October 26th, 2009 / 7:11 pm
Snippets
Snippets
Blake Butler—
What books or authors do you despise? Why?
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Meta
you. get out of my face.
just kidding!
i really hate the great gatsby. i rushed through it in about two days for an assignment during my junior year, and found it pretty boring. i decided to give it another chance during my senior year, but i still found it boring. there was only one paragraph that i found “beautiful” in the entire book. i understand all the symbolism and bullshit in it, but none of it relates nor appeals to me whatsoever.
you. get out of my face.
just kidding!
i really hate the great gatsby. i rushed through it in about two days for an assignment during my junior year, and found it pretty boring. i decided to give it another chance during my senior year, but i still found it boring. there was only one paragraph that i found “beautiful” in the entire book. i understand all the symbolism and bullshit in it, but none of it relates nor appeals to me whatsoever.
sam pink, he smells.
sam pink, he smells.
Jonathon Safran Foer
Jonathon Safran Foer
Just in time for Mean Week.
Just in time for Mean Week.
I love how it says “Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals.” It’s fun to read that as a contraction instead of a possessive.
I love how it says “Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals.” It’s fun to read that as a contraction instead of a possessive.
jonathan safran foer and nicole krauss lives in a giant fucking house. have you seen their house? it is so big! it is bigger than four normal-sized houses put together!
jonathan safran foer and nicole krauss lives in a giant fucking house. have you seen their house? it is so big! it is bigger than four normal-sized houses put together!
Junot Diaz. the same old stereotypes about ethnic groups/gender roles passed for irony, with some shallow postcolonial politcs to vouch that it’s great stuff (and it’s ok to laugh).
Junot Diaz. the same old stereotypes about ethnic groups/gender roles passed for irony, with some shallow postcolonial politcs to vouch that it’s great stuff (and it’s ok to laugh).
I agree with that. I feel the same way about “The Sun Also Rises.” I read it again recently and found it very lackluster. Apart from a few nicely described scenes, it’s a mess. There are pages of dialogue where it’s hard to tell who is talking to whom, and then there’s this feel to it… like Hemingway started writing it then went out and got drunk for months at a time, then finished it.
I agree with that. I feel the same way about “The Sun Also Rises.” I read it again recently and found it very lackluster. Apart from a few nicely described scenes, it’s a mess. There are pages of dialogue where it’s hard to tell who is talking to whom, and then there’s this feel to it… like Hemingway started writing it then went out and got drunk for months at a time, then finished it.
Jonathan Saffron Froer.
Zadie Smith for ‘On beauty’
hmmm
JT LEROY
Will Self…if i ever see the word ‘quotidean’ again it’ll be too soon. The worst kind of word squeezing prick.
Martin Amis – Patronising piece of shit with literally zero to say and an incredibly patronising perspective on the working class. God i really fucking hate martin amis actually.
Jonathan Saffron Froer.
Zadie Smith for ‘On beauty’
hmmm
JT LEROY
Will Self…if i ever see the word ‘quotidean’ again it’ll be too soon. The worst kind of word squeezing prick.
Martin Amis – Patronising piece of shit with literally zero to say and an incredibly patronising perspective on the working class. God i really fucking hate martin amis actually.
Adverbs – wtf, daniel handler!
Adverbs – wtf, daniel handler!
Joyce Carol Oates, every other fucking word is a gerund.
and everybody’s got ‘rank animal stench’
Joyce Carol Oates, every other fucking word is a gerund.
and everybody’s got ‘rank animal stench’
oh, and it’s just like, too cute and shit, and i wanted to care about any of it but what i really wanted to do was just never see another adverb ever again
oh, and it’s just like, too cute and shit, and i wanted to care about any of it but what i really wanted to do was just never see another adverb ever again
Also Charles D’Ambrosio. Hate. Really boring, and also I think he views some of his characters with contempt
Also Charles D’Ambrosio. Hate. Really boring, and also I think he views some of his characters with contempt
It’s not in the silly bore league of Martin Amis and Will Self, but Nick McDonell’s An Expensive Education was an unbelievable shameless rehash of all the possible cliches about Africa, the CIA, hearts of darkness, etc.
