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Jonathan Franzen's 10 rules for novelists

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by Alma, Nov 15, 2018.

  1. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    I looked up @Azrael's book of the century and came to the hard realization that I wouldn't understand a word of it.
     
    PCLoadLetter likes this.
  2. CD Boogie

    CD Boogie Well-Known Member

    Having waited years for the Mysteries of Pittsburgh to come to film, I'm not eager to see a film adaptation. As for Yiddish Policeman's Union, I guess it just struck me as too wink-wink for a serious counterfactual novel. But yeah, Hatzeplatz is much worse. How about "Jews in the Last Frontier"? Or not....
     
  3. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Same here! I read his post, was curious and found the NY Times review. The book review had me dribbling food down my chin. I can't imagine what the actual book would do to me. I am guessing the poetry would make the two moths in my head keel over and die.
     
  4. typefitter

    typefitter Well-Known Member

    Gentlemen of the Road was formerly known as Jews with Swords, which I kind of love as a title, even though it has a certain Snakes on a Plane vibe about it.

    Cribbing from the earlier paragraph, Unavoidable Acts of God is a pretty great title for something.
     
  5. britwrit

    britwrit Well-Known Member

    A wonderful book. I've read it three times. The movie also showed what a good adaption looks like. Distill the book down to its essence and throw out the one sequence - the Passover section - that didn't really work in the novel.
     
  6. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Terrific thread. Thanks, Alma.

    For the 'War Music' curious, here's an excerpt:

    Cold Calls (War Music, Continued) by Christopher Logue

    And while we're on the poetry sidebar, the new translation of 'The Odyssey' by prof. Emily Wilson is stunning. First translation into English by a woman.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2018
  7. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    I'd take JCO still over most writers today. Perhaps all of them.
     
  8. Alma

    Alma Well-Known Member

    Of course they do. The personal narrative got its rise in the 1980s in book form and it really took off since. One reason? Novelists got too esoteric. Readers want to relate to dead parents, eating disorders, sex, shitty jobs, and the like. They want to see their own lives. Novelists, increasingly, abdicated the real world.
     
  9. Double Down

    Double Down Well-Known Member

    It’s funny, read something the other day that the personal essay is essentially dead, having been replaced (at least spiritually) by the podcast.
     
  10. Hermes

    Hermes Well-Known Member

    I read the other day the podcast was dying.

    I'm beginning to think these pronouncements are based on nothing more than the writers' personal tastes and whims.

    I'm shocked. Shocked.
     
  11. Azrael

    Azrael Well-Known Member

    Not sure the novel is dying. It's changing.
     
  12. TheSportsPredictor

    TheSportsPredictor Well-Known Member

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