Interlude: If James Wood Supposes...

[rich]

Why does James Woods feel that fiction written with a birds-eye view
and baked with a sprig of absurdity is somehow illegitimate?

it's rather limiting I would think not to try to speak using tools
prevalent in a modern day, advanced industrial society

I think Woods also misses the wonders to be had telling stories in a
number of genres

being a Brit of a certain kind, he also misses the glory of
jazz-inflected, comic book painted, goofy, marijuana-tinged delicacies
which some American writers are prone to.

anyway

rich

On Feb 2, 2008 7:03 AM, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> I don't know what got me thinking about this number from Singing in the
> Rain, but it connects with my response to Pynchon's holy fool-ishness -- all
> the puns, jokey songs, pie fights, "vitality at all costs" etc. that turn
> off some readers and critics.
>
> In case you don't know the movie (which would be a shame), it's about
> Hollywood as 'talkies' came in to replace silent films… some movie stars
> needed speech coaching to come up to the new standard. Gene Kelly is
> practicing nonsense phrases with the stuffy instructor, then his buddy
> Donald O'Connor comes in…
>
> But the context is irrelevant and soon forgotten, because what's happeniing
> is anarchic joy taking over, as close to animation in its perfect loopiness
> as movies can get. I can never watch it without thinking of Saure Bummer's
> great rant in GR (440):
>
> " 'The point is… a person feels good listening to Rossini…. there is more of
> the Sublime in the snare-drum part to La Gazza Ladra than in the whole Ninth
> Symphony… The walls are breached, the balconies are scaled —listen!' It was
> a night in early May, and the final bombardment of Berlin was in progress.
> Säure had to shout his head off. 'The Italian girl is in Algiers, the
> Barber's in the crockery, the magpie's stealing everything in sight! The
> World is rushing together…' "
>
> Turn up the sound.
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFW-_QEHTws
>
>