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The American Scholar's Wonderousy Awful Cover Story

Allow me this diatribe...I just read an article in the latest The American Scholar entitled Wonder Bread by Melvin Jules Bukiet. I found it to be one of the worst written scholarly articles I have EVER read.

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/au07/wonder-bukiet.html

Below I will attack certain parts of the article I found particularly ridiculous.

Zany anecdotal tangents fly off the narrative and within sentences via the BBoWs’s favorite units of typography, dashes, parentheses, and italics (because they’re so bursting with ideas that they’ve got to tell you — now)<---oh no, I'm just like the people he hates!



People the author of this The American Scholar piece hates on (in no particular order)

Jonathan Safran Foer

Nicole Krauss

Alice Sebold (attacks well deserved, sort of out of place in this piece i think)

Myla Goldberg

Sue Monk Kidd (again, comparing JoSaFo to the hack who wrote The Secret Life of Bees is almost enough in itself to show this guy knows nothing of what he speaks (Where is a Marshall McLuhan-esque character (Dave?) when I need one?))*

Dave Eggers

Benjamin Kunkel (kunkel must be PISSED! n+1 HATES McSweeneys...though Kunkel has been published in the Believer, self-admittedly making himself a bit in the middle of the conflict)

Michael Chabon (seriously?!)

Paul Auster (because he's from Brooklyn and has a novel with authors as characters?)



he later admits:

Not to begrudge success in any form because the BBoWs are one and all (well maybe not Sebold and Kidd) better written than the vast majority of genre books that comprise most bestseller lists, but this is bunk.



That’s because Kavalier and Clay have no inner life. They are finely inked cartoons without a third dimension. <-------------------did he even read the novel?


Moreover, Lethem doesn’t pull punches. On the second page of The Fortress of Solitude, a kitten is accidentally killed while the protagonist’s mother smokes cigarettes. <--------this makes no sense whatsoever! I have no idea how this makes Lethem better than Eggers or Foer

A second novel by Myla Goldberg and a third book by Dave Eggers travel geographically and emotionally far beyond their initial efforts. Goldberg’s Wickett’s Remedy is set among working-class Bostonians during the influenza epidemic of 1918 and Eggers’s What Is the Whattakes its protagonist from a ferocious civil war in Africa to ambiguous comfort in America. Perhaps needless to say, neither particularly appealed to the authors’ original readership. <------needless to say? apparently needless to document...for an article in the American Scholar, there is a shocking lack of evidence/research to back up such claims

Unfortunately, Helprin was banished from the precincts of wonder when he turned into — or revealed himself to have always secretly been — a neocon and insisted in his nonfiction that the world is a dangerous place. This is especially ironic because the BBoW authors who have learned from him are fundamentally conservative. Though the individual authors are vociferously leftist, they remember and yearn for Ronald Reagan’s blissed-out Morning in America, during which they spent their formative years.<-----that this man teaches at Sarah Lawrence and is published in The American Scholar perhaps says more about the state of academia and scholarship in America than I'd care to believe

In fact, trauma’s never overcome. That’s what defines it. Your father is dead, or your mother, and so are most of the Jews of Europe, and the World Trade Center’s gone, and racism prevails, and sex murders occur. What is, is. The real is the true, and anything that suggests otherwise, no matter how artfully constructed, is a violation of human experience.<----wow. this man, who has apparently written seven books of fiction and edited three anthologies, has basically stated any and all fiction that is not true to real life (realist) is worthless and "in violation of human experience." Damn, I never knew Kafka (among many many many others) was "in violation of human experience"..jeez, I must not understand the human experience...also "sex murders"? really?


clearly displeased,
Brian

p.s. more on Kunkel:


Dwight’s maundering and meandering prior to his rescue is reminiscent of Holden Caulfield’s urban peregrinations in The Catcher in the Rye, which Michiko Kakutani picked up on when she fascinatingly reviewed Indecision for The New York Times in the voice of Mr. Caulfield. This makes sense not only because Wilmerding resembles Salinger’s hero, but because, despite its Manhattan-centrism, The Catcher in the Rye may be the ur-BBoW.

*jeez, I do** use parentheses


**and italics-though I stay away from the dash unless being obnoxious like now...I'm glad he doesn't mention ellipses...or foot notes

All For Now, But More Soon...

I finished Sean Wilsey's memoir Oh The Glory of It All. I thought it was pretty good. Though I'm not sure you would necessarily like it. It's a bit like Eggers' AWOSG, though it's much more straight forward than AWOSG. Basically Sean's parents are wealthy San Fransiscoans who divorce, upon which his life goes to shit and he is sent to various boarding schools, etc...

