Tracking the ever-elusive Great American Novel

[David Casseres]

OK, now I read your subsequent post and realize that you did get it.
Sorry.  Late at night, or some such excuse.

On 5/25/06, David Casseres <david.casseres at gmail.com> wrote:
> Jesus H. Christ.  If you aren't even sure whether or not Maxine Hong
> Kingston's culture is Chinese or not, then dude, YOU DIDN'T DO THE
> READING.
>
> On 5/23/06, jd <wescac at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Mal, it's just that literary taste is relative... a lot of people
> > think Pynchon sucks because GR isn't straightforward enough (for
> > example a few people I tried to get to read the book)...  I think
> > they're a little closed-minded but I can't really condemn them for
> > having what I consider bad taste.
> >
> > Now, Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman Warrior, for example, I can make an
> > explicit statement about - it's not non-fiction (this was a book that
> > was discussed in a class of mine, in which I was told I was intolerant
> > of asian culture because I refused to consider it non-fiction, which
> > is partially where my touchiness on this sort of subject comes from).
> > For those who haven't read it, it's a memoir that consists partially
> > of fantasy and partially of long-ago conversations with second-hand
> > sources... which I don't think can be considered non-fiction (though
> > it won an award for best non-fiction of the year when it came out) -
> > like simply a novel that spoke of asian (I believe Chinese, if I
> > remember correctly, just to not be quite so broad) culture wasn't good
> > enough, and she had to qualify it by claiming it as non-fiction.  It
> > was a class in which I was the only guy and pretty much everyone
> > disagreed with me, but it doesn't make me feel so bad since one of the
> > lines someone in the class wrote about the book was something like
> > "Maxine Hong Kingston's writing haunts me and makes me want to puke
> > and the more I want to puke the more I'm convinced of her talent",
> > though with many mis-spellings and improper grammer (and she wasn't
> > foreign).
> >
> > On 5/23/06, jbor at bigpond.com <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
> > > On 24/05/2006, at 7:58 AM, MalignD at aol.com wrote:
> > >
> > > > << And those words were? We still don't know, because the report we
> > > > got  was
> > > > that Toni Morrison (an African American women) complained that the
> > > > Venus de
> > > > Milo was a misogynist work while labouring under the mistaken  belief
> > > > that it
> > > > was created without arms. You found it "a funny story"  >>
> > > >
> > > > If it's true, and I have no idea regarding its truth, it is a funny
> > > > story
> > > > about Toni Morrision.  But not therefore about African American Woman.
> > > >  Isn't
> > > > equating one with the other -- individual with group -- a little ...
> > > > racist?
> > > > Sexist?
> > >
> > > Sure it'd be funny story if it were accurate. But if it isn't accurate,
> > > which seems likely enough, then how come it's getting the mileage? I
> > > mean, it does make her seem ridiculous. That was what it was intended
> > > to do, isn't it?
> > >
> > > Most complainants about Morrison and her work in this thread have been
> > > careful to say that they'd say the same if it were anyone, Bono or an
> > > albino on steroids, for example. I'm not saying that they wouldn't.
> > > However, because Morrison's work is explicitly about "correcting the
> > > record", as you yourself note, then it's important that we're clear
> > > about which "record" it is that she's trying to correct.
> > >
> > > The comment (not yours, note) that "there's a percentage of those who
> > > get caught up with the fact that she's black and female and fail to
> > > make an honest judgement based on her written text alone" runs both
> > > ways.
> > >
> > > best
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>