The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
In the New Yorker...
serious crayons:
Thanks to you, F-R, Rapt is in my reading pile.
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: Front-Ranger on June 08, 2009, 02:28:55 pm ---Need to amass a stack of summer reading materials, and taking suggestions!!
--- End quote ---
Proust would probably keep you busy the entire summer. ... ;D
Jeff Wrangler:
So, at lunch today I was reading Louis Menand's "A Critic at Large" piece on creating writing programs--and books about creative writing programs--in the June 8 & 15 issue, and I came across a sentence that immediately made me think of Annie Proulx.
Substitute "Annie Proulx" for "Raymond Carver" in this sentence: "The meaning of one of Raymond Carver's stories is not only what the story says; it's also the way the story says it."
Just think. "Brokeback Mountain" would be a very different short story without Annie Proulx's colloquialisms, regionalisms, and vulgarities.
serious crayons:
I love Raymond Carver. But it was in the New Yorker, I believe, that I first read how much the qualities I think of as characterizing a Raymond Carver were actually edited in by Gordon Lish, sometimes against Carver's wishes. And now I'll never feel exactly the same way about Raymond Carver. Damn you, New Yorker!
Jeff Wrangler:
--- Quote from: serious crayons on June 08, 2009, 01:38:40 pm ---The Franzen story started out great -- the characters are perfect reflections of the kinds of people who live in my neighborhood -- but my enthusiasm about it dwindled as it went along. The Menand article was not particularly memorable or profound. Oddly enough, I liked Louis Menand's writing better before he became a New Yorker staff writer, about a decade ago.
--- End quote ---
I don't think Menand was out to be profound, but I found the article interesting and informative. And I enjoyed Jonathan Franzen's story. More interesting than some of the stuff they sometimes run that's "translated from the Azerbaijani," or whatever.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version