In Defense of various physics calamities

Sat Apr 21 17:56:54 CDT 2007

Since this is addressed at me I'll respond.

On Saturday 21 April 2007 05:54, you wrote:
> Well-a, I'm going to defend Ms. Pessl.
>   1) Don't confuse what she and her publisher think it may take to sell her
> novel from her talent as a writer. That, imho, is what that piece is about.
> I will say it is obvious that it may have the opposite effect. I will say
> that she seems like she ought to be worried about sacrificing substance for
> self=pleasing trivialities but novels are built from such details as food,
> etc. and only time will tell re that.(I have disagreed with friends who
> seem to fetishize Starbucks and bottled water, say. ) 1a) Such
> 'self-promotion' and company-procured attention is one reason why some
> writers like J.D. Salinger, Cormac McCarthy and maybe----I think his
> reasons are more and deeper than the others--our own TRP avoid it. More
> power to them but there are lousy writers avoiding it too. 2) Writers are
> as various in their habits and perceived needs and likes as human character
> is. I'll bet Oscar Wilde, as the only example I can sorta suggest, might
> have had similar "taste" for example.

I wasn't clear about this earlier, but I don't give two shits about her taste 
in food or her writing methods. Plenty of writers do odd things to get them 
through the chapters; whether she likes to write while standing on her head 
with oral sex administered by Amazon princesses in between is no interest of 
mine (well, it might be interesting to see on Youtube just once, but still). 
I took the piece for what it was -- a publisher's blurb about an author meant 
to "humanize" her to increase sales of the trade paperback edition of the 
book. 

And her habits don't seem at all unusual to me. She likes coffee while 
writing? <Yawn>

>   3) Yes, the writing was "colder" than, say, most of Oprah's picks but no
> colder, I say than some of Nabokov's or, yes, some of our beloved genius'
> TRP [flak suit just donned early this morning]. The narrator's voice moved
> one by the end, for me. TRP's genius shows with incredible brilliant
> 'cold', satiric, prose---where is the "warmth" in that short masterpiece,
> The Crying of Lot 49?. M & D is, however, as warm as a late spring, early
> summer day, I would say. 

Again, I didn't finish the book, but I'm not complaining about the "coldness" 
of the work so much as the overall tone -- it's a brilliant use of narrative 
voice that left me hanging in the wind. I just couldn't bring myself to care 
about the story because Pessl distanced the reader so far from them with the 
tone. Pynchon has been accused of the same thing. 

One difference that bears inspection is that while Pynchon is writing works 
that are essentially metafictional parodies, ie the Chums of Chance are 
_supposed_ to be paper-thin representations of a fictional universe, Pessl's 
characters are much more clearly intended to be realistic. And while Pynchon 
gives us all kinds of craziness to get us through the "dull parts", Pessl's 
work is intended to be all about character and mood. If she's using a 
distancing technique, it's a lot harder to forgive.

I recently read Mary Gaitskill's _Veronica_. (My booklog review here: 
http://countermonkey.blogspot.com/2007/03/booklog-veronica-mary-gaitskill.html) 
It can also be seen as a very "cold" book, focussed on characters and tone 
rather than milieu or theme. Certainly the first-person narrator, despite her 
weakness, is often cold towards those around her. But Gaitskill's command of 
the character draws the reader in despite the lack of warmth, and in the end 
it's the very lack of warmth that becomes the most damning indictment of the 
viewpoint character.

> 4) I think Ms. Pessl has real talent and we could 
> read far worse---and I have. And far worse has been overhyped---and has
> been.
>

Yeah. Personally, I can't believe _The Road_ won the Pulitzer. 
http://countermonkey.blogspot.com/2007/04/booklog-road-cormac-mccarthy.html

