tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post116042887956599291..comments2023-10-21T07:44:20.549-04:00Comments on The Existence Machine: What Novels are ForRichardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1160524233862460152006-10-10T19:50:00.000-04:002006-10-10T19:50:00.000-04:00Ha! Yeah, it's a really pompous review, isn't it?...Ha! Yeah, it's a really pompous review, isn't it? He seems immensely pleased with himself. At least when James Wood does this kind of thing there's a sense of an intelligence grappling with something.Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08014014605639738887noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1160523690133978772006-10-10T19:41:00.000-04:002006-10-10T19:41:00.000-04:00And I think the idea that poems cannot be made out...And I think the idea that poems cannot be made out of ideas would be news to Wallace Stevens.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23471801.post-1160496916414343352006-10-10T12:15:00.000-04:002006-10-10T12:15:00.000-04:00Reviews written by people fundamentally unsympathe...Reviews written by people fundamentally unsympathetic to an author's approach or subject matter almost always say more about the reviewer, and personally I'm not very interested in any reviewer's limitations. A Powers enthusiast is unlikely to learn whether the new novel succeeds by Powers's standards, and someone unfamiliar with Powers can only see that the reviewer finds the entire Powers enterprise unfulfilling, which is not useful unless you share the prejudices the reviewer espouses as the objective goals of the novel; so who is the review for? People who already agree, who can have a fine and unchallenging time having their disappreciation validated. I can't imagine why a venue like <I>The Nation</I> finds this inert lump of question-begging interesting. I suppose it's supposed to be provocative, but what it provokes isn't thought: it's irritation on the one hand and complacency on the other.Scrapshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17482867072396893124noreply@blogger.com