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Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Fw: Martin Amis on Bellow , VN , et al
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----- Original Message -----
From: <nitrogen14@australia.edu>
> It's amazing the difference that a few thousand, or even ten thousand
miles, can make. Here in Australia, we never hear of Bellow at all; or at >
least one can ignore him without any real effort. There is no pressure to >
read him, that is; no one would make a new year's resolution that THIS is >
the year he/she will finally get around to reading Augie March. Augie who?
So there are benefits to insularity.
>
> On the other hand, we are well-used to having a small number of Australian
> crap-artists shoved down our throats in the just way that Amis is >
hard-selling Bellow; anyone who has read Patrick White, the national
Australian duty, will smile at hearing that another Nobel laureate is the
Great American Novelist, just as unreadable White is the Great Australian
Novelist. We have heard it all before.
>
> For me, having read nothing whatsoever by Bellow, there are three reasons
for thinking that he (and his ultimate place in literature) will not amount
> to much; none of them is conclusive, but each is suggestive; together they
are strongly suggestive:
> 1. VN's dismissal of him in the collected letters
> 2. his receipt of a nobel prize
> 3. Martin Amis's approval of him.
>
> regards
> Peter Hayes
>
>
>
>
From: <nitrogen14@australia.edu>
> It's amazing the difference that a few thousand, or even ten thousand
miles, can make. Here in Australia, we never hear of Bellow at all; or at >
least one can ignore him without any real effort. There is no pressure to >
read him, that is; no one would make a new year's resolution that THIS is >
the year he/she will finally get around to reading Augie March. Augie who?
So there are benefits to insularity.
>
> On the other hand, we are well-used to having a small number of Australian
> crap-artists shoved down our throats in the just way that Amis is >
hard-selling Bellow; anyone who has read Patrick White, the national
Australian duty, will smile at hearing that another Nobel laureate is the
Great American Novelist, just as unreadable White is the Great Australian
Novelist. We have heard it all before.
>
> For me, having read nothing whatsoever by Bellow, there are three reasons
for thinking that he (and his ultimate place in literature) will not amount
> to much; none of them is conclusive, but each is suggestive; together they
are strongly suggestive:
> 1. VN's dismissal of him in the collected letters
> 2. his receipt of a nobel prize
> 3. Martin Amis's approval of him.
>
> regards
> Peter Hayes
>
>
>
>