It’s not in the silly bore league of Martin Amis and Will Self, but Nick McDonell’s An Expensive Education was an unbelievable shameless rehash of all the possible cliches about Africa, the CIA, hearts of darkness, etc.
That is dumb comment. Have you read Ulysses? Gatsby is like a mini-Ulysses, in the way it’s intricately planned, the way he culled together a staggering assortment of archetypes, puns, conjoined words, and so on. You’ll never be in-on-it.
That is dumb comment. Have you read Ulysses? Gatsby is like a mini-Ulysses, in the way it’s intricately planned, the way he culled together a staggering assortment of archetypes, puns, conjoined words, and so on. You’ll never be in-on-it.
?
i like gatsby, but i think that is a really cringeworthy defense of it
if it is a defense? you might be being sarcastic, i guess
i find there are moments in gatsby of devastatingly well-articulated sadness and loneliness
sans puns or plans or anything
just people drawn
but geez, it’s fine to not like something
“you’ll never be in in-on-it” is never a good argument in favor of something and is actually pretty embarrassing to people who do like something genuinely
so, more harm than good there, jh
i like gatsby, but i think that is a really cringeworthy defense of it
if it is a defense? you might be being sarcastic, i guess
i find there are moments in gatsby of devastatingly well-articulated sadness and loneliness
sans puns or plans or anything
just people drawn
but geez, it’s fine to not like something
“you’ll never be in in-on-it” is never a good argument in favor of something and is actually pretty embarrassing to people who do like something genuinely
so, more harm than good there, jh
i dig gatsby and didn’t get that
Amis’s politics seem abhorrent. And he seems like a mean bastard, making him firmly relevant for this week’s posts. But Time’s Arrow is amazing. My jaw sat around trying to figure out what to do as a followup to dropping.
i dig gatsby and didn’t get that
Amis’s politics seem abhorrent. And he seems like a mean bastard, making him firmly relevant for this week’s posts. But Time’s Arrow is amazing. My jaw sat around trying to figure out what to do as a followup to dropping.
agreed
agreed
i have no time for that crazy old windbag since that hatchet job she did on hemingway. bitch is fucked, yo.
i have no time for that crazy old windbag since that hatchet job she did on hemingway. bitch is fucked, yo.
martin amis — all that talent, but so what? quit jacking off those sentences and tell a story.
orson scott card for ender’s game, a completely ridiculous (even by sci-fi standards), badly written book that has five stars amazon reviews numbering in the hundreds. oh the pain.
martin amis — all that talent, but so what? quit jacking off those sentences and tell a story.
orson scott card for ender’s game, a completely ridiculous (even by sci-fi standards), badly written book that has five stars amazon reviews numbering in the hundreds. oh the pain.
diary of anne frank
just didn’t feel like it really “went there,” you know?
diary of anne frank
just didn’t feel like it really “went there,” you know?
Adam Kirsch, David Yezzi, William Logan, Dana Gioia, et al. Smug, prissy, asinine.
With that, I shall never utter their names again.
Adam Kirsch, David Yezzi, William Logan, Dana Gioia, et al. Smug, prissy, asinine.
With that, I shall never utter their names again.
Plath can be run up a pole for all i care, and take her daddy with her.
Plath can be run up a pole for all i care, and take her daddy with her.
Mine.
Mine.
agreed.
good spank material though.
agreed.
good spank material though.
second
second
T. S. Eliot.
Overblown.
T. S. Eliot.
Overblown.
Totally agree. Add Auden to the list as well.
Totally agree. Add Auden to the list as well.
he is so good.
he is so good.
agreed
agreed
Idiot
Idiot
d-bag idiot
oh jeez
d-bag idiot
oh jeez
hahaha
hahaha
can an author be underblown?
can an author be underblown?
