Franzen: s/d

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ByfW-6CIYAAFbne.png

uh didn't he already write a book that did that

sure, but now someone else is writing another one

met a nice avian at a party tonite who demurred at pynchon but enthusiastically boosted this chap and his corrections

lol I mean, no

reasonable effort but i challenge u to create the most condescending post

o fuck off

that do

fwiw we bonded over dickens, and I'm wasted, and go fuck yourself, what the fuck happened, u used to be chill but for the last year or so str8 up asshole

wait was that not a joke? i honestly thought it was! but good lord

met a nice avian at a party tonite who demurred at pynchon but enthusiastically boosted this chap and his corrections

lol I mean, no

ffs

ur collectively gonna have to do more than that to win me over to team franzen

only posted here coz someone recommended him to me & by some coincidence the thread was bumped. ignore me, I know nothing and am shitfaced. just seemed to me a weird preference but I've only seen Franzen in extract form so w/e he might be great. don't saddle me with c
condescending tho ffs, it is simply preferences in isolation

lol fair enough as i am also hammered

Kathy Acker got there first:

"Jonathan Galassi, president and publisher of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, described “Purity” as a multigenerational American epic that spans decades and continents. The story centers on a young woman named Purity Tyler, or Pip, who doesn’t know who her father is and sets out to uncover his identity. The narrative stretches from contemporary America to South America to East Germany before the collapse of the Berlin Wall, and hinges on the mystery of Pip’s family history and her relationship with a charismatic hacker and whistleblower."

TIME Magazine cover to come

http://bookriot.com/2015/02/14/jonathan-franzen-parody/

JF: Really. Well, I don’t spend time on those media, and you can see why. Why would I want to go there? To some extent I feel it means I’m doing my job, which is to try to tell the truth. You know, no prophet is welcome in his homeland. If I am indeed a polarizing figure here, it is certainly true that I am not a polarizing figure in Europe.

http://booth.butler.edu/2015/02/13/a-conversation-with-jonathan-franzen/

dude's a prophet.

Bad answer, but the question was kind of crappy to begin with. I don't know what a gracious answer to this would be:

SL: You do seem to be, amongst writers, a polarizing figure. I don’t mean to be offensive, but it seems to be that you are the writer other writers love to hate. Why do you think this is?

Best thing probably would have been to not answer.

Jonathan Franzen, arguably the best living American novelist

What's to argue?

http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/mislaid-an-interview-with-nell-zink/

in case like me you are liable to see franzen blurbs and become suspicious

3:AM: It’s well known than Jonathan Franzen wanted to promote your book, but were there challenges in that?

NZ: There’s the challenge that I’d get lost in the shuffle, but then I was coming from having absolutely no reputation at all, good, bad, or otherwise.

It was certainly very helpful to have this connection with him because he’s sort of click bait. When people write about me they’ll find a way to mention him so they can tag their post with his name.

The net effect has been very positive. I mean it’s not like I’m a dyed-in-the-wool Franzen fan. People who are sceptical about his work might think, “Oh, she sounds so interesting, but if Franzen likes her she must secretly be really square.” I can understand that, I really can.

I think of stuff like Freedom as deeply reactionary work. But I’ve been hammering on his head for a while and I think [Franzen’s next novel] Purity is different. Probably Purity will be a flop or something. But I think in Purity he stretches out a little bit and you see that he does have occasional critical thoughts about how the world works, and he’s not just trying to get families back together. Because family’s much more important than anything in the whole wide world… There’s a little more to him than that.

Pretty suspicious of Nell Zinc, tbh.

The Wallcreeper was really good

really? ok. i might take a look. she comes across like a grumpy teenager in interviews.

his new yorker piece about bird preservation and climate change was very nearly the worst thing I remember reading in that magazine

I liked his short story in the summer fiction issue

Yeah, her interviews would put me off, too, as would the Franzen connection, but fortunately I read The Wallcreeper before I knew about any of that stuff

my hero:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/aug/21/jonathan-franzen-considered-adopting-iraqi-orphan-young-people

didn't think my hatred for this middlebrow bas' could grow any further.

Franzen getting sonned on twitter is not exactly a rare occurrence but I still love this:

But he insisted: “I’m not a sexist. I am not somebody who goes around saying men are superior, or that male writers are superior. In fact, I really go out of my way to champion women’s work that I think is not getting enough attention. None of that is ever enough. Because a villain is needed. It’s like there’s no way to make myself not male.”

Speaking about a character in his forthcoming novel, Purity – a fanatical feminist who, among other things, forces her husband to urinate sitting down on the toilet to atone for his maleness – Franzen predicted that she would enrage his critics; in fact, she already has. “After all these years we finally get to read a man’s take on feminism,” tweeted the Canadian writer Anne Thériault. “Bless you and the hard work you do, Mr Franzen.”

i urinate sitting down on the toilet at night so as not to make too much noise because of an ilx post by roxymuzak

that known man-hater, roxymuzak.

i don't think he was meaning that, although i may be wrong.

oh no, i'm very keen on roxy, it was not a slight on her or flopson, i was just being silly.

apologies.

michiko likes it - http://nyti.ms/1KI5cww

Just glanced at Grantland takedown somebody posted on FB that seems pretty otm

I liked his short story in the summer fiction issue

― johnny crunch, Wednesday, July 1, 2015 3:15 PM (2 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

didnt realize this was an excerpt, it worked stand alone 4 me

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/the-franzen-of-it-all-purity-and-the-great-american-novelist/

i have broken my vow to never learn the plot of jonathan franzen's 'purity', i guess

cant you read ferrante instead i miss talking to you about books

i saw someone at the bistro i had lunch at with this book on her table, she didnt pick it up once during her meal, preferring the company of her phone

tbf i'm not actually gonna read this

tbf she was probably making the right choice

anyway i am reading nell zink and that's already too close to franzen

http://i.minus.com/jbzHff8gxenJou.jpg

i saw someone at the bistro i had lunch at with this book on her table, she didnt pick it up once during her meal, preferring the company of her phone

― dead (Lamp), Saturday, September 5, 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

#winningAtLife

Now imagining Franzen sitting right behind her and fuming.

I loved that Grantland piece.

yeah, it's kinda beautiful!

I'm on vacation in Sanibel this weekend, and visiting the local bookstore I saw a copy of Purity. I held it up and said to the cashier, "You're gonna sell a lot of these."

She nodded. "Unfortunately."

ha!