Recent Activity

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  What did you think of Muse 2008?

  I actually thought Franzen was effective, especially when he spoke off the cuff. I wish he'd ditched the essay and done the whole thing extempo, but at least he did the Q & A. He definitely came across as unapologetic and slightly embittered about the Oprah thing, but he also admitted that he was naive, which implies that he wouldn't handle it the same way today as he did at the time. He could've chided McCarthy as a sell-out but in fact lauded him for forging a compromise with Oprah, making it work for him, which means that he doesn't look down on Oprah per se. In fact, my impression was that he doesn't, that he was resentful that he felt that he had to be effusive with gratitude for her and that the street didn't go in both directions. Is he right about this? I'm not sure, but he probably has a point. Anyway, I would rather that he'd talked a bit more about the muse and less about the marketplace; the essay was fine, and his point about how reading literature enabled his family dynamics to suddenly crystallize before his eyes was engaging, as were his remarks about how The Trial shook up his world-view. But, again, not to harp on the point, I would've preferred that the muse portion had been less scripted given that he can clearly work without a script.

  Posted 30 Jun 08 in the narrative ark

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  What are you reading?

  Greer's stories are great...I reread (or is it rereread?) his collection, How It Was for Me, every couple of years and am continually delighted by it. "Life is Over There" in particular is a great story. I'm also a big Franzen fan, but Strong Motion is not nearly The Corrections. It does contain one of the best sociocultural encapsulations of a place that I've seen in a literary work, when the main character is running across Somerville toward the end of the book. I don't have the book in front of me so I can't cite page numbers, but in my recollection he nails it--it's like viewing film footage of a mad dash across town.

  Right now I'm in the midst of teaching a class focused on short stories, so what I'm reading is an onslaught of those. One of my favorites that we are reading tomorrow is Ron Carlson's "The N," published in Narrative Magazine last year. It gets my adrenal glands going just thinking about this story--it crackles on the reread. The story was nominated for a Million Writers Prize for best online story but didn't make it to the top ten selection, which I can't quite believe.

  Posted 30 Jun 08 in the narrative ark