TS: Franzen - The Corrections vs. Freedom

(no disrespect to kate bosworth, who i am sure is lovely. i like many authors other would consider embarrassing too. but the headline' lol)

jonathan franzen though, seriously. the david brooks of novelists.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5FvI33QH1M

Not sure exactly what he is getting at, that we shouldn't have hard-to-read doorstop novels, but we should have easier-to-read, people-friendly doorstop novels courtesy of his truly, with some Booker Prize-worthy Michael Hamburger Helper mixed in to keep it classy?

characters, man. it's about characters. and not being ashamed.

I get my full of characters everyday , both on the subway and at either end.

He was listing authors that belong to contract and status and there were writers from both I liked and disliked, whose novels I finished and left unfinished. Meaningless theory.

On the doorstop front I can't believe he didn't finish The Golden Notebook. It has a nice structure that gets you into the book, the writing is quite clear (no 'games' like Gaddis or his ilk).

If the retreat from Modernism didn't start decades ago, Jonathan Franzen would have had to invent it.

Freedom has really stuck with me... elevated beach read/soap sort of book, but really enduring for me nonetheless...

There's plenty of room for the Franzens, Mario Puzos and Arthur Haileys of the world. They're no worse than 90% of what passes for entertainment out there and distinctly better than most of it. Not everyone is going to read or enjoy the latest translation of a Nobel-nominated Estonian litterateur.

i clicked on that video upthread about Overrated Writers joking to myself that he was gonna say david foster wallace. he says that graham greene and e.m. forster are novelists americans don't "get", offers no specific qualities in greene/forster that would make them difficult for americans to get, then suggests as an example of the reverse ohhhhhhh idk, david foster wallace? who british people, not me you understand, but british people, don't get because they think he's "purile, easy, bratty, annoying, broad, or whatever". hemingway had more class talking about fitzgerald's dick anxieties in a movable feast. the fictional salieri had more class murdering the guy.

kinda hilarious that the sponsor of that video calls itself bigthink.com.

There's plenty of room for the Franzens, Mario Puzos and Arthur Haileys of the world.

No argument with that, it's just that Puzo and Hailey weren't feted in the press as wise prophets with IMPORTANT THINGS to say about society/literature/etc. Franzen seems to be inexplicably always being asked his opinions, even though they are trite, predictable and annoying.

aimless how do you feel about John Norman

Upon close interrogation of my feelings I find none of them are attached to John Norman. I wish I could say I had heard that name before you mentioned it, but I have not.

But it is a big world we live in and all of us are more ignorant of it than not.

I wish I was ignorant of John Norman

gorblimey

please don't sully the good names of Puzo and Hailey by linking them with this nullity

aimless how do you feel about Max Hardcore

Puzo is so bad, I did guiltily enjoy that blog article thing that was linked a while back that was just passages from the godfather interspersed with "wait what" or "yeah, that happened" or whatever. I'm sure some similar bit of content exists for freedom, and maybe one day I'll see that linked and enjoy that