tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8906697713462162467.post7070391210648535681..comments2024-03-26T09:05:17.508-04:00Comments on Doubt the Experts: Literary PreferencesPaulhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16298717917068277282noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8906697713462162467.post-13367711300123220612014-05-31T07:27:06.417-04:002014-05-31T07:27:06.417-04:00I probably place too much emphasis on Moore becaus...I probably place too much emphasis on Moore because I followed her career closely, had high expectations and was disappointed. You are right that she is to some extent a victim of the system - she is in way over her head and dealing with it badly. She has no business writing articles for the same publication that has featured Tony Judt, Isaiah Berlin, John Kenneth Galbraith and Steven Weinberg. The NYRB eventually gave her the easiest of assignments imaginable: reviewing TV shows. <br /><br />I just read another review of "Bark" that points out a glaring historical inaccuracy in her last novel that wasn't mentioned by any reviewers at the time of its publication. She has recently moved into more political themes, but has no factual accountability, apparently because literary fiction gets a free pass on that.<br /><br />WLF was fun for a while, but it wasn't a good place to get into detail on anything because of the diversity among the posters. Eric was enjoyable to read, but far more conservative than I am. I liked Marcel even though he was a cantankerous overgrown brat. Whenever I get hits on this blog from Germany and Sweden I think of them.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16298717917068277282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8906697713462162467.post-55642987293474307892014-05-31T04:16:09.611-04:002014-05-31T04:16:09.611-04:00To tell the truth, I haven't read a lot of Lor...To tell the truth, I haven't read a lot of Lorrie Moore (three or four stories, maybe), but nothing I read of hers really wanted made me want to read more of it. For me, Moore--the poor thing, it's not really even her fault--is just the embodiment of all that is wrong with celebrity in the American literary fiction subculture, where, as a rule, a writer's fame is inversely proportional to his talent.<br /><br />But I thought you had a good post or two at WLF about Moore and the reception of her work. It seemed to me you had even managed to give another poster there pause. You're also quite right that initiates don't criticize fellow initiates. If they do, as you say, they'll be ostracized.Fariohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03866017486978991106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8906697713462162467.post-82581800111865941682014-05-29T15:32:46.338-04:002014-05-29T15:32:46.338-04:00It's hard to say how the Lorrie Moore phenomen...It's hard to say how the Lorrie Moore phenomenon will play out, in part because of uncertainty about the ongoing evolution of the American literary fiction subculture. At the moment she seems to have a following of students who have been studying her writing for nearly thirty years. Many of them hoped to have career trajectories like hers, but almost none of them will. Her fame won't dissipate quickly, because she is still well-connected at major writing programs, The New Yorker and the NYRB. She could fade into the sunset and still be considered one of the major American writers of her era without doing anything different.<br /><br />From the standpoint of literary justice it would take a prominent literary figure to come out and say that most of her work is crap, but that is unlikely to happen because her cohort is self-protective. Anyone who said that publicly would probably be ostracized by the club. <br /><br />What gets me is that she seems to put very little effort into her work or care about the consequences. In the past I mistakenly thought of her as a public intellectual who wasn't living up to her potential. I now think of her as a lazy typist who doesn't like to work and doesn't give a crap about anything.<br /><br />Anyway, my main point was that in practice it is a waste of time to discuss a writer's merits on the Internet, where critical thinking is usually discouraged. If you dislike or disagree with something, I guess you're supposed to quietly slink off to a different website.<br /><br />Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16298717917068277282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8906697713462162467.post-68272836018158934552014-05-29T14:38:33.978-04:002014-05-29T14:38:33.978-04:00You're right in general, I think, but on Lorri...You're right in general, I think, but on Lorrie Moore in particular it may be that the literary crowd is coming slowly around, without admitting it, to your way of thinking. Interest in the latest whatever it was--a collection of stories, I think--seems to have waned very quickly, despite the reviews in the usual (suspect) outlets.Fariohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03866017486978991106noreply@blogger.com