http://blogs-r.us/bioblog/2009/01/16/inauthenticity/ Biology is everything Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:38:51 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 http://blogs-r.us/bioblog/2009/01/16/inauthenticity/#comment-792 gillt Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:57:37 +0000 http://blogs-r.us/bioblog/?p=193#comment-792 If by "bizarre" you mean a sociopath...which, admittedly a hard sell to the reader, I'm not convinced McCarthy successfully pulled-off. The culprit of course being lack of back story to chart a progression from normal to abnormal. How else does he expect us to wrap our minds around the absurdities...this isn't Magical Realism praise jebus. If by “bizarre” you mean a sociopath…which, admittedly a hard sell to the reader, I’m not convinced McCarthy successfully pulled-off. The culprit of course being lack of back story to chart a progression from normal to abnormal. How else does he expect us to wrap our minds around the absurdities…this isn’t Magical Realism praise jebus.

]]> http://blogs-r.us/bioblog/2009/01/16/inauthenticity/#comment-791 Dennis Junk Sat, 24 Jan 2009 02:36:55 +0000 http://blogs-r.us/bioblog/?p=193#comment-791 I didn't read "Netherland" as being about authenticity. It is about apathy and existential angst, both which Zadie Smith acknowledges. But Hans isn't drawn to Chuck because the darker immigrant has some sort of naturalness the whiter one lacks; it's for the same reason Nick Carroway was drawn to Gatsby--the scope of the man's dreams. Hans cares about little besides pleasing his wife and getting his son back. But Chuck wants something big. Hans knows all along it's ridiculous, but he wants to be convinced it's not. If O'Neill's prose is self-conscious it isn't because he's preoccupied with authenticity but because he's well aware of all the other narratives out there that are similar to his. He's not afraid of being unreal; he's afraid of being crowded into oblivion. And I'm skeptical about "Remainder"'s place alongside some of the other challenges to realism: it has a coherent plot, a sympathetic (if bizarre) protagonists, and even builds along a narrative arc to a resolution. I was at first excited about Smith's comments on the "Two Paths," but after reading her article and then reading both books I think she couldn't have missed the point more if she tried. This is one of the dangers of novelists getting too steeped in literary theory--they see confirmations and challenges to it even where they don't exists. I for one think lit theory is a mind virus, and the works inspired by it are tragic trashbins of talent. The best thing for reading enjoyment is to assume the writers mean what they say and focus on how well they've said it. I like stories a lot more than I like theories. I didn’t read “Netherland” as being about authenticity. It is about apathy and existential angst, both which Zadie Smith acknowledges. But Hans isn’t drawn to Chuck because the darker immigrant has some sort of naturalness the whiter one lacks; it’s for the same reason Nick Carroway was drawn to Gatsby–the scope of the man’s dreams. Hans cares about little besides pleasing his wife and getting his son back. But Chuck wants something big. Hans knows all along it’s ridiculous, but he wants to be convinced it’s not.
If O’Neill’s prose is self-conscious it isn’t because he’s preoccupied with authenticity but because he’s well aware of all the other narratives out there that are similar to his. He’s not afraid of being unreal; he’s afraid of being crowded into oblivion.
And I’m skeptical about “Remainder”’s place alongside some of the other challenges to realism: it has a coherent plot, a sympathetic (if bizarre) protagonists, and even builds along a narrative arc to a resolution.
I was at first excited about Smith’s comments on the “Two Paths,” but after reading her article and then reading both books I think she couldn’t have missed the point more if she tried. This is one of the dangers of novelists getting too steeped in literary theory–they see confirmations and challenges to it even where they don’t exists. I for one think lit theory is a mind virus, and the works inspired by it are tragic trashbins of talent.
The best thing for reading enjoyment is to assume the writers mean what they say and focus on how well they’ve said it. I like stories a lot more than I like theories.

]]>