tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post8112148963181793423..comments2024-01-06T10:36:04.084-05:00Comments on A Commonplace Blog: Categories of the novelD. G. Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10659136455045567825noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-20304241113543991142009-12-22T16:27:21.598-05:002009-12-22T16:27:21.598-05:00From what I remember, Martha Nussbaum says similar...From what I remember, Martha Nussbaum says similar things about literature and particularity in <i>Love's Knowledge</i>. But it's been a few years since I read it.<br /><br />I'm currently reading James Wood's <i>How Fiction Works</i> which (to begin with at least) provides an interesting and accessible examination of some of the differences in technical aspects of novels written in the third- and first-person. If you've read it, I'd like to know what you think.<br /><br />W/r/t Nabokov: I posted a list of things he is reported to have 'loathed' recently on my blog (the <a href="http://guypursey.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">Small Boats</a> one) following a BBC documentary on <i>Lolita</i> that was aired last Saturday. It might be of interest to you, though I don't think the literary items in the list will surprise you. (A link to the documentary is on the blog too, available until Thursday I think.)<br /><br />Thank you for mentioning Liddell; I shall check my local library for <i>Treatise on the Novel</i> (or the Booth volume) in the New Year. I've read a few books from the 1940s recently so it'll feel especially relevant.Guy Purseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03389223432095066078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3458341.post-25363021095691434552009-12-21T14:52:06.251-05:002009-12-21T14:52:06.251-05:00Part of what I find so attractive about used books...Part of what I find so attractive about used bookstores is the inability to predict just what I'll find discarded by other readers.<br /><br />Last week I stumbled across Cynthia Ozick's "Art and Ardor".<br /><br />This is the first time I've read her non-fiction and am enjoying it immensely. Last night I reached the essay titled "Innovation and Redemption: What Literature Means", and thought of this post. Re-reading it this morning I think it more complimentary (in spirit at least) than contradictory. <br /><br />Fighting the urge to copy out the last half a page of the essay in this comment, I hope you'll permit two concluding sentences instead.<br /><br />"Literature, to come into being at all, must call on the imagination; imagination is in fact the flesh and blood of literature;..."<br /><br />"Literature is the recognition of the particular."<br /><br />Regards,Jonathannoreply@blogger.com