tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post5758499843713727374..comments2024-03-18T16:55:31.971+00:00Comments on This Space: Jeanette Winterson's The Stone GodsStephen Mitchelmorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-91222617049659985562010-07-20T14:15:39.572+01:002010-07-20T14:15:39.572+01:00I've only just seen chabo's comment (revis...I've only just seen chabo's comment (revisiting this post after almost two years!) - and I can only weep in despair. If anyone is plagiarising, it's Cunningham himself in <em>Specimen Days</em>, which reworks the structure and themes of his previous (much more successful) novel <em>The Hours</em> to an almost fetishistic degree.<br /><br />Winterson, of course, revisits her own obsessions, as any writer does, but she takes time to rework her art each time, even if the results are not always successful. More importantly, she doesn't write for the sake of it, but only when she has something to say. She hasn't written any adult fiction since <em>The Stone Gods</em> three years ago and has no current plans to do so.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-48939771820582400202008-10-08T06:21:00.000+01:002008-10-08T06:21:00.000+01:00The Stone Gods is a poor attempt at science fictio...The Stone Gods is a poor attempt at science fiction and is very close to plagaring Specimen Days by Micheal Cunningham, published in 2005. Specimen Days is very similar but much better written and obviously an original piece of work. Stone Gods is pathetic after you have read Specimen Days. Stone Gods reads as an opportunistic attempt to cash in the mania of climate change and package it as science fiction. I have been reading this genre for 50years, since I was 12 and this attempt is laughable.chabohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05898297396284204488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-61515771005364396752008-08-27T16:33:00.000+01:002008-08-27T16:33:00.000+01:00Max, I suppose the rest of Le Guin's review is fai...Max, I suppose the rest of Le Guin's review is fair enough, though the criticisms seem rather forced. I thought the form rather than the execution led to problems with plausibility. Such a short book with shortish chapters doesn't allow the reader to sink into anything (which I'd guess is unusual in the genre). And I don't recall purple prose; none worth complaining about anyway.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-33656800796625607202008-08-27T16:10:00.000+01:002008-08-27T16:10:00.000+01:00Le Guin is probably getting fatigued by the commen...Le Guin is probably getting fatigued by the comments of folk like Margaret Atwood, also Winterson has spoken very negatively in interviews about sf if I recall correctly, which Le Guin may have erroneously read into the novel.<BR/><BR/>That said, whatever Winterson may have said in interviews, it sounds like the novel was well aware of its own genre and indeed playing with it, which does rather undermine Le Guin's comments.<BR/><BR/>Le Guin also criticses the novel of "fictional implausibility or incoherence" and of sentimentality and purple prose (I believe it was nominated for the bad sex prize this year wasn't it?). What did you make of those criticisms?Max Cairnduffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01456908303542544616noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-21955125469953726132008-08-27T15:39:00.000+01:002008-08-27T15:39:00.000+01:00Thanks John. As it's science fiction, reading it f...Thanks John. As it's science fiction, reading it from another dimension would, I suppose, be appropriate. Of course I'm a year late because I found it in the library only last week. However, it is just out paperback. <BR/><BR/>I don't have the will to review the Booker longlist so I'm glad someone (ie you) is.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-8548801087579323332008-08-27T15:29:00.000+01:002008-08-27T15:29:00.000+01:00A thrilling account of this book, Stephen. As alw...A thrilling account of this book, Stephen. As always you see things in it that I never came close to, as though you're reading it not just from another angle but from, as it were, another dimension. And which means I must now revisit the book in the light of this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com