Couldn’t finish “The Feast of Love”. Totally into some other Baxter books, particularly Saul and Patsy and his essays in “Burning Down the House”, but I groaned and shut Feast of Love around page 100 because it was actually painfully bad. I don’t understand the adoration for that book. Can’t remember the exact details of the scene that made me give up, but it was something about a teenage girl dreaming about a guy, using the language of a middle-aged man. It seriously was so laughably not genuine. My roommate gave up at almost the same point. It couldn’t be just us. Are other people pretending to like that book? Does it shift in some way so that I gave up before it all turned into a magic, literary, life-changing experience?
Couldn’t finish “The Feast of Love”. Totally into some other Baxter books, particularly Saul and Patsy and his essays in “Burning Down the House”, but I groaned and shut Feast of Love around page 100 because it was actually painfully bad. I don’t understand the adoration for that book. Can’t remember the exact details of the scene that made me give up, but it was something about a teenage girl dreaming about a guy, using the language of a middle-aged man. It seriously was so laughably not genuine. My roommate gave up at almost the same point. It couldn’t be just us. Are other people pretending to like that book? Does it shift in some way so that I gave up before it all turned into a magic, literary, life-changing experience?
also, there’s a reason you see this book in every used bookstore you will ever walk into
also, there’s a reason you see this book in every used bookstore you will ever walk into
why are you reading nick mcdonell?
why are you reading nick mcdonell?
i’d probably extend this to most all early 20th century poets adored in academia… eliot, pound, williams, the whole fucking lot of em
i’d probably extend this to most all early 20th century poets adored in academia… eliot, pound, williams, the whole fucking lot of em
even Williams?
even Williams?
ok, maybe williams…. white chickens and cold plums… no no. williams too
ok, maybe williams…. white chickens and cold plums… no no. williams too
(There’s more to Williams than chickens and plums, but that’s ok.)
Wallace Stevens?
Marianne Moore?
Mina Loy?
Laura (Riding) Jackson?
Gertrude Stein?
(There’s more to Williams than chickens and plums, but that’s ok.)
Wallace Stevens?
Marianne Moore?
Mina Loy?
Laura (Riding) Jackson?
Gertrude Stein?
a.m. holmes
i have read three things by her: two short stories which were “ok” but disposable, and “the end of alice” which was vehemently bad.
a.m. holmes
i have read three things by her: two short stories which were “ok” but disposable, and “the end of alice” which was vehemently bad.
I thought The End of Alice was good. Not vehemently, but good.
I thought The End of Alice was good. Not vehemently, but good.
nah. i gave up on that book much earlier even than that.
nah. i gave up on that book much earlier even than that.
am i the only one that didn’t like Suttree?
am i the only one that didn’t like Suttree?
And I really dig her look – Stein – her hair and clothes, her face and her body type. Handsome and solid. I would like to cry my heart out in the lap of her physicality. She would fantasy comfort me.
And I really dig her look – Stein – her hair and clothes, her face and her body type. Handsome and solid. I would like to cry my heart out in the lap of her physicality. She would fantasy comfort me.
I’ve never liked Fitzgerald. Mini Ulysses my ass! He writes like a precocious freshman. The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night = the soap operas of novels.
I’ve never liked Fitzgerald. Mini Ulysses my ass! He writes like a precocious freshman. The Great Gatsby, Tender Is the Night = the soap operas of novels.
i mostly had problems with it on an ideological level, but also it read as exploited, poorly written schlock to me. a.m. holmes writing as child-predator is alternatively “edgy shock writing” and melodramatic self pity, plus it’s horribly informed. i would like holmes to rewrite the book upon reading tony duvert’s good sex illustrated.
i mostly had problems with it on an ideological level, but also it read as exploited, poorly written schlock to me. a.m. holmes writing as child-predator is alternatively “edgy shock writing” and melodramatic self pity, plus it’s horribly informed. i would like holmes to rewrite the book upon reading tony duvert’s good sex illustrated.
i really liked the End of Alice. i think the ‘horribly informed’ thing kind of works for it, in that it is an imagining, yes by someone who performed the act, but it is still mostly in the terrain of fucked fantasy. that fisting scene is pretty ballin
i really liked the End of Alice. i think the ‘horribly informed’ thing kind of works for it, in that it is an imagining, yes by someone who performed the act, but it is still mostly in the terrain of fucked fantasy. that fisting scene is pretty ballin
Probably.
