The Elegant Variation: SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT - Irony, Self-Awareness and Troy Patterson

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March 03, 2012

SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT - Irony, Self-Awareness and Troy Patterson

In his review of John Leonard's greatest hits collection, Troy Patterson - without a shred of irony or apparent self-knowledge - approvingly quotes the master:

"Any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae.”

Patterson, it should be remembered, turned in a review of my novel that so was vicious that Gawker - Gawker - was prompted to ask "what's up with that." How preposterous do you have to be for Gawker to call you "mean-spirited"?

I'd have higher hopes for the new Slate project if it wasn't deploying television critics to review real books ...

Posted at 12:24 PM | Permalink

Comments

Ah Mark...but for influence wielded upon the popular imagination, a squabble with the mean-spirited TP would be as far beneath you as the Jainian microbes. (Still, a man has got to defend himself against scurrilousness.) Perhaps better is a good timely swoosh of a broad Taoist horsehair whisk, clearing the path ahead of meaningless illusion, the air before us of unseen delusions? Cheers. Keep up the great work. Rob Schackne

Posted by: Rob Schackne | March 03, 2012 at 06:21 PM

Yeah. What Rob said.

Posted by: Raymond Cothern | March 03, 2012 at 08:48 PM

First I've heard about Slate using TV reviewers for books.

That's apples and oranges. That's too bad.

Posted by: Shelley | March 13, 2012 at 10:24 AM

It's not a bad thing to have a long memory.

Posted by: Niall | March 13, 2012 at 11:13 AM

Nice blog! i have another one where i speak about spanish literature, culture and places, in english. The name of my blog is In a village of La Mancha (villagemancha.blogspot.com)

Posted by: jose | March 26, 2012 at 05:51 AM

Attacked hot fudge sundae, =) made me laugh..

Posted by: Kathy U | March 27, 2012 at 06:55 AM

Softly your memory...

Like a
luminous flower
your delicate
sadness returns
near a white
dream....

Francesco Sinibaldi

Posted by: Francesco Sinibaldi | March 31, 2012 at 05:47 AM

So basically novels are too trivial to get upset about. Talk about a left-handed compliment!

Posted by: Niall | April 20, 2012 at 03:33 PM

The first singing.

Somewhere
the soft wind
becomes an
experience
that calls
the desire of
an inner
intention.

Francesco Sinibaldi

Posted by: Francesco Sinibaldi | April 28, 2012 at 06:02 AM

I absolutely agree with Niall.

Posted by: Přečtizamě | April 28, 2012 at 09:25 AM

You made me smile. I am going to try to pick up a copy of Harry today.

Posted by: Susan Malter | December 18, 2012 at 12:13 PM

The comments to this entry are closed.

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HARRY, REVISED - Get all the details here.

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

March 03, 2012

SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT - Irony, Self-Awareness and Troy Patterson

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

March 03, 2012

SOUNDS ABOUT RIGHT - Irony, Self-Awareness and Troy Patterson

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism