Are we the only ones who feel foolishness like this should not be encouraged?
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In his recent TEV guest review of Home Land, Jim Ruland called Sam Lipsyte the "funniest writer of his generation," and we're quite inclined to agree. We tore through Home Land in two joyful sittings and can't remember the last time we've laughed so hard. Lipsyte's constellation of oddly sympathetic losers is rendered with a sparkling, inspired prose style that's sent us off in search of all his prior work. In Lewis Miner's (a.k.a Teabag) woeful epistolary dispatches to his high school alumni newsletter ("I did not pan out."), we find an anti-hero for the age. Highly, highly recommended.
dear Lord, it's almost frightening... the whole point of the article is functionally worthless. it doesn't matter what feeling a piece of literary fiction leaves you with, it's whether or not the piece was well-crafted, whether or not it sought to convey a Truth. i don't read to feel happy, i read to learn, to connect, to expand, and those things make me happy: that is why i read.
Posted by: matt | November 28, 2005 at 02:35 PM
ya, we spent about 30 minutes badmouthing that column on Sunday morning, while having our coffee. The only thing I can say in her defense is that "literary" books marketed to middle-aged women are almost always about family tragedies and incest, and if that's what she's been reading for the last few years, I can see how it would get you down. HOWEVER, there is a universe of books out there: for god's sake go to the library and ask for some recommendations. Read some funny books, some whimsy, whatever. It's not like there aren't quality books of this type.
Posted by: redliner | November 29, 2005 at 11:40 AM
I'm not quite sure that the citizen journalist aspect of this column is such a bad thing, Mark. There will be plenty more jarring notes like this as regular papers try to compete with blogs. Eventually they will get something right.
For example, we have a really odd music column in our Friday entertainment guide at present - in the past the guide has been chock-full of high quality music writing and reviews, mostly about the local scene. Definitely something to be treasured and nurtured - yet one journo who has a quite popular personal blog has started to use her column to review song choices sent in by readers - bang, one formerly excellent column turns into a long crappy meme.
Posted by: genevieve | March 03, 2006 at 08:50 PM