James Woods book reviewed, Pynchon mention

[Otto]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Mackin" <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 11:11 PM
Subject: Re: James Woods book reviewed, Pynchon mention


> On Wed, 2004-05-19 at 15:35, Ghetta Life wrote:
> > >From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
> > >
> > >On Wed, 2004-05-19 at 08:27, Malignd wrote:
> > > > "Once Stendhal's mirror is replaced by stories that
> > > > seem happier reflecting on the problems of
> > > > story-telling, as if hugging themselves at their own
> > > > cleverness, old-fashioned realism is replaced by a new
> > > > form of 'hysterical realism', in which novelists such
> > > > as Thomas Pynchon and Don DeLillo need to shout in
> > > > order to disguise the fact that they have nothing to
> > > > say, or nothing worth listening to."
> > >
http://books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,1217666,00.html
> > >

I liked what Rob and Terrance had to say about Woods in 1999 and 2002:

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9910&msg=41953
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0212&msg=73693

Stendhal's mirror means Mimesis in Literature, and behind this is the pretention of being able to tell the "truth" in a novel.
"This is not magical realism. It is hysterical realism. Storytelling has become a kind of grammar in these novels; it is how they structure and drive themselves on. The conventions of realism are not being abolished but, on the contrary, exhausted, and overworked."
-James Wood, "Human, All Too Inhuman," The New Republic, July 24, 2000 http://www.wordspy.com/words/hystericalrealism.asp

Otto
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