How Flaubert Changed Literature Forever

[Becky Lindroos]

Yup -  from me, too!   

Bekah 

> On Dec 15, 2014, at 10:52 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> On Mon, Dec 15, 2014 at 5:31 AM, matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    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
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l