tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post6669057481013510271..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: The romance of certain old booksD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-81357472077853505562014-01-29T12:47:26.440-05:002014-01-29T12:47:26.440-05:00Encounters with lost fiction from the near past fo...Encounters with lost fiction from the near past for me are only romantic in a disturbing way. Used bookstores, a while ago at least, would have rooms of novels from previous decades. I rarely saw anybody looking for a title on these shelves. It was oppressive to contemplate the unceasing flow and sediment of literary silt, especially if you had any thought of writing something yourself. BMCnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-22162387414023201512014-01-29T11:02:34.136-05:002014-01-29T11:02:34.136-05:00What you call “presentism,” and rightly regard as ...What you call “presentism,” and rightly regard as inimical to the appreciation of great works of literature, I would call historicism: the self-contradictory notion that the intellectual and moral horizons of all men in all times are limited by their times; but our time is uniquely enlightened and the beliefs of the right-thinking among us provide a standard by which to judge all men in all times. So it is that contemporary critics can reduce Bellow and Roth to being typical of their time and yet somehow morally culpable for it. <br /><br />Great works of literature are the best cure for this. My best teachers used to say, again and again, that it’s okay to have an opinion about this or that book, so long as you understand them first. Their point was that part of what made a great writer great was that he most likely anticipated any criticism you might have and, before you condemned a writer on some charge, you owed him a sort of due process whereby you at least gave him a chance to present his defense. That Roth or Bellow did not anticipate feminism is a laughable example of adolescent misreading. Bellow’s writings, for example, are about nothing if not the ironic, sad, but yet exuberant comedy ensuing from the clash of modern and fashionable ideas, such as the sexual revolution and feminism, with the permanent needs and desires of the human heart. Great writers are not simply time capsules or even time machines; at their best, they are timeless in so far as they can elevate a reader beyond the constraints and limits of time. <br /><br />I don’t read Bellow because he is simply “different” from me. I read him for reasons similar to those that made me want to watch Michael Jordan play basketball: the fascination and delight of watching a prodigy do his thing, with the fervent hopefulness that maybe, just maybe, tonight I would see him do something extraordinary. While I can see the romance in old, forgotten books, I don’t think that I need to watch and know, say, the 1991 Bucks or Sedale Threatt's game, to appreciate Jordan. And even if I wanted to, who really has the time anymore?<br />Palinurusnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-25616822350609886452014-01-29T10:44:38.885-05:002014-01-29T10:44:38.885-05:00I discovered Richard Yates as a Seinfeld fan. A se...I discovered Richard Yates as a Seinfeld fan. A season two episode is based on him, and the character Elaine is loosely based on his daughter.Richnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-64808676014973304532014-01-29T10:10:39.074-05:002014-01-29T10:10:39.074-05:00Pykk is a future Book Blog Hall of Famer. He make...Pykk is a future Book Blog Hall of Famer. He makes it a little hard to jump in. He is always in the middle of something, a perpetual middle.<br /><br />In <i>Moby-Dick</i> the whales take of themselves pretty well, so we can keep it.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-22699393875821233492014-01-29T06:21:46.742-05:002014-01-29T06:21:46.742-05:00As a kid I loved little old libraries in villages,...As a kid I loved little old libraries in villages, schools, or cottages. It was important that the libraries were small. I hated the thought of somehow having to choose from among more books than I could ever read, but from a smaller collection of just a few shelves I could pick out a few titles or covers that caught my eye. Knowing that they would be works of obscure mediocrity was liberating because it removed the pressure of having to Duly Appreciate them. Finding that some of them were surprisingly good in some ways, I think I became more appreciative of other books that were very good in many ways, but also more willing to cast a cold eye on famous works.<br /><br />Yet isn't the romance of old books that never made the cut for the canon part of the problem of English lacking a core of first principles? <br /><br />There is also a certain romance of old scientific theories. Hardly anyone considers it a disservice to past scientific ages, though, when we graciously overlook their failures and remember only their achievements.James Anglinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18266855639647700167noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-77357278435010782652014-01-28T22:14:57.777-05:002014-01-28T22:14:57.777-05:00I enjoy the blog called Pykk - http://pykk.blogspo...I enjoy the blog called Pykk - http://pykk.blogspot.com.au/ - which seems to me to be largely devoted to close readings of the kind of half-forgotten writers you are referring to. Re presentism, I assume Moby Dick must now be cast out, for daring to portray such a shameful activity as the pursuit of whales, without any proper recognition of our duty to save those creatureszmkchttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08972549292961948240noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-17192793724265808132014-01-28T15:04:50.132-05:002014-01-28T15:04:50.132-05:00I remember going to a diner in Middletown, Conn., ...I remember going to a diner in Middletown, Conn., in the early 1980s and seeing Paul Horgan sitting alone in a booth. He had a neat little stand that allowed him to read and eat at the same time. Richard LeComtehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13986639064661051138noreply@blogger.com