reaction to James Wood's New Republic AtD review (part 1)

[mikebailey at speakeasy.net]

If we consider an n-dimensional manifold
to be known as novelspace, for the sake
of simplicity we may choose (among a plethora 
available) 3 major 
dimensions within which to locate a novel:

the ergodic - the work it requires to be appreciated,

the Sentens - the reinforcement of stock virtues,
 and also memorable form given to useful information

the Solas - the pleasure aroused in the reader
 by the contemplation of the story 

(last 2 after Chaucer, of course)

In addition, we may wish to posit an
n-dimensional manifold known as criticspace 
and 3 primary dimensions including
Sense of Tradition
What is being sought
Sense of appreciation

Obviously there's a readerspace with its own parameters...
1) appreciation of authors
2) appreciation of critics...

from which I recently agreed to a free trial subscription
of the New Republic in order to read James Wood's
review of _Against the Day_

Very briefly, my placement of AtD 
1) ergodic - it's more work than I care to do alone
(hence my grateful presence on the P-list)
so in my solo read I created polite blank spaces
on the map to anticipate growth in understanding;

2) sentens - my hypothesis is that P isn't so much
a political writer as a moral writer.  I contend
that Webb's flaws are made clear and his moral 
position is shown as every bit as dangerous as Vibe's.
Vice is punished (or at least, shown to be bad)
and virtue rewarded (or at least, appreciated)
motivations and doubts are explored with depth,
though often succinctly.  In addition, history
and math references are cleverly worded so as to
be memorable and inspire further study.

3) solas - this both is and isn't a matter
of individual taste: it is insofar as it's one's
own decision whether to do the work to appreciate
the book, but it isn't in terms of verifiable
excellence by standards, which the book possesses...
the more I learn of P's writing and of critical
standards, the more convinced I become of this...
(though always willing to entertain contrary notions)

-- an even quicker gander at James Wood in
criticspace - 

1) sense of tradition - he seems to
be well read and to be in agreement with the "canon"
(that isn't a complete endorsement, just an observation)

2) What he's looking for - he very kindly provides
this within fair usage limits for quoting:
"But what if you wanted a novel that had 
little plot but much internal story, 
that was morally and aesthetically complex, 
stylistically difficult and demanding, 
determined to put language to some kind of 
challenge, formally lovely and alluring, 
humanly serious but also humanly comic 
(I mean a book that comically investigated 
deep human motive)? A novel that was narrated 
in the internal voices of several different 
characters, but characters who really have their 
own voices, not just vaudeville ventriloquism?" 

3) Sense of appreciation: he obviously
has one (see point 2) but AtD didn't meet
his criteria.  I'm willing to believe he can
appreciate properly (why else would a person choose
his modus vivendi) - faulting him for only one statement: 
"Many things can be said 
against this writer, but no one has ever 
accused him of lacking talent. 
(It may be that he has too much.)"  This begs
for elaboration, but he gives none.

In part 2, obviously I am going to basically
accept his definition and respond to various
points in his review in an attempt to
show how he missed exactly what he's
looking for...I will refrain from any
hypotheses on whether he would recognize 
a morsos fundamento from his desiderata...