysteries, thrillers, romances, science fiction, comic books, mis lit, chick lit, cock lit, cunt lit, or whatever other bullshit lit label affixed to a book.
For we all know that these books must drink from a different fountain and should do nothing more than carry our suitcases up to our hotel rooms. Thank goodness we all remain liberal about literature, heeding the wisdom of the great D.W. Griffith film classic The Birth of a Novel, as we continue to smile as these books say “Thankya, suh,” after we tip them generously.
I was prepared to respond to the wholesale arrogance and anti-intellectual nature of this panel and the fact that, aside from genre-friendly EW critic Jennifer Reese, John Freeman didn’t have the good sense to, oh say, get a regular mystery columnist on the panel to discuss many sides of the issue. He seemed more content to stack the deck against genre.
Thankfully, Jennifer Weiner has done my work for me. This is a useless panel that practices needless segregation. The NBCC stands for “National Book Critics Circle.” Last I heard, tomes that fell outside mainstream literary fiction were books too.
- Joshua Ferris discovers the Hold Steady two years after everybody else has. Next year, Ferris plans on raving about how great LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge” is.
- Colleen Mondor emailed Scarlett Thomas and collected her correspondence into a thoughtful interview with one of today’s most underrated writers.
- I love these kids. (via Gwenda)
- Callie has more on the “to MFA or not to MFA” controversy.
- Jessa Crispin, with typical insouciant ignorance, suggests, “Pick up any other book review section — particular in Chicago [sic] — tear off the header, and you would have no idea where it came from.” Well, that’s just plain wrong. For example, I doubt you’d ever see the sentences, “The drinks mounted frightfully: a pale ale, a lager, a few beers, several gin-and-French cocktails, a double shot of gin (drunk from a toothbrush glass). I began to feel a bit lightheaded myself, and still the river flowed on: wine, gin and lime juice, more beer, whisky,” in the NYTBR (at least not under Tanenhaus’s watch).
I think any person who follows the book review sections can probably guess where the above sentences came from. While I agree that there’s something of a homogeneity in current book review coverage (i.e., an apparent moratorium on fun and enthusiasm, which I’m doing my best to uproot with my own contributions), even an elementary literary enthusiast would be hard-pressed to look at a piece written by Daniel Mendelsohn, Liesl Schillinger, Laura Miller, David Orr, or the ever-thoughtful Ed Park and claim that it came from somebody else.
- RIP Jean Baudrillard. Wow, there are no words. There is no reality. I will post a roundup when reactions come in.
- A.L. Kennedy on the Granta list. (via Bookninja)
- Newsweek asked readers the five books they’ve always wanted to read but haven’t gotten around to. Here are the top choices. (via Classical Bookworm)
- The beginning of the end.
- Who knew that Farnham’s Freehold was so “controversial?” I’m all for this bizarre Heinlein novel, which I first read when I was thirteen, being reissued, but I’m wondering if Heinlein is becoming so passe that publishers will resort to anything to draw attention.
- In Praise of Ethel Muggs.
- Maud conducts a fascinating contest.
- If you’re a writer who needs a day job, Justine Larbalesiter has been soliciting queries on this point.
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Books To Jump Up and Down Over
Beyond Heaving Bosoms by Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan. The famed writers behind Smart Bitches, Trashy Books have written a very funny and thoughtful volume about romances, both Old Skool and New Skool. Here is a book that any smug and humorless literary manboy beating his flabby passive chest over Banville or Bolano should probably read pronto, if only for the distant possibility that he might get over himself. While the Choose Your Own Adventure segment at the end caused me to have a very disturbing dream involving Shelley Long (don't ask), Sarah and Candy did have me rethinking many of my own misperceptions when I wasn't busy laughing. They're not afraid to take on the New York Times Bok Review or even the groupthink within certain sectors of the romance community.
Alice Fantastic by Maggie Estep. This wild and highly enjoyable narrative involves two sisters (presumably, the third one was still being rented out by Chekhov), a hippie ex-junkie mother who lives with seventeen dogs, a murder, gambling, and libidinous Hollywood actresses who live in Woodstock. But this is the wonderful Maggie Estep we're talking here. And what seems at first like a quirky yarn becomes something unexpectedly moving about connectivity. What I love about Estep's work is the way that she'll juxtapose an extremely astute observation (now that you mention it, why do cab drivers always have somebody to talk with on the phone past midnight?) with an often outrageous story development.
Generosity by Richard Powers. It doesn't come out until September 29th, but Richard Powers's latest will have anyone committed to books reconsidering their literary fervor. I foresee some animosity from the vanilla critics hostile to idea-driven novels, but book bloggers, YouTube chroniclers, and MFAs would do well to plunge into this chance-taking narrative, which introduces vital questions about what the reader's relationship is with media, scientific dissection, and "creative nonfiction." Are we rats fleeing to happy cities? Or can we find the humanism within the purported plague?
