FYI

For the happy few....
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=21906

Harold Bloom is an idiot

I don’t mean that he is literally an idiot – I am quite willing to believe that he’s more intelligent than I am, and I am positive that he is more well read than I will ever be. Nevertheless, his pomposity is completely beyond my ability to put into words. In this Newsweek interview, he is asked to pick “unusual choices” for 5 important books. Without looking at his choices, take a guess which 5 he picks. Hint: they are by no means “unusual”. I mean, they are the five of the six primary works of the Western Canon, and he mentions the 6^th (the Bible) in the intro – allowing that he dropped it because of the “unusual” proviso (a 7th would be Paradise Lost). Anyone who knows anything about Bloom won’t be surprised that he picks these five books – but that’s the disappointment here. I would truly like to know what the most well known English language critic thinks are essential reads, besides those that are the building blocks of the western canon. That’s why something like this Newsweek feature could be interesting; instead it is infuriating.

Because his 5 choices aren’t the most ridiculous part of the mini-article.

Asked to name an “Important Book” he hasn’t read: he states “I cannot think of a major work I have not ingested” – ingested?? None? You’ve really read every important book in every language from every culture on earth? The complete arrogance of that assertion is emblematic of everything wrong with the whole notion of a Canon in literature (which, by the way, I think has great value – simply because no one can read everything worth reading, it is important to have signs and guideposts that point you to important works and authors). But when the leading promoter of the western canon asserts he’s ingested everything worth reading… Let’s just say it makes me question the validity of the concept. [Interesting aside, Slate asked noted authors and critics the question of what important works they've not read, and while the responses themselves weren’t too interesting, Dan Simon’s comment at the end of the article is – seriously, check it out].

Bloom also says that in “almost every contemporary novel, characters are [just] names upon a page” (classic Bloom, opinion stated as fact). I may come back to this in a future post, but I would vehemently disagree with this – the examples of well-crafted, real, believable characters in contemporary fiction is not a short list. Hell, Steven King and Joyce Carol Oates, two of our most prolific authors, both write living characters in every novel of theirs that I’ve read.

And finally, and perhaps most galling, when asked about kid’s lit, he states: “the two Alice books by Lewis Carroll are the finest literary fantasies ever written.” I hope it is self-evident that this is once again his opinion stated as a universal fact. I think a number of people would disagree with this statement (I think the Lord of the Rings is the finest literary fantasy ever written, but this is my opinion, as is any assertion about the supremacy of any literary piece. Quality is a different matter – things are objectively good or not; but to say something is the very best work of art is an entirely subjective statement). He then goes on to state that the Harry Potter books will end up “in the rubbish bin” and that their best selling status is the greatest “indictment of the world’s descent into subliteracy.” WOW! Now I don’t think Harry Potter is the pinnacle of good fiction, juvenile or fantasy or otherwise. I do think they are great reads, but there are v. many better written kids books and fantasy series out there (I just read Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge, which was the most satisfying kids fantasy I’ve read in a while, but I think Cooper’s Dark is Rising series, Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles, L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time series, and LeGuin’s Earthsea Trilogy are all better than the HP series, and this is surely not an exhaustive list). Nevertheless, to completely trash the books like Bloom does here is ridiculous. I question whether Bloom has even read them, and if he hasn’t he should have listed them as his Important Books that he hasn’t read – because any time everyone in a culture reads a book, it becomes important. Even the DaVinci Code was important for this reason (as much as it galls me to say so – if Bloom wanted to indict culture because of a popular book, he could’ve gone with that one and gotten no argument from me). But Rowling has done nothing more, or less, than write an enjoyable and readable series about the process of growing up, that just happens to appeal to kids everywhere, as well as their parents, and just about everyone else. And while they might not be the pinnacle of literature, I daresay people will be reading Harry Potter much longer than they will be reading Harold Bloom.

Another fun exercise

Something that might interest some of you...a few years ago (spring 2005, I believe), MK, Andrew, and myself made an assignment that was kind of fun and prompted some introspection. Picking some of my favorite things made me think about it again. We decided to come up with a soundtrack of sorts - a list of 14 songs that would be played in the movie of our lives for the time frame we set. We decided on the time from the end of college to that spring and selected music accordingly. I thought it might be something that you all might enjoy - and maybe somebody would want to share their soundtrack with the rest of us. What parts of your life would you highlight? Gloss over? Dwell on?

