Blake Butler—
“The entire system of the novel in the last century, with its cumbersome machinery of continuity, linear chronology, causality, noncontradiction, was actually a last-ditch attempt to forget the disintegrated state we were left in when God withdrew from our souls, an attempt at least to keep up appearances by replacing the incomprehensible explosion of atoms, of black holes and impasses, with a reassuring, clear, unequivocal constellation woven so closely that we’d no longer hear death howling between the stitches, amidst broken threads hastily reknotted. No objection to this grandiose, unnatural project? . . . No objection, really?”
Alain Robbe-Grillet, from Ghosts in the Mirror
Always found this sort of sentiment — and this expression of it — sort of odd. God’s absence does not disintegrate me any more than I was already disintegrated.
Sometimes it’s hot to forget about the “cumbersome machinery” of the novel, sometimes it’s fun to pay it mind. Writers like Evenson, who do a little bit of both, have long been my favorite.
Love Grillet, The Voyeur and his notes on the novel. The cinematic approach, American noir stylings through that French prism. Saw him read back at GSU a loooong time ago, real treat. And thanks for coming last night, proud to have you in the audience. Was an honor, happy to see the laughs from you and Laura, t’was a goal, laughs, so… Yeah!
Always found this sort of sentiment — and this expression of it — sort of odd. God’s absence does not disintegrate me any more than I was already disintegrated.
Sometimes it’s hot to forget about the “cumbersome machinery” of the novel, sometimes it’s fun to pay it mind. Writers like Evenson, who do a little bit of both, have long been my favorite.
Love Grillet, The Voyeur and his notes on the novel. The cinematic approach, American noir stylings through that French prism. Saw him read back at GSU a loooong time ago, real treat. And thanks for coming last night, proud to have you in the audience. Was an honor, happy to see the laughs from you and Laura, t’was a goal, laughs, so… Yeah!
“the incomprehensible explosion of atoms, of black holes and impasses”
Not all of us find the Withdrawal-of-God-Causing All-Mighty-Science (Describer-of-the-Universe, Explainer-of-the-World) to be incomprehensible. Profound, complex, expansive, awe-inspiring – yes. Worthy of deep study – yes. Incomplete? Quite likely.
The incomprehensibility lies in the very God-like nature of the universe itself. And in the nature of our selves. And in the nature of our understanding.
“The entire system of the novel in the last century” may indeed be “cumbersome” and “grandiose”, but “unnatural”? No more so than any other “system” man has devised to try to explain the world around him, his place in it, and the “death howling” that he knows is inevitable. We and death and black holes and attempts and appearances and disintegrated states of the soul and atoms and souls and projects and objections and everything – it’s All “natural” to me. How exhilarating to be a part of it All, however small a part, for however short a time.
And I like novels of the last century, precisely because the are post-God, racing with Science.
“the incomprehensible explosion of atoms, of black holes and impasses”
Not all of us find the Withdrawal-of-God-Causing All-Mighty-Science (Describer-of-the-Universe, Explainer-of-the-World) to be incomprehensible. Profound, complex, expansive, awe-inspiring – yes. Worthy of deep study – yes. Incomplete? Quite likely.
The incomprehensibility lies in the very God-like nature of the universe itself. And in the nature of our selves. And in the nature of our understanding.
“The entire system of the novel in the last century” may indeed be “cumbersome” and “grandiose”, but “unnatural”? No more so than any other “system” man has devised to try to explain the world around him, his place in it, and the “death howling” that he knows is inevitable. We and death and black holes and attempts and appearances and disintegrated states of the soul and atoms and souls and projects and objections and everything – it’s All “natural” to me. How exhilarating to be a part of it All, however small a part, for however short a time.
And I like novels of the last century, precisely because the are post-God, racing with Science.
Where da “like” button for this shiz?
Where da “like” button for this shiz?
yes Yes YES!
yes Yes YES!