Probably.
Seconding Gioia. Also Billy Collins
Seconding Gioia. Also Billy Collins
John Gardner’s “Grendel.”
Because, when I was fourteen, it could have been interesting and wasn’t at all. I might be wrong, but “Grendel smash” came up a lot. Years later, Gardner’s rules for writing all seemed like fine enough advice but also felt, considering “Grendel,” like apologies.
John Gardner’s “Grendel.”
Because, when I was fourteen, it could have been interesting and wasn’t at all. I might be wrong, but “Grendel smash” came up a lot. Years later, Gardner’s rules for writing all seemed like fine enough advice but also felt, considering “Grendel,” like apologies.
I really hate William Gay. Everyone talks about what an amazing stylist he is, but I can never get over the fact that this is someone who desperately wants to be Cormac McCarthy. It’s the most brazen example of complete imitation leading to literary success I’ve ever seen, with the possible exception of John O’Hara in his imitation of Hemingway.
And year, I kinda hate Joyce Carol Oates too.
I really hate William Gay. Everyone talks about what an amazing stylist he is, but I can never get over the fact that this is someone who desperately wants to be Cormac McCarthy. It’s the most brazen example of complete imitation leading to literary success I’ve ever seen, with the possible exception of John O’Hara in his imitation of Hemingway.
And year, I kinda hate Joyce Carol Oates too.
Man, William Gay is awesome.
Man, William Gay is awesome.
lol!
lol!
disagree. one could complain about his british bias or other aspects of his personality, and it’s easy to side with william carlos williams vs. eliot if you’re an experimental-lit-oriented guy, but i think “the waste land” and “four quartets” are really great.
disagree. one could complain about his british bias or other aspects of his personality, and it’s easy to side with william carlos williams vs. eliot if you’re an experimental-lit-oriented guy, but i think “the waste land” and “four quartets” are really great.
Check first word of chapters 1-5-9.
Check first word of chapters 1-5-9.
I ‘mean,’ chapters 1-4-7. Sorry.
I ‘mean,’ chapters 1-4-7. Sorry.
Yeah, well, I’ll stand by the opinion. Guy manages to estrange events by streaming them through reverse causality, which in and of itself could be creative writing 101 gimmickry, but for 1) language — elegant, propulsive, 2) the larger purpose. The technique was compelling, but I was skeptical as to where Amis was going with it, whether there was anything behind it, but he approaches that timeless question about the Holocaust, “How could it happen?” which–whether you think it’s a question that’s already been full-wrung or whether you think it will never get fathomed or fall somewhere in between these extremes, he tackles at least from another direction, another shape (to put in Jerome Stern’s terms). At once he gets at the absurdity (history starts to make sense only in reverse) and questions of preservation of the past (how effortless, how tempting it is to obscure history). Maybe he’s a privileged xenophobic British prick but in this instance he did some research, got obsessed, took some worthwhile risks.
So yeah, I think that’s worthwhile.
But, notwithstanding your low opinion of mine, and notwithstanding that it’s mean week (so bring it on), I dig the Eyeshot and suspect our reading tastes overlap a lot.
Yeah, well, I’ll stand by the opinion. Guy manages to estrange events by streaming them through reverse causality, which in and of itself could be creative writing 101 gimmickry, but for 1) language — elegant, propulsive, 2) the larger purpose. The technique was compelling, but I was skeptical as to where Amis was going with it, whether there was anything behind it, but he approaches that timeless question about the Holocaust, “How could it happen?” which–whether you think it’s a question that’s already been full-wrung or whether you think it will never get fathomed or fall somewhere in between these extremes, he tackles at least from another direction, another shape (to put in Jerome Stern’s terms). At once he gets at the absurdity (history starts to make sense only in reverse) and questions of preservation of the past (how effortless, how tempting it is to obscure history). Maybe he’s a privileged xenophobic British prick but in this instance he did some research, got obsessed, took some worthwhile risks.