Pieces for the Left Hand by J. Robert Lennon. Lennon is one of the most underrated fiction writers working today. Much as On the Night Plain proved that Lennon had a lot more in the toolbox than heartfelt (and often very funny) suburban satire, this slim but fascinating volume juxtaposes 100 small-town anecdotes -- arranged by category -- in a manner that reads, at times, like Nicholson Baker's passions for minutiae and, at other times, Stewart O'Nan's concern for psychological detail. The result is fiction that makes us wonder about whether one person's subjective view of particulars can entirely be trusted. This book never found a publisher in 2005. But thankfully, Graywolf has released it in the United States, along with Lennon's latest novel, The Castle.
Wonderful World by Javier Calvo. This wonderfully raucous volume has been completely ignored by the Washington Post, the New York Times, and the Los Angeles Times. But it's probably one of the most delightful reading experiences I've had this year. Calvo cavalierly mashes up multiple genres and manages to mix up familial subtext with larger-than-life, almost cartoonish characters. (Indeed, one might argue that one mobster's penis is a character of its own in this sprawling novel.). This is not an easy thing to pull off, but Calvo makes it work. And it's helped immeasurably by Mara Faye Lethem's idiom-specific translation. (See longer post.)
The Means of Reproduction, Michelle Goldberg This thoughtful book tackles the complicated (and little discussed) subject of reproductive rights from numerous angles, which includes a number of unpleasant but necessary ones. The upshot is that there isn't a quick fix solution for declining birth rates and fundamentalist abuses. Just about every political faction has contributed to the friction. But you'll want to read this book anyway to refamiliarize yourself with the topic, but also to understand just what's occurred during the past several decades to get us where we are today. (See also podcast interview with Goldberg.)
Contact Ed by email.
Or send materials to:
315 Flatbush Avenue, #231
Brooklyn, NY 11217
Or send materials to:
315 Flatbush Avenue, #231
Brooklyn, NY 11217
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I’ve never heard of this Hold Steady band, but I think that Nirvana group is someone to watch.
What I love about you is that you can get on your high horse about close-minded book critics (asses, no doubt, I agree with you there) and then display your sneering hipster superiority about someone else being late to the acclaimed music game all in the same post. You fascinate me, I admit it.
May: Examine the lyrics to “Losing My Edge.” You’re missing the irony.
“Joshua Ferris discovers the Hold Steady two years after everybody else has. Next year, Ferris plans on raving about how great LCD Soundsystem’s “Losing My Edge” is.”
Well! Look who’s hipper-than-thou!
As one of the particpants in tomorrow’s wankery, I’m not exactly impartial, but I have to admire the way you’ve willfully misread and pre-judged not just the panel’s topic but its actual contents. I’m grateful, as you’ve saved me the trouble of preparing or showing up — I’ve got a lot to do, and the weather here in New York is pretty crummy this week.
I’m just not sure how you take the questions ” Why do critics review genre fiction so condescendingly? Why does genre fiction get so little critical attention? Who are the hacks, and who are the pros, and how do we tell them apart — and do literary critics have the skills to do it?” as anything other than OPEN to genre, and WILLING to address the disparities in review attention. I would imagine that someone who reads across genres would be glad to know that the NBCC is considering this sort of issue — but then I’m at a disadvantage: I haven’t heard the panel discussion yet.
Ferris is spot on about Okk River.
Here’s an earnest question: Why isn’t Ike Reilly even half as critically adored as The Hold Steady? (See also Menomena v. TV On the Radio.)
“May: Examine the lyrics to “Losing My Edge.” You’re missing the irony.”
That’s the point isn’t it? I (we) miss it, you get it. That’s the (sub) text of your whole blog. It’s what makes you fascinating.
Also, you’re really jumping to conclusions on that NBCC panel. I didn’t give a shit, but because this panel person spoke up, I took a look for myself, at the panel, at the comments and at Ms. Weiner’s blog post.
First, Ms. Weiner is reacting not to the panel, as you are, but to that obviously ridiculous post by this McAfee woman.
Second, the panel is set up as asking questions about the exact issues you’re complaining about where in this list: “Why do critics review genre fiction so condescendingly? Why does genre fiction get so little critical attention? Who are the hacks, and who are the pros, and how do we tell them apart – and do literary critics have the skills to do it?” Where from that list do you get a message that they’re signaling genre fiction has no literary worth? If anything the list is implicitly critical of the job critics do of sorting through the genre works, and not critical of the work itself.
Last, that panel has a genre writer (Mosley), an editor/reviewer at a genre friendly pub (EW) and an editor at the most comprehensive reviewing source that must review more genre works than any other publication (PW).
How can you possibly have a beef with that? Are you confusing that one poster’s message with the purposes of the panel?
I think Baudrillard faked his death.
Actually, I think Baudrillard faked his own death and the took over the identity of another man named Jean Baudrillard.
um where does josh ferris say that he’s just discovered the hold steady? he’s talking abt them bcz they’re touring + he likes them. he could have been up on craig finn since lifter puller for all you know. but good work.