Bellow

[John Carvill]

<<So you're comparing Bellow's earlier writing with Bellow the man, in
later 
life.  I assumed that to be just the sort of clumsy writing we're all
guilty of in email from time to time, and meant to compare works to
works.
>>

Well, I don't think there was any 'clumsy writing' but no I wasn't
comparing early with later works. Yes, you're right in saying that I was
in fact contrasting Bellow the writer who produced such great
literature, not just stylish and virtuosic and so on, but exuberant and
fizzing with life, as Herzog or Humboldt's Gift, with Bellow as he was
(or at least came across) in later life. 

What struck me most strongly was Bellow's association with Alan Bloom,
and therefore Reagan - it seemed so contradictory to be decrying the
dying out of the intellectual life in the US, wringing their hands over
declining educational standards, whilst supporting what must have been
the most aggressively philistine, relentlessly anti-intellectual
administration in modern US history. 

I enjoyed Ravelstein, though it was a guilty pleasure. And it was
particularly  unpleasant to read high-minded discussions about the
"meathook people" when you can't help thinking of the death squads run
by reagan in South America.

<< That said, calling Bellow a snide curmudgeonly old reactionary
doesn't sound as though you're looking for debate, with me or anyone
else.>>

I said there was a debate to be had, I didn't actually say I was seeking
one. And starting your email with a cry of 'Bullshit!' doesn't really
suggest you want one either.

You claimed that Bellow's alleged conservatism didn't "color his
fiction". I can't agree with that, surely it would be hard to make that
claim about any writer? In the case of Bellow though, it would be even
harder. Look at Mr Samler's Planet for instance...


Cheers
JC






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