I'm reading Joan Didion's A Year Of Magical Thinking for the third time, for no particular reason other than that I got it back from Kristen when she visited me in DC a few weeks back...after that there a ton of books I've bought recently that I want to read:

Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Jeremy Scahill's Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Private Army

Vitezslav Nezval' Valeria and Her Week of Wonders (Czech surrealism from the inter-war period)

Ron Currie, Jr.'s God Is Dead (a short story collection that is somewhat interconnected...god is reborn in Dafur and killed in the genocide...the stories pick up there)

Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (getting some pretty great reviews)

George Saunder's The Braindead Megaphone (a collection of his non-fiction pieces...he writes amazing short stories)

T.S. Eliot's The Wastelands (Maggie's bday present 2006 that I haven't read yet)

Karen Russel's St. Lucy's Home For Girls Raised By Wolves (well reviewed short stories from last year)

145 stories in a box (very short stories (under 3 pages) from Dave Eggers, Deb Olin Unferth, and Sarah Manguso)

Millard Kaufman's Bowl of Cherries (the debut novel from a 90 year old who co-created Mr. Magoo and was nominated for two academy awards for writing Bad Day at Black Rock and Braintree County)

My Summer of Literature

This will be my big summer of literature. I have but one friend here in DC. I have loads of free time and nothing to stop me. After this week's insane double week of work and next week with Kristen, I'm pulling out all the stops. Kafka, D'j Pancake, Murakami, Zadie Smith, Garcia Marquez, and loads upond loads more (I'll re-read JoSaFo, Lahiri, and maybe more).

I'd also like to start writing a bit myself. Perhaps The Fall of My Writing?

More thoughts on the books I've read recently and will read into the future...

Two More

I have also started reading:

1.) Samuel P Huntington's Clash of Civilizations. It is often talked about, especially in the post-9/11 world so I felt I should read it so as to be able to intelligently discuss the ideas it contains.

2.) Don Cheadle and John Prendergast's Not on Our Watch. The book is about ending the genocide in Darfur. It also focuses on other crimes against humanity. So far it is excellent.

Books I want to buy soon

1.) Dead Fish Museum
2.) Come Together, Fall apart
3.) Absurdistan
4.)Not on Our Watch (bought today)
5.) The Accidental

Future release:
Michael Chabon's The Yiddish Policeman's Union

Books I am Reading Now

The History of French New Wave-a scholarly book about the rise and success of the French New Wave cinema in the 1960s

Battling Terrorism in the Horn of Africa-a book from a few years ago from Brookings. The title says it all.

How We Are Hungry-still making my way through the novella.it's an eggers book but it isn't as good as HWOSG

The Book of Laughter and Forgetting-the book before The Unbearable Lightness of Being...the first 4 pages, recapping how the communists came to power in Czechoslovakia in 1948, has broken my heart...how I will finish it is beyond my comprehension...

You Don't Love Me Yet-Jonathan Lethem

I finally finished You Don't Love Me Yet. It was somewhat of a letdown. It was a comedy that wasn't terribly funny. It was a book about bands that wasn't all that interesting in terms of the band. It suffered from the all-too-common problem of men writing with a female as the protagonist. This, in and of itself isn't always terrible. However, when female protagonists written by men are involved in sexual situations, it can, and usually does, get awkward. I am not female expert and I don't know how Heidi Julavits and other female friends of Mr. Lethem and their sex lives are like, but from what I can tell, Mr. Lethem does not understand female sexuality all that well.

The reading I went to included a discussion about the writing process of the book. He said that he cut 60-70 pages at the last moment...and thank god for that.

I have heard almost nothing but good things about Mr. Lethem's books. I only wish that this was not my introduction to him. I expect Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude are going to be as great as they are built up to be...I hope so after the disappointing novel I just finished...

Girls on The Verge by Vendela Vida

Girls on the Verge is the result of a master's thesis Vendela Vida wrote while at graduate school at Columbia. It is about various groups young girls join and the rituals and initiation processes they go through to become a member. The book is quite interesting in the insight it gives to both the female perspective as well as unique insight into the idea of joining a group, whether it be a street gang, young newlyweds, a sorority, or attending the Burning Man Festival. An interesting read. I look forward to reading her first two novels. Also, Vendela Vida is the wife of my favorite author, Dave Eggers!

