How Flaubert Changed Literature Forever

[matthew cissell]

    This piece (first printed on Jan. 18 1999) is important for several
reasons. Here we see the Uber-critic as Ultra-aesthtete show us the Birth
of Style in Flaubert as he demonstrates his credibility by mentioning a
number of important figures while setting forth his position on what Fine
Literature should be. But more importantly this sets the stage for his big
piece which would appear several months after this article; in July of 2000
the NEw Rep published Wood's "Human All Too Inhuman" in which Wood coined
his term "hysterical realism", targeting Pynchon amongst other authors.
This is the rock upon which Wood has built his reputation. And this stance
has served him well. His trajectory has led him to a position in Harvard
despite not having a PhD, no minor accomplishment.

   (That this is Wood's religion is clearest when he writes of "'aesthetic
mysticism' worthy of ... reverence" at the end of the article on Flaubert.
To understand his belief we may take a line from late Wittgenstein and
alter it to: "He acts with complete certainty. But this certainty is his
own." But that would be better suited to the game philosophers play and
that is not Wood's cup of tea. One must take a different tack.)

  Wood ostensibly strives for "bearable levels" of what Joyce called "the
scholastic stink" (see his intro to How Fiction Works), and yet it is
interesting what is included or excluded from his citation list. Russian
formalists and Roland Barthes appear often. But what does this reduction
render?

       After Wood's "How Fiction Works" was published at least two people
noticed something that no one else had seemed to pick up on. Both William
Deresiewicz and Thomas Jones realized that Wood had made a monumental
mistake in his reading of a section of Joyce's "Portrait..." regarding
Mr.Casey's cramped fingers. Wood really thought that Mr. Casey's fingers
were cramped from making a present when it was actually due to hard labor.
Scholarship has shown that Joyce modeled that character of Casey on a
friend of his father who had done hard labor.

   Reducing scholastic odors may be fine for literary authors but for
critics and scholars it could be a problem. Wood's aestheticism requires
that he not look very far beyond the pages of a book to grasp what it means
for him; it can not be seen as a cultural product that originates in a
specific social context.

    Wood's article on Flaubert appeared seven years after Pierre Bourdieu's
own impressive book "The Rules of Art" (in part written in contrast and
response to Sartre's study of Flaubert), which focused on Flaubert and
specifically Sentimental Education. Bourdieu asigns Flaubert a significant
position in the field of french literature in the latter 1800's, so one
might expect it to appear in an article about his pivotal role in
literature; however, Bourdieu is not Wood's cup of theory.

  In fact the article's title is not in line with the writer's aim.
Afterall it doesn't inform the reader about how things were in belles
lettres prior to Flaubert.  It might be better titled "The Origin of Style"
or the Birth of the Modern Literary Aesthetic since Wood is trying to
convince us of where fine literary style comes from and how it should be
done.

  And so? Well, Wood has done well for himself, but I suspect we may begin
to see him change a bit. No radical u-turns mind you, but some subtle
shifting in poistion. Bear in mind that he is no longer New Republic but
Harvard and changes of institution accompany changes in position. Go watch
the video on Youtube    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsbKT50ud04
 around the seven minute mark he speaks of having his" blindnesses
corrected" regarding DFW. Does this mean that someday he may reevaluate his
view of Pynchon? Who knows. I would say that the present day world (drones,
Boston Dynamics, CSER, Snuggies, assassinations (successful, botched or
radioactve), all make Pynchon's work pertinent and fresh. And as much as I
can appreciate Wood's love of WG Sebald I doubt that that author will speak
to as many readers as Pynchon's work will continue to do.

Gone on too long - happy holidays
otis

On Sat, Dec 13, 2014 at 1:54 PM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>
> http://www.newrepublic.com/article/120543/james-wood-flaubert-and-chekhovs-influence-style-and-literature
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
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