haha, this is great
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Tuesday, 28 May 2013 23:03 (eleven years ago) link
Reading ten of her collections in a row has induced in me not a glow of admiration but a state of mental torpor that spread into the rest of my life. I became sad, like her characters, and like them I got sadder. I grew attuned to the ways life is shabby or grubby, words that come up all the time in her stories, as well as to people’s residential and familial histories, details she never leaves out. How many rooms are in the house, and what sort of furniture and who used to own it and what is everybody wearing? To ask these questions is to live your life like a work of realism.
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Tuesday, 28 May 2013 23:04 (eleven years ago) link
feel like a lot of specific readings are questionable, and it's, i think, something like: one part stuff actually not-great about alice munro's fictional project to one part author of the article's lack of sympathy with the not-necessarily-in-their-own-terms-objectionable aspects of that project to one part the burnout inevitable if you read ten collections in a row (!) to one part munro's own slight decline over recent years
but still fun to see i guess
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Tuesday, 28 May 2013 23:10 (eleven years ago) link
i like how mental torpor = being hyper-aware of your surroundings and asking lots of questions. he admits that he feels differently and sees the world differently after reading her work! she has an effect! and yeah you probably WOULD get really bummed out if you read ten collections in a row.
i don't think it would be any great shame for someone to just admit that they got bored of reading about small-town shabbiness in provincial Canada.
i don't think i actually read munro for the realism. i mean it feels real detail-wise, but what the hell do i know about canada in the 50's and 60's? not a whole hell of a lot. and i don't seek out tons of other writers who write about small town canadian life in the early and mid 20th century. that's not what i'm in it for. there are hundreds of decent regional writers. but i don't think people rave about her because of her expert eye for period detail.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 04:09 (eleven years ago) link
that's not the same thing as reading her 'for the realism' tho
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Wednesday, 29 May 2013 17:05 (eleven years ago) link
i don't even know what i was going on about. just wish that guy would look up the word torpor. as far as realism goes, i actually think part of munro's appeal for me is escapism. reading her is like following someone else's dream. but someone with interesting/entertaining dreams. most dreams are boring. and not worth following. i'm not a fan of dream novels. but i do like people who put me in another place that i would never be without them. and i don't care if that place is real or not. i guess that's the appeal of most writing. for me anyway. i mostly read sci-fi now for that reason.
in any case, a trained eye for detail is very much a part of what makes realism work but that is not what makes her stories work for me. a large part of what does make them work for me is going from point a to point b and being kinda blissfully unaware of how i got there. in the best cases. not everyone bats a thousand. you have to go with the flow of the river though. there is trust involved. if you don't like where she is taking you there are always chances to close the book.
― scott seward, Wednesday, 29 May 2013 18:32 (eleven years ago) link
mb this guy was forced to read all ten collections in some kind of clockwork orange style scenario
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Wednesday, 29 May 2013 21:55 (eleven years ago) link
the stories blur if you read too many of'em at once but that's normal -- it happens every time I read a story collecction
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 29 May 2013 22:00 (eleven years ago) link
^^^^^^^^
I gobble collections too quickly and I'm left with just an oconnorness or a carverness or a xueness or a barthelmeness or w/e, but how the hell else am I supposed to read?
― too busy s1ockin' on my 乒乓 (wins), Wednesday, 29 May 2013 22:08 (eleven years ago) link
Bum. She has announced she is retiring from writing.
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Sunday, 23 June 2013 22:57 (eleven years ago) link
i think its fine. she's 81. plus, i can imagine she'll write some more stuff anyway. kinda hard to stop if you've been doing it as long as she has.
― scott seward, Sunday, 23 June 2013 23:11 (eleven years ago) link
the last collection seemed to imply this was the case, maybe, a little
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Sunday, 23 June 2013 23:24 (eleven years ago) link
but, yeah, i mean, good on her, i think?
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Sunday, 23 June 2013 23:25 (eleven years ago) link
I'm all in favour of people quitting while they're ahead--see E M Forster--I just want more good stuff because I'm greedy
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Monday, 24 June 2013 01:39 (eleven years ago) link
Good for her. I've got enough Munro to reread the rest of my life.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 24 June 2013 01:42 (eleven years ago) link
not why forster quit iirc
― the bitcoin comic (thomp), Monday, 24 June 2013 16:19 (eleven years ago) link
only just saw this! sad news
― just sayin, Tuesday, 2 July 2013 10:38 (ten years ago) link
Great profile in today's NY Times. Amazing that she published her first stories at age 37, in 1968.
― lols lane (Eazy), Tuesday, 2 July 2013 14:53 (ten years ago) link
Yep. She gives me hope. Prodigies are rare.
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 2 July 2013 14:55 (ten years ago) link
Nobel Prize!
― woof, Thursday, 10 October 2013 11:02 (ten years ago) link
WOOOOWWWWW
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 10 October 2013 11:04 (ten years ago) link
https://twitter.com/Nobelprize_org/status/388258838744297472
― woof, Thursday, 10 October 2013 11:15 (ten years ago) link
fuck yeah
― just sayin, Thursday, 10 October 2013 11:27 (ten years ago) link
this news makes me v happy
― just sayin, Thursday, 10 October 2013 11:28 (ten years ago) link
she deserves it!
