NP - for the Lit freaks

[Mark Kohut]

Here's one ' problem' for some of us, indicated by your remark, Matthew, on
Jude Law. If we know what Wolfe looked like, it jars. Hollywood knows they
must cast look-alikes if the protagonist is universally known.

But they can rely on few knowing or caring enough about ole Wolfe in real
life, but right off, I'm put off.  I mean size matters here, right? 6 feet
6 inches tall is a synecdoche for that river of hyperprose, no?

Wolfe was persuaded by Edward Aswell
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Aswell> to leave Scribner's and sign
with Harper & Brothers
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harper_%26_Brothers_Publishers>.[17]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wolfe#cite_note-NCU-17> By some
accounts, Perkins' severe editing of Wolfe's work is what prompted him to
leave.[18]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wolfe#cite_note-vqr_catawba-18> Others
describe his growing resentment that some people attributed his success to
Perkins' work as editor.[9]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wolfe#cite_note-nytimes_2000-9> In
1936, Bernard DeVoto <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_DeVoto>,
reviewing *The Story of a Novel* for *Saturday Review*, wrote that *Look
Homeward, Angel* was "hacked and shaped and compressed into something
resembling a novel by Mr. Perkins and the assembly-line at Scribners."[19]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wolfe#cite_note-19>[20]
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Wolfe#cite_note-southern_journal-20>

wikipedia says he even influenced Philip Roth, which I cannot see at
all except that the best are reminiscent of the best in some ways.

Sent from my iPad

On Jun 13, 2016, at 12:42 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

Of Time and the River left a mark--used to read him alot in my younger
days. lots to wade through but when he hit right, he soared man.
in some sense he is very much like Kerouac in garnering the attention of
those of an artistic bent longing for experience.

Rich

On Mon, Jun 13, 2016 at 3:08 AM, matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com>
wrote:

> You might be a lit freak if a movie about Maxwell Perkins and Thomas Wolfe
> gets you excited. You're probably a Thomas Wolfe fan if the casting of Jude
> law for The Gigantic writer dimmed your hopes a bit. (To be fair, it must
> be nigh impossible to find someone as big as Wolfe but with talent for
> delivering lines.)
>
>   I know Wolfe's purple prose is out of fashion but he really does deserve
> more attention than he receives, if not just for his writing than for his
> story. How many other writers were there to cheer Jesse Owens right under
> Adolph's stupid 'stache? Oh, and let's not forget that when Wolfe saw what
> was happening in Germany in the late 30's it turned him from his
> germanophilia.
>
> Wolfe is a very important influence for US lit. Kerouac clearly was
> influenced by Wolfe, but so was Bukowski and even our dear old Pynchon.
>
> What's more, the relationship between Perkins and Wolfe lends credence to
> Joshua Shenk's argument in The Power of Two that relationships are often
> what lie behind cultural production rather than the "myth of the lone
> genius has towered over us, its shadow obscuring the way creative work
> really gets done." So what does that leave us to ponder about TP?
>
> ciao
> mc
>
>
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