The Feminization of American Culture: Ann Douglas: 9780374525583: Amazon.com: Books

[alice wellintown]

> So you're saying that because some authors aren't good at condensing their
> ideas into shorter forms, they're not as good as those who are able to do
> so? Not sure I agree with that, though it's an interesting idea. Is a two
> hour Coltrane solo less telling than a two minute Miles solo? How to judge?
> Is a sketch by Leonardo more important than the Sistine Chapel? Apples and
> oranges.

Not what I meant at all; it was suggested, not by me, that we might
avoid the apples and oranges, or better, sardines (Melville's
Bartleby) and a four course seafood feast (melville's Moby-Dick), and
also find some common ground, some agrred to criteria by which we
might measure excellence, in style, in character making and so on, if
we took a look at these shorter forms of fiction. As there are so many
of you guys who have studied English Literature, or Literature, I
thought it reasonable to ask that we judge based on something other
than reader-response to the text; that is, consider the works in their
contexts, in the tradition, in their elements. To give this kind of
discussion a focus we might include a work mentioned here, like Mr
James Wood's How Fiction Works, or Booth's The Rhetoric of Fiction. Or
Frye or Bloom, or that book about how to read like a professor.