― nostormo, Thursday, 10 October 2013 12:06 (ten years ago) link
Hurrah!
― Ismael Klata, Thursday, 10 October 2013 13:31 (ten years ago) link
Congratulations to Ms. Munro. Many excellent writers do not get the prize because the selection committee tends to shun controversy, but she is at least as deserving as the winners of the past.
― Aimless, Thursday, 10 October 2013 20:35 (ten years ago) link
<3 you baby if you're reading this lol xxx
― i lost my shoes on acid (jed_), Friday, 11 October 2013 01:10 (ten years ago) link
heyyyyy way to go, alice, great work!!
― anonymous jazz majors (Matt P), Friday, 11 October 2013 22:40 (ten years ago) link
i'm really pleased about this.
― estela, Friday, 11 October 2013 22:54 (ten years ago) link
yeah this rules
― anonymous jazz majors (Matt P), Friday, 11 October 2013 22:55 (ten years ago) link
nice little retirement present. beats a gold watch.
― scott seward, Friday, 11 October 2013 23:02 (ten years ago) link
i think i'll let myself read a new story of hers to celebrate, i've been hoarding a pile of unread ones like silas marner but without the gloom.
― estela, Friday, 11 October 2013 23:19 (ten years ago) link
wow cool that THE AMAZING RANDY writes for the onion now
http://www.theonion.com/articles/thunk-u-for-nobbel-prise-me-happie-now,34171/
― anonymous jazz majors (Matt P), Friday, 11 October 2013 23:21 (ten years ago) link
nobel prizes for algernon.
― estela, Friday, 11 October 2013 23:24 (ten years ago) link
haha yes i've had the newest book for awhile now and am putting off reading it, since it's probably the last one!
― just1n3, Saturday, 12 October 2013 03:16 (ten years ago) link
ex boyfriend just said her work was "overrated." How much do I pay bounty hunters?
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 October 2013 04:39 (ten years ago) link
Tell me one great Munro short story to read. I've never gotten through one.
― idembanana (abanana), Saturday, 12 October 2013 16:07 (ten years ago) link
"Floating Bridge"
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 October 2013 16:09 (ten years ago) link
Meanwhile, in Norway,I've heard a buncha people complain about how the Nobel "once again" picked someone "no one has heard of." Wtf.Quite a few of her books have been Norwegianed, for what it's worth.
― Øystein, Saturday, 12 October 2013 21:04 (ten years ago) link
Uh, I love "Englished" but "Norwegianed" was a lousy idea.
James Wood: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2013/10/alice-munro-our-chekhov.html
― the objections to Drake from non-REAL HIPHOP people (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 12 October 2013 21:10 (ten years ago) link
i've been wondering recently why munro seems so underexposed despite being so beloved. like, is it just that she writes in a relatively unpopular form (the short story)? how much does it have to do w/ her being a woman? or canadian i guess? (or am i just mistaken about her popularity?)
― 1staethyr, Saturday, 12 October 2013 21:32 (ten years ago) link
"or am i just mistaken about her popularity?"
this
― nostormo, Saturday, 12 October 2013 21:48 (ten years ago) link
maybe i need a more literary friend group
― 1staethyr, Saturday, 12 October 2013 22:02 (ten years ago) link
she definitely has fans in the u.s. (among literary types who have been reading her in the new yorker for years and her trade paperbacks are fairly ubiquitous and she always gets gushing reviews in newspapers so anyone who buys lit books based on those reviews has to know about her) and canada, but i don't know about elsewhere. my opinion is skewed though cuz i have lived in philly, marthas vineyard, and western mass for decades now and those places are filled with brainiacs who read a ton. but her rave newspaper reviews are nation-wide. i would say "college-educated New Yorker Magazine reader" would seem to be her target audience here BUT i think there is also book club crossover with her and i kinda can't believe Oprah never raved about her but maybe she did and i missed it.
also, yeah, short story collections one notch above new volumes of poetry as far as sales go probably. with some exceptions.
she is listed on oprah mag's fave women writers list:
http://www.oprah.com/oprahsbookclub/Favorite-Women-Writers/3
and she gets reviewed by francine prose in O mag:
http://www.oprah.com/omagazine/Too-Much-Happiness-by-Alice-Munro-Book-Review
― scott seward, Sunday, 13 October 2013 02:40 (ten years ago) link
she is way too subtle for an oprah bookclub choice
― just1n3, Sunday, 13 October 2013 03:44 (ten years ago) link
As much as anything, I became more aware of her as each Best American Short Stories annual, from the late 80s through the 90s, featured one and sometimes two of her stories, without a break in the run.
― Lover (Eazy), Sunday, 13 October 2013 05:15 (ten years ago) link
Would it shock y'all to know that Bret Easton Ellis thinks she's overrated?
― the vineyards where the grapes of corporate rock are stored (cryptosicko), Wednesday, 16 October 2013 15:55 (ten years ago) link
http://i39.tinypic.com/ff48q0.png
― Lover (Eazy), Thursday, 17 October 2013 02:26 (ten years ago) link