tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post8479792657763388583..comments2024-03-18T16:55:31.971+00:00Comments on This Space: Modernist vs genre fiction: another distinctionStephen Mitchelmorehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-86189578839563179962007-03-22T00:19:00.000+00:002007-03-22T00:19:00.000+00:00sounds like the underground v. mainstream argument...sounds like the underground v. mainstream argument has gone hyperanalytical. Failure is romantic. Starving artists as well, their cliche still endearing. <BR/><BR/>Is a novel ahead of its time any less great than a novel that finds widespread success within the gen pop?machineAnimalhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14921806579968241741noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-50981511719157126322007-03-18T10:51:00.000+00:002007-03-18T10:51:00.000+00:00Thanks Adrian. I still think genre vs the ruined w...Thanks Adrian. I still think genre vs the ruined work holds because the latter is still to come. It has no genre.<BR/><BR/>No doubt there are writers who appear avant-garde/literary because of that assimilation, but my second post (the one about Orpheus) suggests that the kind of writing I 'm championing - the kind of writing I need - has to face that ruination. I don't need it to triumphantly sweep up formal debts or engage with wider culture etc. I leave that to the chatterers on Guardian blogs.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-45855943037166845082007-03-18T10:32:00.000+00:002007-03-18T10:32:00.000+00:00I don't think "genre" is a word that works outside...I don't think "genre" is a word that works outside of the specifics - scifi genre, romantic genre etc. - simply because that's what I would mean by a genre novel. However, what it true - going back to Haydn/Beethoven thing - is that modernism's legacy is that the leaps in the dark that were taken have now been assimilated. A good example would be how David Mitchell uses many techniques that he's found in the avant garde, but without anyone finding any difficulty in their assimilation; or how "Shadow of the Wind" is so indebted to Calvino/Borges. I think certain types of so-called avantgarde/experimental writing can themselves become generic (e.g. it is not the poetry of JH Prynne that I have issue with, rather that it appears to have no dialogue with the wider poetic culture, which is exactly the same failing you might find in, say, Andrew Motion). I've always felt that "Middlemarch" is more of a source book for ideas, techniques and methodology, for instance, than "Ulysses."Adrianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05651417997212482246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-32088838068463181192007-03-17T23:46:00.000+00:002007-03-17T23:46:00.000+00:00Maybe I'm asleep.Maybe I'm asleep.Stephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-31593581055652963242007-03-17T23:29:00.000+00:002007-03-17T23:29:00.000+00:00Take your pick; some of it might be available wher...Take your pick; some of it might be available where you are:<BR/>http://gabrieljosipovici.inwriting.org/works.shtmlStephen Mitchelmorehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01658772259307446873noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-76956389958695292682007-03-17T23:26:00.000+00:002007-03-17T23:26:00.000+00:00Anyway without any familiarity with Josipovici I'm...Anyway without any familiarity with Josipovici I'm just fumbling around in the dark, so any recommendations regarding his fiction and criticism?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8470094.post-30160382153676931292007-03-17T21:42:00.000+00:002007-03-17T21:42:00.000+00:00But what does freedom from restriction really mean...But what does freedom from restriction really mean? Freedom from language, for example, and its restrictions on my pure natural being, so I instead babble gibberish, or even worse, free jazz? As far as feedom in writing, any imagined restrictions are pretty simply overcome by writing whatever you like. I'm personally not especially bothered by a novel being perhaps lopsided in the way of being part-essay, provided of course that the essayistic side is interesting. In other words I suppose, I'm nore interested in the experience of a good book rather than wondering if its novelistic nature has been sullied or subverted.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com