Comments on: If the Emperor Is Naked… http://www.ohjoy.org/2007/08/31/if-the-emperor-is-naked/ Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:03:08 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.12-alpha by: joy http://www.ohjoy.org/2007/08/31/if-the-emperor-is-naked/#comment-21197 Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:17:40 +0000 http://www.ohjoy.org/2007/08/31/if-the-emperor-is-naked/#comment-21197 Marcia -- I know! He has written wonderful things, but I get tired of the self-referential stuff. Writer-within-writer-withing-naval-gazing-writer. Something new, please! Robin--I hope that you understand I'm not denigrating a kind of literature as much as questioning its being held up as the important literature of today. Certainly people want writing to be entertaining. As for human experience, I'm not really getting at action -- someone had something interesting happen to them -- as I am emotion -- someone felt love/death/birth/any number of other emotions. That, in any sense, is what great literature gets at: What it feels like to be alive, now, in this time. Action is merely a way to express feeling. As for Jane Austen, I don't really like her as much as this blog would suggest. I only think she is a good writer and resent how she is being labeled as "chick lit" today. None of her novels would be among my top favorites. Marcia — I know! He has written wonderful things, but I get tired of the self-referential stuff. Writer-within-writer-withing-naval-gazing-writer. Something new, please!

Robin–I hope that you understand I’m not denigrating a kind of literature as much as questioning its being held up as the important literature of today. Certainly people want writing to be entertaining.

As for human experience, I’m not really getting at action — someone had something interesting happen to them — as I am emotion — someone felt love/death/birth/any number of other emotions. That, in any sense, is what great literature gets at: What it feels like to be alive, now, in this time. Action is merely a way to express feeling.

As for Jane Austen, I don’t really like her as much as this blog would suggest. I only think she is a good writer and resent how she is being labeled as “chick lit” today. None of her novels would be among my top favorites.

]]> by: Grogged http://www.ohjoy.org/2007/08/31/if-the-emperor-is-naked/#comment-21193 Sat, 01 Sep 2007 07:00:27 +0000 http://www.ohjoy.org/2007/08/31/if-the-emperor-is-naked/#comment-21193 Contrary to Woods, I find myself in love with overblown, ridiculous plots, regardless of whether they reflect contemporary society or whatnot. Fiction, used for whatever underlying purpose, is still fiction. It's a grey word invented to convey the point that the story is at least partially drawn from the imagination of the writer. If the line were completely definitive, we'd have bookstores that had "true" and "untrue" sections. Instead the concept is reversed and renamed. As for what constitutes great fiction, that will remain in the eye of the beholder; critics be damned. I've always felt that "the human experience" is really the cheap and easy path to critical acclaim. The reason is this: with over six billion lives to choose from (current, more dead), the source material is bountiful. A writer can relay, verbatim, someone else's experience and strike gold, provided great enough fortune or misfortune. Want a tale of heroism? It'd be hard to top Shackleton's Antarctic expedition. Etc, etc... For me, the fun of fiction goes no further than a simple game of "top this," either through insane plotlines or use of the language. Jane Austen (I use this example knowing your affinity, which I share to only a microscopically lesser extent) could easily be dismissed as a petty gossip monger, but her divine storytelling and command of the language was so extraordinary that she is justifiably ranked in the Olympic Pantheon of wordsmiths. Ditto for Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Kerouac, all of which used "bland reality" as the backdrops for their classics. These are titans of literature, but it makes them no better or worse than those Woods condemns. Merely different. It's a case of Picasso versus Raphael. While great fiction can certainly relay the human experience, it should never be limited to such. For me, I try to LIVE the human experience. I'd prefer to read something else. If I'm lucky, shit blows up. Contrary to Woods, I find myself in love with overblown, ridiculous plots, regardless of whether they reflect contemporary society or whatnot. Fiction, used for whatever underlying purpose, is still fiction. It’s a grey word invented to convey the point that the story is at least partially drawn from the imagination of the writer. If the line were completely definitive, we’d have bookstores that had “true” and “untrue” sections. Instead the concept is reversed and renamed. As for what constitutes great fiction, that will remain in the eye of the beholder; critics be damned.

I’ve always felt that “the human experience” is really the cheap and easy path to critical acclaim. The reason is this: with over six billion lives to choose from (current, more dead), the source material is bountiful. A writer can relay, verbatim, someone else’s experience and strike gold, provided great enough fortune or misfortune. Want a tale of heroism? It’d be hard to top Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition. Etc, etc…

For me, the fun of fiction goes no further than a simple game of “top this,” either through insane plotlines or use of the language. Jane Austen (I use this example knowing your affinity, which I share to only a microscopically lesser extent) could easily be dismissed as a petty gossip monger, but her divine storytelling and command of the language was so extraordinary that she is justifiably ranked in the Olympic Pantheon of wordsmiths. Ditto for Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Kerouac, all of which used “bland reality” as the backdrops for their classics. These are titans of literature, but it makes them no better or worse than those Woods condemns. Merely different. It’s a case of Picasso versus Raphael.

While great fiction can certainly relay the human experience, it should never be limited to such. For me, I try to LIVE the human experience. I’d prefer to read something else. If I’m lucky, shit blows up.

]]> by: marcia http://www.ohjoy.org/2007/08/31/if-the-emperor-is-naked/#comment-21105 Fri, 31 Aug 2007 18:23:17 +0000 http://www.ohjoy.org/2007/08/31/if-the-emperor-is-naked/#comment-21105 I should read his review of "The Human Stain." Overhyped book! Did you read it? I probably whined to you about it after I read it. Yes, the writing was good. But I had a hard time getting over the cheap trick of a writer writing about a writer writing a book. Never mind the irony and coincidences. ... I should read his review of “The Human Stain.” Overhyped book! Did you read it? I probably whined to you about it after I read it. Yes, the writing was good. But I had a hard time getting over the cheap trick of a writer writing about a writer writing a book. Never mind the irony and coincidences. …

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