NP Very Misc. Wooden idea

[Heikki R]

Yes. In his anti-globalism Hamsun (if memory serves) not only hated the
country but also regarded the English people as arrogant and overcivilized
cosmopolitans.

I agree: "Hunger" is really really good. My other favorites are "Pan" and
"Mysteries", also from his early period. I prefer these to his later - more
settled, and yes, more "soily" - works.

On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 12:21 PM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:

>
> OK, I bite.
>
> That Wood is an a-historical phony becomes obvious not only where he
> disses authors like Pynchon but also where he is on a mission to
> re-introduce authors from classical modernity.
>
> Look at this - doubtlessly: inspired - review of Hamsun from 1998:
>
> http://www.lrb.co.uk/v20/n23/james-wood/addicted-to-unpredictability
>
> ("Hunger" is a hell of a book --- go and read it if you can!)
>
> The sentence which is so extremely stupid is the following:
>
> > His senseless hatred of England – he never supplied any reason for this
> prejudice – drove him into a mindless veneration of Germany. <
>
> "(H)e never supplied any reason for this prejudice(?)" This is bullshit.
> Now, Hamsun was an anti-globalist writer, one of the first. It isn't for
> nothing that the words "earth" and "soil" pop up so often in his work. The
> clearest expression of Hamsun's anti-globalist message can be found in the
> novel "August" (dt. August Weltumsegler) from 1930, which explicitly
> articulates anti-capitalism as anti-globalism, but it goes all through his
> work and can also be found in his journalism. And which nation did
> represent the indivisible world-market in Hamsun's times? That's the UK.
> So, is James Wood an idiot? No, of course not. Probably he just wanted to
> push Hamsun and make him more read among anglophone readers. As likable as
> that is, as off turning is his phony acting stupid. I really despise this
> ...
>
>
>
> On 02.03.2015 12:40, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>> We should gather all our Wood thoughts and self-publish them.
>> Knock(s) on Wood.
>>
>> We might get, Oh, 3--5 buyers outside of ourselves (but I bet even
>> we won''t buy it. Why should we, they are all here).
>> -
>> Pynchon-l /http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>>
>>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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