tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post2204410014227256260..comments2024-03-28T05:13:13.921-04:00Comments on Books, Inq. — The Epilogue: An interesting take on...Frank Wilsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18410473158808750903noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-39357219729884672822011-11-17T11:14:31.140-05:002011-11-17T11:14:31.140-05:00This is a terrific assessment of Roth, and goes a ...This is a terrific assessment of Roth, and goes a long way to articulate why I think he's over-rated. Of course, it's an assessment that's going to raise hackles, particularly among Roth's faithful followers. On the other hand, without explicitly stating so, it puts a spotlight on how Freudian Roth is, and many of his followers, even in this day and age when Freud is beloved mostly by academics while most of psychology has moved on.<br /><br />This passage below very ably sums up why many readers, myself among them, have never been able to raise more than a shrug in response to Roth's novels:<br /><br />"Put simply, while all American writers write first and foremost of the individual, the great ones are, to use a sterling phrase, large enough to contain multitudes; peek into Emerson, say, and see America in its entirety.<br /><br />Do the same with Roth, and you’d be lucky to see much past New Jersey. That is because Roth’s primary preoccupation is Roth."<br /><br />In other words, Roth is one template of artistic narcissism for artists in this very narcissistic, mannerist, post-modern artistic era we find ourselves living in. Parallels abound between Roth's popularity and pop art's popularity. Both can be shallow, narcissistic, and self-referential to the point of boredom.Art Durkeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07463180236975988432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10178279.post-76159342461198029442011-11-16T19:20:47.382-05:002011-11-16T19:20:47.382-05:00It has been a long time since I read Portnoy's...It has been a long time since I read <i>Portnoy's Complaint</i>, so I could be wrong, but I don't remember Portnoy marrying The Monkey, and I don't remember her as being particularly cultured--wasn't she a libidinous young woman from small-town West Virginia?<br /><br />I thought that <i>Zuckerman Unbound</i> was a pretty good parable about celebrity, but I've hardly been back since.Georgehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14819154529261482038noreply@blogger.com