tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post7522513596388047402..comments2024-03-29T07:33:59.039+13:00Comments on The Imaginary Museum: Why Tim Powers?Dr Jack Rosshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-26555689050606018412016-03-09T16:16:24.580+13:002016-03-09T16:16:24.580+13:00Thanks Jack, I saw a cheap s/h copy of 'The An...Thanks Jack, I saw a cheap s/h copy of 'The Anubis Gates' so I bid on it and a J G Ballard I don't possess. <br /><br />I wonder how to reconcile the thinking of our friend Harold Bloom, the Post Modernists (however defined) and others on what is "great literature" (however defined)...I went through a stage of reading Sci Fi but I seemed later to have a block there, I think I had so much to read when I "got back" into reading / writing etc...actually for me reading IS my writing. <br /><br />But with meeting of the various theorists of the novel and what art is etc etc well, (I know there used to be a Paper on so called "popular" literature...)...How do we define, clearly define, what is great lit.? Your EMO (for example) is out there and should have a following as I think your other books, but the libraries for a start have to classify such a book. People in some cases cant "place" such a book...And such classification and ordering is not always harmful, we need it or we wouldn't be able to find anything or get anything done. We tend though to overcompensate (is this in some ways part of the "message" of Smithyman's poem 'Peter Durery's Storey/ - I think it is also that we all think there is a higher group or higher organisation who know how everything works and are organised and very aware of everything, and in fact I think that is a good kind of thing up to a point, except when our trust is violated, and of course, life, reality, is not like that, hence the nightmare of the keys inside draws in the mise en abyme, and it is comical also of course....): so we have this locked inside that and so on, and for Bloom certain writing is outlawed as if he were re-writing The Republic. But I like reading Bloom (and Vendler, although she is poetry only) [may the gods of PM and Theory and The High-Low Eternal English Department forgive me my omissions!]: right now [as well as reading The Republic, I am just reading parts of his book about the KJB, and reading my ca. 1880 edition of the Bible also (the King James)....his enthusiasm for writing and literature is inspiring, and his vast reading: his idea of agons between all the writers is clever but to be taken with a grain or two...Then slowly he includes those once excluded...So, where would such as Powers be placed if we are to classify. It seems strange also that we do...Ballard is the other example. <br /><br />I recall reading a lot of Sci Fi stories, I couldn't get enough of them. Many of the stories are good, but sometimes they lacked that poeticality of language and depth of characters etc...I think Ballard is (sometimes, he is MOSTLY great in atmosphere, ideas, tension, drama etc) a little weak on this and the only Philip K Dick I read, the Electric Sheep, I felt was interesting, but didn't really set me on fire. I did enjoy some of Assimov's I Robot things as the "logical puzzles" induced by the robot laws lead to interesting events and dilemmas...<br /><br />But those writers who cross or mix things in interesting ways are the best I think. <br /><br />It is o.k. to not want, say, Robbe-Grillet in the Canon if Bloom doesn't (I have no idea), but if it is just for a theory, it is not good? (Would Bloom "approve" of Powers, and do we care, does it matter who approves and or why?) We need to be open to everything. My tastes cant be the basis of a Canon...and, indeed, should there be a canon (he leaves off the Chinese writers as he feels they cant be translated properly but he has all other early writers, or many of them)....<br /><br />But I think the contribution of Sci Fi to major contemporary literature is important. (If we are going to divide these things up into minor and major etc). Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-56394874618189349092016-03-07T08:46:12.285+13:002016-03-07T08:46:12.285+13:00I think you might enjoy his books, Richard: they&#...I think you might enjoy his books, Richard: they're rather down your alley, really. Either The Stress of Her Regard or The Anubis Gates might do start off with: full of stuff about the Romantic poets.<br /><br />best, jackDr Jack Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01805945600952222957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29676463.post-47043802534675547132016-03-06T21:58:01.070+13:002016-03-06T21:58:01.070+13:00Very interesting! Didn't know about this fello...Very interesting! Didn't know about this fellow. He looks good. I thought for a minute I might have once had a book by him, the Medusa book rang a bell but it may have been someone else. I have a book by a T F Powers (stories). And a some books by Richard Powers (unread). Intentions paving the way...! <br /><br />But I will keep an eye our for this fellow also. Quite an achievement to read all the books of a writer. I rarely do that although Coetzee I like and his books are short, so. Also it is good that Beckett's plays got shorter and shorter. So I read a lot of those: and they were important in many ways. I have a lot of Brautigan, but haven't read all by any means. Also went on a Hesse binge once...Others of course in my teenage years. Some more recently.<br /><br />But I do know that feeling, every time I read book A, I look sadly at the rows of unread fiction books and unread poetry...and I also have rows of unread non-fiction of all kinds, subjects of a large range, all looking fascinating.<br /><br />Oh well, the main thing is to enjoy the reading. Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10272507198753290435noreply@blogger.com