Philip Roth Didn't Deserve the Booker International Prize

[alice wellintown]

Mailign, just because your head is small enough, your ass large
enough, to couple, you should not assume others can perform such
contortions of the spine.

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 4:53 PM,  <malignd at aol.com> wrote:
> You have your head up your ass.  And please, define beauty, so we can all
> know it when we see it.
>
> It's rarely if ever stunningly beautiful. Applying Nabokov's silly
> formula for the great writer, we find that Roth is a master story
> teller and a teacher, but he lacks that which, according to Nabokov,
> "predominates and makes a major writer." Looking at my list, I find
> that I've read more Roth than nearly any other American, but none
> (other than_The Breast_ and  _The Dying Animal_) is stunningly
> beautiful or poetic in style. Roth simply does not have real magic. He
> is great story teller, though I tire of his Jewish NJ fair, and he can
> instruct, but he's a sorcerer's apprentice still.
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Mon, May 23, 2011 1:52 am
> Subject: Re: Philip Roth Didn't Deserve the Booker International Prize
>
> It's rarely if ever stunningly beautiful. Applying Nabokov's silly
> formula for the great writer, we find that Roth is a master story
> teller and a teacher, but he lacks that which, according to Nabokov,
> "predominates and makes a major writer." Looking at my list, I find
> that I've read more Roth than nearly any other American, but none
> (other than_The Breast_ and  _The Dying Animal_) is stunningly
> beautiful or poetic in style. Roth simply does not have real magic. He
> is great story teller, though I tire of his Jewish NJ fair, and he can
> instruct, but he's a sorcerer's apprentice still.
>> Roth's work is stunningly great.
>>
>> If that's what the prize is about, then it's well-deserved.  A lot of
>> times these prizes go to somebody who's relatively unknown and help
>> that person's career along.  Obviously, awarding it to Philip Roth
>> will not have that effect.  But sometimes it's good to be reminded how
>> great somebody is, even if you already knew it.
>>
>