I imagine you all know about the pissing contest between Ben Marcus and Jonathan Franzen, though perhaps that's only because I live in Iowa City, where people talk about books the way people in D.C. talk about politics (that is: incessantly, until you want nothing more than to curl up on the couch with a beer and The Cartoon Network). For those who are unfamiliar, here's the very brief recap: Franzen, some time ago, wrote an essay called "Mr. Difficult" in which he complained that certain William Gaddis books were difficult to get through, to the extent that their difficulty seemed to be the very point of their existence. Marcus recently wrote an essay for Harper's in response, ostensibly making the argument that experimental writers are under attack but, in the process, taking so many potshots at Franzen that the point of the essay seemed to be to take Franzen down a notch more so than to make any coherent aesthetic argument. Of course I'm oversimplifying.
Leave it to Sherman Alexie to bring some perspective (and a sense of humor) to the issue. Here's Alexie's letter to the editor from this month's Harper's:
"Does Ben Marcus, educated at NYU and Brown, employed by Columbia, and published by Anchor, Vintage and Harper's, truly believe that he is an excluded experimentalist? Does he honestly believe that Jonathan Franzen, educated at Swarthmore, once employed by Harvard, and published by FSG and Harper's, is somehow more elitist? Or is Franzen the populist? Or is a populist elitist? Is there really much difference between Marcus and Franzen? This East Coast-East Coast Literary Rap War reminds me of the Far Side cartoon in which a lone penguin, suffering in a crowd of millions of exactly similar penguins, rises and shouts 'I just have to be me!'"
12.15.2005
Does this make Franzen Tupac?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I haven't read the Franzen essay so I'm not sure what he says, but I have to admit I'm curious about when we become such a society of pussies? Why is it impossible to criticize something without someone else saying you're attacking it?
Franzen can be a bit of an extremist in his writings, but I highly doubt he called for the end of experimental fiction in his essay. And even if he did, who fucking cares? He's one dude. It's not like he's a publisher; he's an author. So what if he doesn't get off experimental fiction. (And besides, does anyone really get off on experimental fiction--I mean honestly?)
Aaron, I'm awarding you commenter of the week honors, because you've now made me laugh at loud in three straight comments sections.
Joe, I actually haven't read the Franzen essay either, just heard it described by several people. I did read the Marcus essay and just felt kind of bewildered at his argument. There probably is a strong argument to be made for the kind of writing he wants to advocate -- writing that is dense and kind of difficult and doing something more on the level of language than on the level of story. But most of the article was just Marcus quoting Franzen in order to make Franzen look like a self-important douche (which, as much as I liked The Corrections, is not incredibly hard to do).
One day, maybe we'll all rise to the level of a Ben Marcus, so that when we want to throw a dodgeball at somebody's head, we can do it via a 12-page essay in Harper's.
Mike, who gave you the power to hand out the commenter of the week award without consulting anyone else? I don't like this one bit. If only some journal would publish any damn thing I would write, I'd definitely be calling your ass out.
Look for a scathing letter to the editor in the Philly Daily News in the near future.
By the way, the more I read Sherman Alexie, the more I like that guy.
Post a Comment