How long it has taken me to understand that Anna karenina isn’t just a story to warn women not to cheat on their nice rich husbands or that madame bovary isn’t just a cautionary tale about the fate of a woman who spends too much of her husband’s money — at least five or six readings over a lifetime. These books are traditionally used (in the non-literary world) as a cudgel for striking fear into the hearts of potentially “wayward” women, and it’s hard to see past it unless you actually study them.
The fact that Lutie knows, deep in her bones, that she has to say “Ma’am” even outside the confines of the workplace just lays out so much about America.
I’d suggest you read Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now” a great social novel of an entirely different sort. Wealth accumulation of a then new sort, resistance from the old wealth inheritors, politics, and collective class insanity.
Excellent. Just finishing Anna right now--and now I know exactly what I'm gonna read next. Yes, all of those social forces, the hidden matrix of social expectation, joined into what we call a national identity, surrounding character--moving through it.
I can see how some might find the social stuff boring, but I also think longueurs shouldn't be feared in fiction, or seen as the automatic sign of bad prose. Good novels can tolerate longueurs and even use them well. The ad absurdum opposite of this is the annoying, ingratiating buzz of some current prose, where the author's anxious husbanding of the reader's attention is revealed in every sentence.
Okay, I can't wait for you novel. That title alone! That title. I am so hungry for the kind of social fiction you describe. In The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh, there is an argument put forward that individualist fiction can’t address climate change. Ghosh takes a phrase coined by John Updike — the “individual moral adventure,” which Updike sees as the highest form a novel can take (and is also of course a perfect description for Updike’s own novels) — and he essentially demonstrates how such a novel can’t address the vast social concern of climate extinction. I think you’ve done something similar here but for social conditions. (This is why I was surprised that you're lukewarm on Succession, because that feels much more "social novel" to me than "individual moral adventure," sharing some of the characteristics you describe Anna Karenina having. But of course you're not required to like something just because it is a "social" work.)
I’m so curious/excited about how you’ll manage the writing of deep, central blackness. When I’m writing race, I often feel like the victim of that game where someone holds your wrist and says, “Stop slapping yourself!” as they drive your own palm against your cheek. Like the culture is ventriloquizing how I talk about an internal experience. And it is this whole process to get free of that internalized control of a racial narrative.
I read Anna Karenina about every 3-5 years. I fell in love w it/her as a high school student and would flip quickly through the field stuff. Now, I linger there. Time for a re-read.
Also, time for an adult read of The Street.
My bestie lives in Prattville now. In a new subdivision. It’s treeless. I just sent her this entry.
I've had a sample of The Street in my Kindle for almost two years now. This finally prompted me to buy it. It's up next on my reading list. Thanks!
I also read the first book of the Rachel Cusk trilogy because of you. I was suspect, because I'm not the biggest fan of the ephemeral literature trend. But the Cusk book was something else. I'm still processing it. Also helped that I'm presently planning a trip to Athens, so the setting was a nice surprise.
How long it has taken me to understand that Anna karenina isn’t just a story to warn women not to cheat on their nice rich husbands or that madame bovary isn’t just a cautionary tale about the fate of a woman who spends too much of her husband’s money — at least five or six readings over a lifetime. These books are traditionally used (in the non-literary world) as a cudgel for striking fear into the hearts of potentially “wayward” women, and it’s hard to see past it unless you actually study them.
The fact that Lutie knows, deep in her bones, that she has to say “Ma’am” even outside the confines of the workplace just lays out so much about America.
Love this so much! It's making me want to re-read Anna Karenina soon.
I’d suggest you read Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now” a great social novel of an entirely different sort. Wealth accumulation of a then new sort, resistance from the old wealth inheritors, politics, and collective class insanity.
That sounds like Zola! A vibe.
Zola of a very proper English sort.
I would be so into your take on Trollope!
I cannot love this hard enough ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😉❤️
Excellent. Just finishing Anna right now--and now I know exactly what I'm gonna read next. Yes, all of those social forces, the hidden matrix of social expectation, joined into what we call a national identity, surrounding character--moving through it.
WoW! This is sending me back to reread and hopefully to finish it this time.
Find this whole wonderfully crafted piece--particularly your insight on "show not tell"-- very helpful to my fiction project. Thanks!
I can see how some might find the social stuff boring, but I also think longueurs shouldn't be feared in fiction, or seen as the automatic sign of bad prose. Good novels can tolerate longueurs and even use them well. The ad absurdum opposite of this is the annoying, ingratiating buzz of some current prose, where the author's anxious husbanding of the reader's attention is revealed in every sentence.
Also, very good post! Where are my manners.
Okay, I can't wait for you novel. That title alone! That title. I am so hungry for the kind of social fiction you describe. In The Great Derangement by Amitav Ghosh, there is an argument put forward that individualist fiction can’t address climate change. Ghosh takes a phrase coined by John Updike — the “individual moral adventure,” which Updike sees as the highest form a novel can take (and is also of course a perfect description for Updike’s own novels) — and he essentially demonstrates how such a novel can’t address the vast social concern of climate extinction. I think you’ve done something similar here but for social conditions. (This is why I was surprised that you're lukewarm on Succession, because that feels much more "social novel" to me than "individual moral adventure," sharing some of the characteristics you describe Anna Karenina having. But of course you're not required to like something just because it is a "social" work.)
I’m so curious/excited about how you’ll manage the writing of deep, central blackness. When I’m writing race, I often feel like the victim of that game where someone holds your wrist and says, “Stop slapping yourself!” as they drive your own palm against your cheek. Like the culture is ventriloquizing how I talk about an internal experience. And it is this whole process to get free of that internalized control of a racial narrative.
I read Anna Karenina about every 3-5 years. I fell in love w it/her as a high school student and would flip quickly through the field stuff. Now, I linger there. Time for a re-read.
Also, time for an adult read of The Street.
My bestie lives in Prattville now. In a new subdivision. It’s treeless. I just sent her this entry.
What an interesting idea
This is your best piece yet (Okay, I haven't read them all) but you've definitely risen to the occasion of one of literature's great books.
I've had a sample of The Street in my Kindle for almost two years now. This finally prompted me to buy it. It's up next on my reading list. Thanks!
I also read the first book of the Rachel Cusk trilogy because of you. I was suspect, because I'm not the biggest fan of the ephemeral literature trend. But the Cusk book was something else. I'm still processing it. Also helped that I'm presently planning a trip to Athens, so the setting was a nice surprise.