Subject: Re: [Slightly OFF] Franzen-related article in the NYT
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Sun Nov 25 2001 - 08:51:56 GMT
The article is a good testimony to how the democratic/capitalist impulse
in our society has run wild and is applied indiscriminately to every
conceivable human endeavor. These lines are particularly telling...
<<But as one editor put it: ''The presumption that there is a definite
distinction between a high literary culture and everyone else today is
absurd. No such thing exists. We don't live in a culture that promotes
that kind of thing. Jonathan Franzen is driven by market forces but
chooses to believe he's better than that.''>>
Notice it's the fact that Franzen is "driven by market forces" that
erases the possibility that there's a difference between "a high
literary culture" and "everyone else."
I would agree that there's no difference between Franzen and Danielle
Steele so far as market forces go, but I suspect there's a world of
difference between their literature. I think Franzen was right to
distance himself from Oprah if he wants his literature to be taken
seriously.
I also don't really see how he was intentionally distancing himself from
women -- there are plenty of women readers that think the majority of
Oprah's book choices are low culture and don't follow her reading
selections. The editorial writer's attempt to drive a wedge between
Franzen and women readers was both mean spirited and dishonest, and
insulting to women by associating all women readers with Oprah's usual
reading level...
Jim
"Chris Kubica @Home" wrote:
>
> Here's another article about the J. Franzen situation we had been
> discussing. It's by Margo Jefferson and appears at NYTimes.com:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/25/books/review/25JEFFERT.html
>
> Chris Kubica
> Senior Developer
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