Sunday, August 10, 2008 Capturing the Hunger on the page POST A COMMENT How's that saying go? -- "Those who can, do. Those who can't..." End up a critic! In today's writing world you need both things -- Firstly, that need to self-critique your own writing with a sharp "editors eye,"... and of course a decent amount of "doing"... I guess, talent can't hurt ya much either.' Enter the talked about "How Fiction Works," a book-length critique by that famous literary critic -- James Wood -- answering the big-critics-question: "Does it work, and why?" More interesting, at least to me, since I haven't yet read the book is how other critic's critique-the-critic-turned-author: * * * 'K, 'Considered by some, our best American book critic -- Wood's the guy "classing up the back end of most high brow magazines..." -- says one book critic, so far, so good...'but, critics love tossing in a few digs... * * * "Wood remains provocatively analog. His pronouncements arrive walnut-paneled, camphor-sprinkled...it’s like he -- (Wood) -- seems “to want to be his own grandfather.” -- HMM, doesn't that suggest Wood's an incestuous mess...'or am I reading too much into it? * * * How about this one: "Wood makes me want to be a better man. Or, at any rate, a better reader, which, in Wood's metaphysics, is practically the same thing. The sense of holy purpose that rises from all his sentences gathers into mission in How Fiction Works..." -- HMM, doesn't using the words like "holy," and that bit about "makes me want to be a better man..." make Wood's sound a little too-uppity-for-his-own-good? The book however is being called "most useful and illuminating for the serious reader who enjoys the fictive ride and wants to take a look under the hood" (Washington Post). Wood sums up by offering the "question of how language can be successfully employed to manage this hunger, to achieve certain effects, some of them quite magical and most of them revolving around articulating, eliciting or manifesting the interior dramas of life." -- HMM, I now understand why 'Ol Grand-Daddy's in all them high-brow magazines... Does any of this make you hungry to put stuff on the page?? Feed on this video, a fiction-101 primer: Source: Washington Post Labels: Books, Critics, How Fiction Works, James Wood, writing posted by Henry Cruz at 6:27 PM 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home     ARCHIVES October 2005 . November 2005 . December 2005 . August 2007 . September 2007 . October 2007 . November 2007 . December 2007 . March 2008 . April 2008 . May 2008 . June 2008 . July 2008 . August 2008 . September 2008 .