tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post4980727988915987582..comments2024-03-27T20:34:09.464+01:00Comments on zmkc: A Dreadful Confessionzmkchttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-30523404280172478012011-02-13T22:57:35.024+01:002011-02-13T22:57:35.024+01:00It's not just Franzen that is guilty of suckin...It's not just Franzen that is guilty of sucking you in and dumping you with lack of real substance, by the way - I admire Christos Tsolkas's writing too, but he, for my money, also does a bit of the paper fire thing - bright, even dazzling, but nothing to it.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-29787556033853567312011-02-13T21:25:23.264+01:002011-02-13T21:25:23.264+01:00'And his dabbling in supernaturalism leaves me...'And his dabbling in supernaturalism leaves me cold.' - I may have been equating supernaturalism with spiritualism.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-80141770609631799242011-02-13T15:21:44.352+01:002011-02-13T15:21:44.352+01:00(Sorry, the story is "Namgay Doola".) I ...(Sorry, the story is "Namgay Doola".) I guess a handful of Kipling's stories one finds in anthologies would fit in the "rise of spiritualism" theme.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-62579971121306000702011-02-13T01:26:19.492+01:002011-02-13T01:26:19.492+01:00Thanks, George - the programme I was listening to ...Thanks, George - the programme I was listening to partly covered the rise of spiritualism in Britain (forgotten the sequence, but something to do with a combination of Darwin's theories and post-ww1 loss of faith possibly - I tend to listen to these things while I'm swimming and my mind often drifts away after about lap 50). Will try the GGM you suggest.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-78098779136875037342011-02-12T23:17:08.136+01:002011-02-12T23:17:08.136+01:00Zoe: I greatly admire some of Kipling's storie...Zoe: I greatly admire some of Kipling's stories. To name one, I don't know a better story about teaching than "Regulus", one of the Stalky & Company stories. His autobiography is wonderful reading. But then there are the stories one blushes to read or finds infuriating--I'll mention "Timlay Doola" as an example and leave it at that. And his dabbling in supernaturalism leaves me cold.<br /><br />And might I suggest "Nobody Writes to the Colonel" as a good starting point for GGM?Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-74995899342216410322011-02-12T22:23:19.003+01:002011-02-12T22:23:19.003+01:00George - I love the Wilson quote, and am cheered b...George - I love the Wilson quote, and am cheered by Samuel Johnson too (the NR experiment may merely demonstrate that everyone in Washington is paid too much and can't be bothered to redeem $250). Funny you should mention Kipling and cringing, as I just listened to a Radio 3 programme advocating his rehabilitation (while recognising that not everything of his would read well nowadays). General consensus among the contributors was that Kim is possibly the greatest book ever written from an English viewpoint about India. I haven't read it but was thinking I might after that endorsement. I enjoyed Puck of Pook's Hill as a child - I think it's by him (ashamed to say I never especially liked the Just So Stories)<br />Ephemeraldigest - very interesting to hear that about One Hundred Years of Solitude. So far I have not got beyond its front cover, but, if I ever do read it, I shall make sure I read it to the end (or would it perhaps be better to read the last paragraph and then launch into it?)<br />Gaw - just after I read your comment about fiction and non-fiction, I saw this quote from Tom Wolfe: "The problem with fiction: it has to be plausible. That’s not true with non-fiction." I agree with you about feeling betrayed - it's as if you've just made a whole group of nice friends and then they dump you.<br />Chris - I have exactly the same problem with Chabon, although at least he doesn't start off with a really engrossing hundred pages - my interest is never caught by his fiction so at least I don't feel any sense of anti-climax. In a way what I find most baffling is a book where the writer obviously can engage me - but not for very long. I am fairly certain in these cases that it is usually the writer who runs out of steam, not me.zmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-18574492933484840172011-02-12T14:54:10.360+01:002011-02-12T14:54:10.360+01:00There's no guilt for me in not finishing a nov...There's no guilt for me in not finishing a novel, either. I've stopped in the middle of some of the old ones, too -- some that a guy with my academic background wouldn't dare mention in a pubic forum.(As a teenager, I once threw MIDDLEMARCH across the room where I believe it still resides on the floor behind a cabinet, but we'll chalk that up to immaturity and the theatricality that comes with the age.) <br /><br />Besides amorality and ugliness, I also find that many new books are simpy lifeless -- devoid of a soul. I have tried, for example, to read three Michael Chabon novels which I put down before the end. There's nothing I can pinpoint about my lack of interest in his work except that it feels *empty* to me. He's an excellent craftsman and he has a furtile imagination(For Pete's sake, I even once met him and we had a great conversation--nice guy; good sense of humor...), but I just can't seem to get enthusiastic about his work. I think I put down ...KAVALIER AND CLAY about fifty pages before the end; I had simply had enough.)<br /><br />I agree with the comment above: the onus of engaging me is on the writer. If he doesn't, one of us is wrong, but since the author is never likely to see me lazily toss his book onto the table and walk away, I won't worry about figuring out which it is.Chris Matarazzohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17885109959459471509noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-49019221073538875822011-02-12T08:56:28.081+01:002011-02-12T08:56:28.081+01:00You're not the only one. I think I'm getti...You're not the only one. I think I'm getting better at it though - I never bothered picking up Freedom. I have you, my wife and a particularly acute review in The Atlantic to thank for that.<br /><br />I've noticed that I feel almost betrayed by a bad novel but not so by a bad non-fiction book. One can infer from a bad novel a sort of bad faith on the part of the author - in part, perhaps because it's a more intimate form and you've placed yourself temporarily in their trust. And I just knew that reading Freedom would lead to a very great hatred of its author. That's a bad thing, of course, so, again, thanks!Gareth Williamshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05058241057385364459noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-77606820049595122132011-02-12T08:35:05.540+01:002011-02-12T08:35:05.540+01:00Not sure which I liked more, the previous comment ...Not sure which I liked more, the previous comment to mine or the blog post. I like your attitude about being very demanding of books, after all there are billions out there and I don't need to get to the end, it's the author's job to convince me to keep reading. One thing in support of finishing books which aren't enthralling, although there are many I wish I hadn't. I found One Hundred Years of Solitude to be utterly tedious until it got to the last paragraph and then I almost started reading it again. Sometimes you just never know. Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4905080602885676490.post-81740519183293594792011-02-12T02:16:11.414+01:002011-02-12T02:16:11.414+01:00Michael Kinsley, sometime editor of The New Republ...Michael Kinsley, sometime editor of The New Republic, became suspicious about the big fat books that everyone in Washington was talking about--on economics, politics, foreign relations what have you. He took to visiting Olsson's (then the leading bookstore here) and slipping into these books, about page 250, pieces of paper redeemable for $20 at the NR offices. He never had to pay up. And Samuel Johnson, once pressed on whether he had read some current book all the way, said "No, sir. Do you read books through?"<br /><br />I think that every age has its quirks, which affect its weaker literature. Think how much of Kipling makes one cringe today. So while I am not a Franzen fan, particularly, I don't think that we have consistently worse authors, just more authors. You shouldn't neglect the effect of time sifting out the readable stuff.<br /><br />(I believe, by the way, that Edmund Wilson once wrote an essay "Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?")Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.com