tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23443331.post114801620986756191..comments2024-01-02T02:46:52.555-05:00Comments on Noctuary: a record of what passes in the night: Blogging BEAReginald Harrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01318624469970165605noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23443331.post-1148612182869424402006-05-25T22:56:00.000-04:002006-05-25T22:56:00.000-04:00Thank you Kai. As you'll notice now that I'm back ...Thank you Kai. As you'll notice now that I'm back at work it's taking a while to put out my report on last weeks' events. May is kicking my a**!:)<BR/><BR/>John (and Audiologo, who I'll be adding to my blogroll): Ozick totally confused me with her 'This was good, this was good, I liked this, but still it's bad' take on Morrison. It MADE NO SENSE, and to attack the dedication!?! I've heard of grabbing at straws but come on... I do wish they'd had someone to 'defend' Beloved, but on the other hand, I don't think it (or La Morrison) really needs defending. Ozick talked about 'enduring' works. We all know that our Nobel Laureate has written work(s) that will out live us all.Reginald Harrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01318624469970165605noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23443331.post-1148522784068561742006-05-24T22:06:00.000-04:002006-05-24T22:06:00.000-04:00Thank you for your comprehensive report. I'm glad...Thank you for your comprehensive report. I'm glad you're back blogging. I appreciated your celebration of Robert Hayden (one of my faves). Both your and John K.'s comments regarding Cynthia Ozick cracked me up. In the past I have enjoyed her writing. But how ignorant is it to give praise of a novel's language and humanity, then because you don't have the critical acumen to analyze the work, dismiss it as a social studies project? I get the pull towards <I>Song of Solomon</I> over <I>Beloved</I>, that at least demonstrates some level of engagement. However, while I do usually read the NYT Book Review, I second John K. on the subject of critics; typically the critical receiving of work by one writer of color work exhausts the literary establishment to the extent it's too fatigued to expend any additional energy on any others (what! each of them has their own voice and literary tradition that can't just be subsumed, supplanted, and/or explained away by ours?! Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!). <BR/><BR/>Years ago I too witnessed Ms. Villarosa giving someone a leveling read; she don't play. I look forward to hearing about Friday's events.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23443331.post-1148435842863576382006-05-23T21:57:00.000-04:002006-05-23T21:57:00.000-04:00Reggie, this is a fascinating and fascinatingly th...Reggie, this is a fascinating and fascinatingly thorough post. I'm not surprised by Cynthia Ozick's comments, and in addition to attributing them to racism also in part chalk them up to sour grapes and projection, since she 1) wasn't among the top picks and 2) her own subject matter is so extraordinarily narrow. As I noted on my post on the "Best American Fiction blah blah" selection, I believe <I>Beloved</I> is the more formally and thematically <B>ambitious</B> novel and in certain ways the more important work, but I also find <I>The Song of Solomon</I> to be Morrison's most fully realized novel. Ozick's tart commentary about "experimental fiction" also isn't surprising, and I'd imagine she hasn't read anything even vaguely "experimental" in years, which is her loss, but really, I have to add, who gives a f*ck about Cynthia Ozick these days? To answer Kai's question, I usually essay books on my own; I mean, when you have a critical establishment that trashes Kevin Young, Elizabeth Alexander, Derek Walcott, etc., and overlooks brilliant books by Claudia Rankine, Van Jordan, Renee Gladman, etc., how can you possibly have much faith in them? Margo Jefferson is still stuck on <I>Michael Jackson</I>!<BR/><BR/>Oh, also, the whole street lit/mainstream lit thing annoys me. Quality can come in different packages. I love your statement that the people who were claiming that some of the street lit books were aesthetically on par with <I>Manchild in the Promised Land</I> (hasn't that woman read a nonfiction book in the last 30 years???) couldn't name even one book to back up their claims. I think one could do this, if one were serious about making the comparison....John Khttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08073378940347627766noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-23443331.post-1148308756852665602006-05-22T10:39:00.000-04:002006-05-22T10:39:00.000-04:00What an interesting post! You certainly have more...What an interesting post! You certainly have more energy than I do; I'm tired just reading about all that running around. Re: Ozicks: I'm often dumbfounded at how much difficulty whites (even the smart ones, whose opinions on other topics I respect and defer to) have coming up with something intelligent to say when faced with black art (literature, music, etc.) I wonder if you do it: ignore what any white critic says about any black (art)work, and either wait for the opinion of a black critic (which won't have to be taken with so much salt) or know that nothing whatsoever can be known until you investigate for yourself. Frustrating!<BR/><BR/>Kai in NYCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com