random Elect
The last two times I have seen my brother, to whom I almost exclusively owe the direction of my worldview/taste compass, he has mentioned the American author Richard Yates. During his lifetime he had moderate success and acclaim (mostly among fellow authors), reaching an early peak with his debut novel Revolutionary Road. Interest in Yates has recently(-ish) been revived and lots of his books and a collection of stories are now in print. A revival causing and/or caused by a Leonardo Dicaprio & Kate Winslet film of RR. (interesting aside/biographical note: for a period of time my brother almost exclusively recommended novels that were being made into movies Fight Club, The Beach, The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I thought at the time was both cool and appropriate - and moderately led to my own interests in genre fiction.) Where and how my brother got into Yates or how interest in Yates became revived is unknown to me, but more importantly it led me to borrow and read RR from my brother a week ago.
While most synopses of RR say it's a book about an idealistic couple being consumed & destroyed by the suburban conformity & dreariness (a reading even Yates approves - though he focuses on only one half of the couple), I read less an indictment of suburbia than an indictment of those who presume to be excepted from the undertow of conformity, taking a critical but uncommitted viewpoints of the drones and squares around them. An indictment of a strain of American intellectualism & liberalism & cosmopolitan exceptionalsim that is all smoke and little fire. A deep sense of exceptionalism that is as or more deluded than the content republican-voting anti-intellectual reactionary suburban "conformity." Though part of the problem with talking about this book is the still ever present squares v. non-squares sort of dialogue in the American culture realm. What would it mean if squares, you know, don't actually exist?
Other quick follow-ups:
I've continued to think about comic book continuity and still marvel at the fact that it's foregrounded so much in discussions about comics and yet has very little to do with why individual comics are successful. Well, that is, I'd hope that the writing and the art have more to do with a comic's success than it's place in the canon or the multiverse. And to undercut that again, some of the best mainstream comics are ones that are all too aware of the role in the multiverse and are able to do interesting things with it. Though arguably the enjoyment of the original Secret Wars is a different thing than that of the Watchmen or Swamp Thing or Y:the Last Man (though all of those rely on connections and deviations from the history of SuperHero comics for their critical power) and it'd be interesting to parse that out. ANYWAY - what I wanted to draw a comparison to was the way continuity works in other genres, namely science writing. Where in comic books continuity is sometimes foregrounded in lieu of content, in science writing content is foregrounded before continuity (and the power of each genre is derived (maybe?) more from what is hidden than what is shown). The genre limitations of both work to misdirect the way they are talked about and how they pack their truth/power content. and again that's qualified w/ a big ol' maybe? or at least it's something to think about it.
TWO: another champion of insider/outsider re: techniques for the reproduction of art and a revived interest in painting that YOU can do, John Kilduff. How much do I love Let's Paint, Mix Drinks, & Excercise? A LOT.
Side note thanks to wikipedia: Larry David once dated Richard Yates daughter. Wierd.
While most synopses of RR say it's a book about an idealistic couple being consumed & destroyed by the suburban conformity & dreariness (a reading even Yates approves - though he focuses on only one half of the couple), I read less an indictment of suburbia than an indictment of those who presume to be excepted from the undertow of conformity, taking a critical but uncommitted viewpoints of the drones and squares around them. An indictment of a strain of American intellectualism & liberalism & cosmopolitan exceptionalsim that is all smoke and little fire. A deep sense of exceptionalism that is as or more deluded than the content republican-voting anti-intellectual reactionary suburban "conformity." Though part of the problem with talking about this book is the still ever present squares v. non-squares sort of dialogue in the American culture realm. What would it mean if squares, you know, don't actually exist?
Other quick follow-ups:
I've continued to think about comic book continuity and still marvel at the fact that it's foregrounded so much in discussions about comics and yet has very little to do with why individual comics are successful. Well, that is, I'd hope that the writing and the art have more to do with a comic's success than it's place in the canon or the multiverse. And to undercut that again, some of the best mainstream comics are ones that are all too aware of the role in the multiverse and are able to do interesting things with it. Though arguably the enjoyment of the original Secret Wars is a different thing than that of the Watchmen or Swamp Thing or Y:the Last Man (though all of those rely on connections and deviations from the history of SuperHero comics for their critical power) and it'd be interesting to parse that out. ANYWAY - what I wanted to draw a comparison to was the way continuity works in other genres, namely science writing. Where in comic books continuity is sometimes foregrounded in lieu of content, in science writing content is foregrounded before continuity (and the power of each genre is derived (maybe?) more from what is hidden than what is shown). The genre limitations of both work to misdirect the way they are talked about and how they pack their truth/power content. and again that's qualified w/ a big ol' maybe? or at least it's something to think about it.
TWO: another champion of insider/outsider re: techniques for the reproduction of art and a revived interest in painting that YOU can do, John Kilduff. How much do I love Let's Paint, Mix Drinks, & Excercise? A LOT.
Side note thanks to wikipedia: Larry David once dated Richard Yates daughter. Wierd.
posted by furtanic at 1:48 PM
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