Franzen: s/d

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!

my grandparents used to have a house there. on that island. in the olden days. it was nice.

guys, im hearing you all want to do a purity read-along

purity laugh-along more like

Purity of essence

a copy of 'purity' a new novel by johnny franzen was sitting on my dining room table when i got home last night. i'm still not sure how it got there...

I'm 40 pages in, enjoying the writing more than the story

you should leave it on a table at your local starbucks coffee franchise or one of its independent competitors

what a hateful thing to say

"“Maybe being male is like being born a predator, and maybe the only right thing for the predator to do, if it sympathizes with smaller animals and won’t accept that it was born to kill them, is to betray its nature and starve to death”

“I have often wondered what the prey is feeling when it is captured. Often it seems to become completely still in the predator’s jaws, as if it feels no pain. As if nature, at the very end, shows mercy for it.”

oh franzenpaws

“I have often wondered what the prey is feeling when it is captured. Often it seems to become completely still in the predator’s jaws, as if it feels no pain. As if nature, at the very end, shows mercy for it.”

there are a couple-few articles on the internet presenting being pro-franzen as a contrarian position and they make me sad and disheartened

beautiful http://review.gawker.com/jonathan-franzens-purity-is-an-irrelevant-piece-of-shit-1729287392

judging by this thread, being pro-franzen probably is a contrarian position at this point

there are abt 8thousand more worthy targets for all the shit he gets but whatever

its essentially become a meme for ppl who mostly have never read anything hes written except perhaps excerpts im guessing

thats true up to a point (certainly the more worthy targets part)

i have read the corrections, i recall thinking it was ok at the time (this was like 2009 iirc, i was still in college), i tried freedom and was like "nahdawg" within a chapter or so, then i started noticing the things he was saying out loud

"Often it seems to become completely still in the predator’s jaws, as if it feels no pain. As if nature, at the very end, shows mercy for it.”

Franzen seems utterly captivated by his own ignorant musings. Predators are attracted by motion and many prey animals remain motionless when afraid. What he is describing is commonly called "petrified by fear".

halfway through this, feel compelled to read one of his novels so i can credibly criticize him. the scene where pip throws herself to her knees before Stephen and takes her sweater and bra off and practically begs him to fuck her was so appalling & hilarious. just got to the section with the evil feminist caricature. can't wait to be done

I really don't get the vitriol

xp you're allowed to stop reading

I have not read the book but to me it sounds like Calvinism or Buddhism, to give it an -ism.