Franzen: s/d

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.

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

this is fairly accurate for me, i have to admit. i haven't read any of his books, but i have read several non-fiction pieces by him, and they were witless and dour and unfunny, which is what put me off

and in interviews he seems to be a dickhead too

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

― johnny crunch,

Name them.

I can mutter a mild "yes" when acknowledging that social media can turn against someone too quickly these days, but for a best seller whose novels get automatic Important Novel status he deserves backlash for the facile shit he got away with too easily. Also, I can say, "Franzen is essentially a favorite of people who mostly never read any contemporary fiction."

yea i mean hes not a fav of mine, some backlash is fine, hes clumsy abt plenty of things, but hes a p good fiction writer and ill continue to read him

name who? i just mean the vitrolic vibe. its v much piling on

i think ive said before that his non-fic is terrible imo, & i have ignored it since that how to be alone compilation

what james said. about essays and interviews and dickheadism. and the bits of the novels i have read are always terrible and accidently hilarious. so, the accidental hilarity is a good thing, i guess!

he definitely brings the vitriol out in me. kinda like phish.

Also, I can say, "Franzen is essentially a favorite of people who mostly never read any contemporary fiction."

https://twitter.com/kathrynschulz/status/631557508650242048

agreed that he is a dickhead but disagree that he's a favorite of people who never read contemporary fiction

I don't believe that point either: I was expressing the stereotypical view of Franzen. From working at an indie bookstore at the height of The Corrections mania, I know that everyone bought it, including Iggy Pop.

he's the moby dick of american lit.

so who read Purity and can report?

i've never read anything by him but i find the aggressively negative reactions on twitter pretty annoying

my mom loved The Corrections, reads contemp lit but prob not the hip stuff that person on twitter has in mind when they say contemp lit

Also, I can say, "Radiohead is essentially a favorite of people who mostly never listen to any contemporary music."

i felt like the shittiest shit of a son years ago when i scoffed at my mom for reading and liking the bridges of madison county. it was like kicking a puppy. sorry, mom! i never ever made fun of anything that anyone ever read again. at the most i will just say: yeaaaaaaaah, i don't really think that's my kind of thing...

“Even at the height of her preoccupation with Stephen, she hadn’t wanted to be his object; hadn’t fantasized about submitting and obeying. But these were the terms of the susceptibility that Andreas, his fame and confidence, had revealed in her.”

Pull out his eyes
Apologize

Sorry, wrong Stephen

i thought it was... idk, enjoyable, probably? 'freedom' felt actively awful, like the parts that were stupid or upsetting or ugly were there on purpose, so franzen cld shove yr face in what celebrated author jonny franzen knows about life. it was confrontational in its badness. 'purity' was mostly fun if sort of bad as like, a book with ideas in it. its strange to read the grantland piece because i think hes become a complete failure as a writer of characters, no one in 'purity' thinks or acts or seems like a person that would exist irl. theyre totems of various 21st century ills and manners, franzen seems of late to have lost interest in people and gained a tremendous passion for Issues, and most of his characters now seem to be vehicles for working through or commenting on the issues that matter. all these needlessly beautiful young women who represent something but mean nothing.

but i also think hes bad at the details of character. pips massive student loans are the genesis for much of the plot but they make no sense to me. the number (so often repeated) of $130K was just so incongruous to me that i spent twenty minutes googling tuition, financial aid, and loan relief info for uc berkeley (average student debt load on graduation $16K). even assuming that pip received zero financial aid the $130K number is about 30K too high but given what we know about pip, about her mothers income, it makes no sense that she wouldnt have applied for financial aid. that she wouldve rejected work/study positions and summer jobs or failed to apply for any busaries or done anything to mitigate the cost of college. especially because her college debt is what drives her to search for her father! as with so much else it feels like franzen learns about the world by half-reading articles in the times, there are so many characters that feel like the vague acquaintances in trend pieces about daycares for child pyschics

all this aside it was pretty fun, the plot was exciting and interesting, i wanted to find out what was happening and why.

im halfway thru, plot was losing me but then did just get good i think

I'm sure he is not as bad as those of us who haven't really read him assume he is, but his varied and sundry statements about how he is going to turn the ship of literature around and point it in the right direction are irritating, the number of red flags raised and buttons that are pushed approach Pomplamoose levels.

this is a good piece about hating writers you've never actually read:

http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/08/31/on-the-pleasures-of-not-reading/

^ A nice jeu d'esprit. I liked it until the final paragraph, where the author strove to end with a flourish and instead it's just rather awkward.

all this aside it was pretty fun, the plot was exciting and interesting, i wanted to find out what was happening and why.

― dead (Lamp), Sunday, September 13, 2015 7:32 PM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i feel the same way. very entertaining read, but i didn't get anything out of it other than a good story. is it asking too much to want more from THE BEST AMERICAN NOVELISTTTTT? no
and good god he can't write about sex at all. "There's no other way to put it - she played with the dick."

hating essays about hating writers you've never actually read that you've never actually read

had to google that quote, hilarious stuff

http://i.imgur.com/0nTBGsl.png

can't remember anything from freedom apart from enjoying it, corrections was good imo

taking sex scene lessons from john updick. i mean updike.

writing about sex is like dancing about Frank Zappa

Who is narrating that passage?

Not "Leonard," right?

leonard is obv the dick

Tom Aberrant, pip's dad

i was a big fan of Great Expectations by Kathy Acker.

and i think that book also said a lot of things about...modern things. and Prince.

hated the Prince talk in Motherless Brooklyn. what's with these guys? why does my tone meter go all kerflooey with these guys?

why does my tone meter go all kerflooey with these guys?

right??