does anyone still read this guy? i find "naturalism" to be fairly hokey on an intellectual level but oh man is this stuff insanely readable. Zola of course pwns but norris, specifically McTeague and the relatively obscure Vandover and the Brute, are so essential and crazed. Crude, awkward, undisciplined but relentless and feverishly brilliant. The Octopus has its momments but doesn't have the power of the stuff Norris wrote while he was still in college. Any of you San Fran types dig him for the local connection?
― gershy, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 06:29 (eighteen years ago)
Yay, a Norris lover! 'McTeague' is the best--one of the most bleakly funny books ever, with a nastily brilliant ending. His short stories can be a bit disappointing, though--very much what the magazine market of the time wanted, with not much extra to raise them above the standard-issue stuff.
― James Morrison, Wednesday, 12 September 2007 23:48 (eighteen years ago)
I read McTeague too young. I got next to nothing out of it, but I don't blame the author. Some day maybe I'll go back and give Norris another whirl, but I've gotten away from nineteenth century novels and I find I do not yearn to go back to them.
― Aimless, Thursday, 13 September 2007 17:40 (eighteen years ago)
I enjoyed McTeague a lot - especially for its portrait of early, teeming San Francisco. I'd like to re-read it, actually. I've only heard mixed things about the other stuff - so, so far I've passed...
― Jeff LeVine, Thursday, 13 September 2007 21:24 (eighteen years ago)
Seriously, try Vandover if you can find it, it's insane (and fairly short)
― gershy, Friday, 14 September 2007 02:13 (eighteen years ago)
Alright - i just ordered it! Will try to report back...
― Jeff LeVine, Friday, 14 September 2007 18:43 (eighteen years ago)
"Had a flying squirrel an' let him go."
― James Morrison, Tuesday, 18 September 2007 05:32 (eighteen years ago)
Any of you San Fran types dig him for the local connection?
Yes. Also see the reconstituted 'Greed' by von Stroheim.
― Michael White, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 14:50 (eighteen years ago)
I am going to take this opportunity to once again push the novel Pandaemonium, by Leslie Epstein, a huge chunk of which recounts events very similar to the filming of Greed.
― James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 19 September 2007 16:53 (eighteen years ago)