Give it a go if you feel so inclined. It can be kind of therapeutic.

a few more of my favorite things

i like lists, and Cole started it. also, this is a good way to break the 'real post' barrier.

favorite parenting things:
glider chair
library
crayons
taking walks
overalls


favorite medical things:
reflex hammer
whatever clothing i change into post-call
stapler/staple remover
scrub boots
free meal vouchers especially when i can get macaroni and cheese with them. yum.

The Oscars!

Did anybody care about the Oscars, really? I didn’t watch them; not even five minutes. I work in an office that features more than one person who watches every episode of American Idol. Nobody that I worked with watched. Well, one girl had them on in the background, but she couldn’t tell me who won any of the awards, besides the big ones that I had already heard on NPR on the drive in to work. I wanted to know if Pan’s Labyrinth won best foreign film – it didn’t – but besides that one, I didn’t see any of this year’s nominated movies in the theatre. The only other one I saw at all was Little Miss Sunshine, which I liked well enough, but didn’t love – everyone says its so funny, but I found it kind of sad; and a poor man’s Wes Anderson (quirky characters doing borderline nonsensical things in a deadpan manner), sans a Wilson brother.
Pan’s Labyrinth aside, on the rare occasion when I do spring for a movie in the theatre, I go to some inevitably disappointing “blockbuster,” instead of seeing the movies that I know will actually be good. I tell myself that I will watch the “good” movies on Netflix, because the drama of a well scripted and acted movie does not need the 80 foot screen to make it come alive, whereas King Kong, or Spiderman, or Harry Potter will only be good on the big screen – where the special effects can shine. But you know what? The Harry Potter movies are letdowns no matter where I watch them, because they aren’t as good as the books. King Kong would be crap on an Imax (or my TV) just as much as it was in a regular theatre.
I am totally sucked in by marketing – I make the effort only to see the truly huge spectacle movies, because I don’t want to be the only one who doesn’t see it – even though the vast majority of these blockbusters aren’t very good. Even the Lord of the Rings movies, Oscar winning or not, were weak (and got consecutively worse). And while I would like to say that I catch up on all the smaller quality films on DVD, I don’t. We just cancelled Netflix because we found we weren’t watching enough to make it a worthwhile expenditure, but even when we were doing it, we watched mainly television shows because there just weren’t that many movies I wanted to see (and there were lots of TV shows that I missed out on cause we don’t have cable and our reception is terrible: everyone should watch Veronica Mars Season 1!).
So my question is, does anybody out there go to the movies on a regular basis? What do you see? Are there any great movies from this year that I missed? Did anybody give a crap about the Oscars, and if so, why?

read this story!

Hey all,
Here is a story by Primo Levi that was published in the New Yorker this month. I don't have much to say for it, as it speaks for itself, but it really is a beautiful story that begins to capture the immensity of the universe and our inability to describe it given the limits of human language and the human mind.
Please enjoy!

Click here to read the article.

[Blogmaster fixed link]

Two Thoughts...

I love NPR. I do. Reflecting on my love for NPR (as I sometimes do), led me to two thoughts.

The first is a memory of a game I played with a friend my freshman year in college. We were fast friends and although it seemed we'd known each other for a long time, we really had just met. One night instead of doing Calc homework we played a game we made up called, "what do you love most." The "game" essentially forced each of us to think of the five things (yes actual things, not people or ideas) that we loved the most. Hers included Gumby, Maps, and Pickles. Mine: New athletic socks. (I don't remember what else I we said) I here by add.... NPR. Silly? Perhaps. But it's fun. I am curious what everyone else loves the most.

The second thing I was thinking about is this series of essays they do on NPR called "This I believe". People, famous and ordinary, young and old, read essays they've written about what they believe in above all things. ( http://www.npr.org/thisibelieve/about.html ) In any case, I have sometimes thought about trying to write an essay like this. But today, if anyone is looking for something blog about, give this a try?