>   Mr. Two Penny Blacks
>
> Daniel Harper <daniel_harper at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>   On Friday 20 April 2007 23:38, you wrote:
> > I was wondering back in the fall why Ms. Pessl was being hyped so
> > aggressively by the NYT Book Review. Now I feel better about not being
> > able to get past page 12 of Special Topics. But its nice to know that
> > the food at City Hall is clean. And that Nic is incredible. Hope he
> > finds that k.
> >
> > D.C..
>
> I got about a hundred pages into the hardcover late last year. It's a
> brilliant example of the kind of book the ubereducated narrator might write
> -- referenced and structured just like an AP English paper. But unless
> you're the kind of person who reads AP English papers for fun, it's a
> pretty dry and joyless endeavor.
>
> I may give it another shot now that it's in paperback, but likely I'll just
> skip it again. Those who enjoy her work seem to get a lot out of it, but
> I'm just left cold by the prose.
>
> > _____
> >
> > From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> > Behalf Of Billy Sprangs
> > Sent: Friday, April 20, 2007 4:13 PM
> > To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> > Subject: the future of fiction?
> >
> >
> > what writer orders in fancy sandwiches? what a joke -
> >
> >
> >
> > Novelist Marisha Pessl Motivates Herself With Coffee, Rewards Herself
> > With Cupcakes
> >
> >
> > "Even though Im half-Austrian, I never really used to like German
> > or Austrian food."Photo: Melissa Hom
> > As Marisha Pessl has it, she got so carried away describing food in her
> > best-selling novel Special Topics in Calamity Physics that certain
> > passages had to be edited down. Its no surprise then that beyond the
> > eight or nine cappuccinos she used to drink while writing (she's now down
> > to two or three) and the
> > wichcraft cupcakes she rewards herself with afterward, the author and
> > Tribeca resident is a self-confessed absolute foodie. Now that shes
> > between book tours and working on a second novel (the paperback of
> > Special Topics comes out next week), she says she has a license to feed
> > all the time. So how does she put it to use?
> > Thursday, April 19
> > I cannot eat breakfast. Today I had two or three cappuccinos I made for
> > myself (I have this Italian cappuccino maker). I absolutely need them
> > before I start writing. And its very easy to start steaming milk when
> > you hit a wall.
> > Wednesday, April 18
> > I was meeting a friend at 71
> >
> > Irving Place and had a toasted everything bagel and two cappuccinos. Its
> > a really cute café where a lot of people are writing novels. For lunch I
> > was back in the apartment writing. I usually dont like to interrupt
> > myself so I order a roast-turkey sandwich from
> > wichcraft with avocado
> > and roasted red onions, without the bacon.
> > For dinner I was helping a friend with her film shoot. I had chicken soup
> > at Square Diner at Leonard and Varick. We were in Times Square around
> > midnight so I had matzo-ball soup at Roxys. Ive had matzo-ball soup
> > five times in my life, but the waiter was carrying it by and it just
> > seemed like the perfect thing.
> > Tuesday, April 17
> > I had banana bread at Pecan, one of my favorite cafés in Tribeca  and
> > three cappuccinos. Lunch was at Blaue Gans
> > . I had moules frites. My
> > husband, Nic, and I love going there on Saturday afternoons for brunch.
> > On weekdays you can sit there by yourself, which is nice. Even though Im
> > half-Austrian, I never really used to like German or Austrian food, but I
> > came back from Germany and now we go there even more.
> > Dinner was with Nic at Landmarc
> > . I had roast chicken with
> > crushed potato, green beans haricot vert, and dijonaise sauce. During the
> > week, my husband gets home late so we order or stop in there  they
> > deliver, which is wonderful.
> > Monday, April 16
> > I had two cappuccinos. I was writing, so again I ordered the roast turkey
> > from wichcraft. Dinner was City Hall
> > , a huge restaurant with
> > very clean, healthy food. Its nice to order in during the week when we
> > dont have time to cook, which is most of the time. We had grilled salmon
> > steak and Brussels sprouts.
> > Sunday, April 15
> > We stayed in finishing our taxes. We snacked at lunch  oranges and a PBJ
> > sandwich. Nic cooked hes incredible and made spaghetti pesto dolive
> > from a Mario Batali cookbook.
> > Saturday, April 14
> > I had lunch at Le
> > Bilboquet. The poulet Cajun is the best chicken dish in New York. Dinner
> > was at Pylos , where we got
> > the saganaki and poikilia. Theyre appetizers that you share with
> > taramosalata and melitzanosalata sauce. For the main course, we had baby
> > lamb chops. We discovered this place through our really good friends who
> > are Greek  its Greek traditional hardy food.
> > Friday, April 13
> > Lunch was a skate sandwich from Bouley Bakery
> > . Dinner was at
> > Balthazar  saffron risotto
> > with squid, shrimp, and roasted peppers. I like red meat, but I eat a lot
> > of fish too. I eat everything!
> > Pessl reads from the paperback of Special Topics in Calamity Physics
> > (available April 24) on May 9 at the Chelsea
> > Barnes & Noble.
> >
> > _____
> >
> > Ahhh...imagining that irresistible "new car" smell?
> > Check out new
> >
> > >= X3oDMTE1YW1jcXJ2BF9TAzk3MTA3MDc2BHNlYwNtYWlsdGFncwRzbGsDbmV3LWNhcnM->
> >
> > cars at Yahoo! Autos.

-- 
No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
--Daniel Harper
countermonkey.blogspot.com