So yeah, I think that’s worthwhile.
But, notwithstanding your low opinion of mine, and notwithstanding that it’s mean week (so bring it on), I dig the Eyeshot and suspect our reading tastes overlap a lot.
I have to admit, I do not totally hate the guy.
I have to admit, I do not totally hate the guy.
I think William Gay owes more to Faulkner than to McCarthy (and McCarthy, esp. early McCarthy, owes the same debt to Faulkner.) Part of the similarity is cultural — both Gay and early McCarthy are working rural Tennessee. But, man: How could you hate William Gay? He’s better than almost everybody.
I think William Gay owes more to Faulkner than to McCarthy (and McCarthy, esp. early McCarthy, owes the same debt to Faulkner.) Part of the similarity is cultural — both Gay and early McCarthy are working rural Tennessee. But, man: How could you hate William Gay? He’s better than almost everybody.
totes on this. you’re insane, charles.
william gay could rip your face off. you’re just lucky he doesn’t have the internet.
totes on this. you’re insane, charles.
william gay could rip your face off. you’re just lucky he doesn’t have the internet.
Unless the comment was directed at the original post. In which case “d-bag idiot” now applies.
Unless the comment was directed at the original post. In which case “d-bag idiot” now applies.
to me, that is.
to me, that is.
well, that’s a pretty ungenerous take. i mean, have you read drown? i haven’t read enough of a brief wondrous life to vouch for (or denigrate) it, but drown is a lot more subtle than what you’re describing, as well as intelligent, funny, complex…
well, that’s a pretty ungenerous take. i mean, have you read drown? i haven’t read enough of a brief wondrous life to vouch for (or denigrate) it, but drown is a lot more subtle than what you’re describing, as well as intelligent, funny, complex…
yep
yep
Wrong. You need to actually read her, not the one poem in your anthology.
Wrong. You need to actually read her, not the one poem in your anthology.
you guys are nutters. He’s posing to the hilt. Gay is a hack!!!
you guys are nutters. He’s posing to the hilt. Gay is a hack!!!
Kyle,
How is Gay similar to Faulkner? How has he done anything that is structurally interesting? He runs the same Gothic nightmare formula in every single thing he does Basically, he writes CHILD OF GOD over and over.
One thing that does suck for him though is Macadam Cage’s weird financial hiccups. His new book was supposed to come out this summer but it keeps getting pushed back…and back.
Kyle,
How is Gay similar to Faulkner? How has he done anything that is structurally interesting? He runs the same Gothic nightmare formula in every single thing he does Basically, he writes CHILD OF GOD over and over.
One thing that does suck for him though is Macadam Cage’s weird financial hiccups. His new book was supposed to come out this summer but it keeps getting pushed back…and back.
William Gay has the most grizzled author photo of all time.
William Gay has the most grizzled author photo of all time.
so much hate and ennui for the great gatsby. it’s a closed system of a book filled with characters who don’t develop. why would i like that?
so much hate and ennui for the great gatsby. it’s a closed system of a book filled with characters who don’t develop. why would i like that?
what about the woman who wrote twilight? i haven’t seen her mentioned. but then again i guess she’s not really considered an “author”.
what about the woman who wrote twilight? i haven’t seen her mentioned. but then again i guess she’s not really considered an “author”.
thanks for assuming i haven’t already given her a fair shot beyond an anthology. i even thought, “well, maybe i just don’t like her in verse,” and gave The Bell Jar a shot. no dice. not my schtick.
if i wanted to want to kill myself, i’d eat lead with a fistful of nails. not slowly digest grubworm depression until my eyes cloud over.
thanks for assuming i haven’t already given her a fair shot beyond an anthology. i even thought, “well, maybe i just don’t like her in verse,” and gave The Bell Jar a shot. no dice. not my schtick.
if i wanted to want to kill myself, i’d eat lead with a fistful of nails. not slowly digest grubworm depression until my eyes cloud over.