Odd knowingness …

… on Wonderland, a novel by Stacey D’Erasmo (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt) | On the Seawall: A Literary Website by Ron Slate (GD). (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Being in a rock band having become just another in the repertoire of clichés currently afflicting the young, a novel like this seems perfectly suited to the times. A great one might be built around someone who discovers he isn't the artist he took himself to be, which has got in the way of his knowing who he is. He would arrive at this realization by abandoning his artistic pretensions, realizing that art actually is not about the artist, that the artist is simply an amanuensis, great only in the quality of his transcription.