Subject
Re: "Barbara Braun" in NEW YORKER's "Conclusive Evidence" (fwd)
Date
Body
From:Thomas Bolt (bolt@tbolt.com)
I agree with almost everything that
Mr. Zimmer says, except that I would
point out that *free association*,
or whatever we decide to call it,
is only bad, lazy thinking when it
is the LAST step of the process of
investigation that goes along with
serious reading. As an intermediate
step, taking the risk of blurting
out idiotic, and even tasteless
things, may help us eliminate
them as possibilities - just as
scientists (who ideally are
investigators, not polemicists)
use failed experiments. Most
experiments fail. The next step
is (I hope) the one we are taking
now - sorting the merely personal
associations, and the too-obvious
or anachronistic or silly ones,
from the possible, resonant, and
interesting ones.
Context *is* a great test. In VN's
story "Conversation Piece, 1945,"
where he takes up the anti-German
theme that does indeed come up in
his work (see especially the chapter
on poshlust' in the GOGOL monograph),
the unpleasant German is given the
good-old-American name of Dr. Shoe.
When VN uses a name to sum up a
character (LOLITA's Mrs. Chatfield),
it is never to take up issues so grave
as Nazism. In fact, that kind of
writing, where the author seeks an
automatic reaction, a "powerful"
response, by merely invoking terrible
events, would be condemned by VN as
the worst sort of poshlust'.
I do suspect that VN would
find Walt Whitman both a great poet
and something of a cornball, so
the LILACS title makes some sense
here. As Mr. Zimmer points out, it's
sentimentality that's being
parodied.
PS
Does anyone think that this piece,
as an ending to SPEAK, MEMORY!
is very good? I for one don't think
it's VN at his best. Compared to
the rest of the book, it seems
(remember, I do say *compared*)
a bit shallow and heavy-handed.
PPS
A usage note: AMEN CORNER is used
this way (currently and then):
"What else do you expect, from
Bill Clinton and his amen corner
in the press (James Carville, etc.)?"
"What else do you expect, from
Henry Hyde (did VN make up this
name, too?) and his amen corner in
the House?"
Tom
I agree with almost everything that
Mr. Zimmer says, except that I would
point out that *free association*,
or whatever we decide to call it,
is only bad, lazy thinking when it
is the LAST step of the process of
investigation that goes along with
serious reading. As an intermediate
step, taking the risk of blurting
out idiotic, and even tasteless
things, may help us eliminate
them as possibilities - just as
scientists (who ideally are
investigators, not polemicists)
use failed experiments. Most
experiments fail. The next step
is (I hope) the one we are taking
now - sorting the merely personal
associations, and the too-obvious
or anachronistic or silly ones,
from the possible, resonant, and
interesting ones.
Context *is* a great test. In VN's
story "Conversation Piece, 1945,"
where he takes up the anti-German
theme that does indeed come up in
his work (see especially the chapter
on poshlust' in the GOGOL monograph),
the unpleasant German is given the
good-old-American name of Dr. Shoe.
When VN uses a name to sum up a
character (LOLITA's Mrs. Chatfield),
it is never to take up issues so grave
as Nazism. In fact, that kind of
writing, where the author seeks an
automatic reaction, a "powerful"
response, by merely invoking terrible
events, would be condemned by VN as
the worst sort of poshlust'.
I do suspect that VN would
find Walt Whitman both a great poet
and something of a cornball, so
the LILACS title makes some sense
here. As Mr. Zimmer points out, it's
sentimentality that's being
parodied.
PS
Does anyone think that this piece,
as an ending to SPEAK, MEMORY!
is very good? I for one don't think
it's VN at his best. Compared to
the rest of the book, it seems
(remember, I do say *compared*)
a bit shallow and heavy-handed.
PPS
A usage note: AMEN CORNER is used
this way (currently and then):
"What else do you expect, from
Bill Clinton and his amen corner
in the press (James Carville, etc.)?"
"What else do you expect, from
Henry Hyde (did VN make up this
name, too?) and his amen corner in
the House?"
Tom