J Wood and Flaubert

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

The most celebrated/infamous text influenced by "Temptation" being, as we
know, the "Circe" episode of Joyce's Ulysses.

I've read practically nothing by J Wood, but I'd presume that like Wilson,
Goldberg, Peake et al, he prefers Ulysses' first, "initial style" half to
its second, "experimental" half - the half where "Circe" so conspicuously
radiates.


Heikki

On Thu, 25 Apr 2013, Matthew Cissell wrote:

> It is certainly telling that the only mention in How Fiction Works of
> Flaubert's "Temptation of St. Anthony" is when Wood calls it an
> "overblown lyrical fantasia" (p.188). He must know how important that
> work was for later writers, however, it doesn't really fit in with his
> devotion to Jamesian realism or his view of Flaubert.
>
> ciao
> mc
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Tom Beshear <tbeshear at att.net>
> To: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>; Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es>
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 5:03 PM
> Subject: Re: Modern world and paranoia
>
> Judging from How Fiction Works, Wood's ideal is Henry James, which means he
> prizes psychological realism above all else. And that's not what Pynchon,
> DeLillo, Wallace, Vollmann, etc. etc., are doing.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Bekah" <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "Matthew Cissell" <macissell at yahoo.es>
> Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2013 10:08 AM
> Subject: Re: Modern world and paranoia
>
>
> Sounds to me like Wood gets confused between what he likes and what is good.
> Just because a reader doesn't personally like a book doesn't mean it's not
> fine lit.   Paranoia could be a part of 21st century realism the way
> religion was often a part of Victorian lit.  I tend to appreciate Wood,
> too - but I think he's stuck in the early 20th century about some things.
>
> Bekah
>
>
> On Apr 24, 2013, at 2:29 AM, Matthew Cissell <macissell at yahoo.es> wrote:
>
> > Nowadays it doesn't take anytime at all to form a conspiracy theory. Go
> > ask Gene Rosen who helped some kids on his driveway the day of the Newtown
> > masacre, poor man.
> > And now we have Boston. Several witnesses have identified the supect as
> > the perp, video footage, and now an admission of guilt - and people claim
> > it is a conspiracy; check out the movement to protect poor little Dzokhar
> > from THEM.
> > So given all this we must address James Wood's claim (in his essay on
> > DeLillo from the Broken Estate): "Indeed, Underworld proves, once and for
> > all, or so I must hope, the incompatability of the political paranoid
> > vision with great fiction." Further along he says that paranoia is bad for
> > the novel. Hmm.
> >
> > I readily admit my admiration for Wood's erudition and critical prose,
> > however, my admiration ends there. In trying to advance his mission
> > (reshaping the view of literature through his choice of lens) he goes too
> > far out on a limb that will not support the weight of his ego or inflated
> > ideas.
> >
> > Now I suppose Alice might bring me up on all that but I can handle it.
> > Waddayathink AL? Is Jimmy Wood right about paranoia and the novel?
> >
> > ciao
> > mc otis
>