Jonathan Lethem

Last night I attended my first book reading since sometime over the summer, perhaps July but maybe June or, gasp!, even May. Jonathan Lethem (Motherless Brooklyn, Fortress of Solitude) was promoting his new novel You Don't Love Me Yet. At first, from reading the first twenty pages and comparing it what I was led to believe about Lethem, I was confused what the deal with this 200-ish page book about a rock band, kangaroo, and a performance art piece had to do with the literary genius I have heard at least Motherless Brooklyn and Fortress of Solitude possess. Attending the reading gave me a new perspective on the novel. He characterized it as the first comical novel he has written since one of his earlier books. Taken as an exercise in humor, along with the fact that he cut out 60-70 pages in a final edit shortly before the manuscript was due, in addition to the creative process he discussed gave me a new appreciation of the novel. I hope to read more of his novels and some of his short stories and non-fiction pieces in the near future.

Foreign

I have, for years now, been conflicted over the issue of translations. I fear/feel that much is lost in translation. I would love to read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Love in the Time of Cholera and One Hundred Years of Solitude in Spanish but my Spanish is so terrible. Reading Kundera, Kafka, Chapek, Havel, etc always makes me think of the problem/issue with translations. I'm still struggling with the issue. I don't want to miss out on all the great literature in all the languages I do not speak.

The Next Three

In addition to what I am already in the middle of reading, the next three books I plan to start are as follows:

1.) You Don't Love Me Yet-Jonathan Lethem
2.) Night Draws Near-Anthony Shadid
3.)The Cremaster Cycle-Matthew Barney

They Call Me Naughty Lola

I finished They Call Me Naughty Lola. It was really quite good and entertaining.

Below are some of my favorites:
Gynotikolobomassophile (M, 43) seeks neanimorphic F to 60 to share euneirophrenia. Must enjoy pissing off librarians (and be able to provide the correct term for same). Box no. 4732.

I'll spend Valentine's Day giving enemas to goats. I'm not a vet, but I do enjoy volunteer work. Man, 31. Box no. 3287.

Like Dave Eggers, only better. Man, 41. Better than Dave Eggers. Box no. 9442.

They call me naughty Lola. Run-of-the-mill beardy physicist (M, 46). Box no. 4023.

There are many more great ones. These ones just stuck out for one reason or another. Check the book out. It gives you insight into Londoners, British humour, and it shows how absurd personal ads are (and can be!).

Magazines

Below is a partial list of magazines I subscribe to or read regularly (I apologize for any omissions):

The New Yorker
The Believer
Wholphin
Paste
Rolling Stone
All-Story
Harper's
Atlantic Monthly

Occasionally
The Nation
Foreign Policy
Time
Newsweek

New
Monocle (from the people who brought us Wallpaper*)

Literary Journals

Here is a list of literary journals I subscribe to and/or read occasionally/frequently:
N+1 (subscribe)
McSweeneys (subscribe)
Tin House(subscribe)
VQR (The Virginia Quarterly Review)(subscribe)
Open Space (occasionally)

I hope to check out Ploughshares and am always on the lookout for new and exciting literary journals.

N+1

N+1 is a wonderful literary journal. You should check it out. The latest issue, number 5, has some interesting pieces in it. I've read parts of all five issues and plan on getting through them as soon as is feasible. The journal is best known for one of its founding editors being Benjamin Kunkel, the author of the novel Indecision.

I have read Indecision twice and heard Mr. Kunkel talk about the novel once. The novel is deeply flawed. The beginning part takes place in Manhattan and does a convincing job of describing what it is like to be a college graduate working a shitty job and unsure of what it is you are supposed to do with your life. Had the novel been a novella or stayed in Manhattan, it could have been more successful. However, the main character goes to South America and the novel goes south as well.

If you are interested in art, N+1 is copublishing a new journal on art called Paper Monument magazine. If the magazine/journal is anything like N+1 then it's a safe recommendation.

note: From what I have heard, Mr. David Mitchell's latest novel, Black Swan Green, is supposedly a coming of age novel that redefines the coming-of-age story. I plan on reading it soon and imagine, from what I have heard, that Black Swan Green excels where Indecision fails.

VQR!

In the (I believe) Fall 2006 issue of Virginia Quarterly Review there is a literary supplement to celebrate the VQR's victory at the National Magazine Awawrds where VQR won 2 awards tying it for most awards with New York, New Yorker, etc etc (just google it).

The last piece in the fiction/literary supplement is by Steve Almond (a new favorite of mine, though I liked the idea of him as far back as his dj'ing at the Four Stories events at the Enormous Room). The Almond piece is a mock obituary to James Frey of Million litlle pieces. And it is pretty great.

Perhaps Thursday will be my weekly update on what I am reading. Get excited!

Check out VQR, it really is an amazing little quarterly. It has a good balance of fiction, nonfiction, reviews, and all kinds of fun things (including cartoons sometimes!).