tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post5939876763308561432..comments2024-03-29T03:19:09.227-04:00Comments on The Philosopher's Stone: THERE ARE NO SECOND ACTS IN AMERICAN LIVESRobert Paul Wolffhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11970360952872431856noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-87021814402025408142016-02-21T07:34:23.952-05:002016-02-21T07:34:23.952-05:00Wallace Stevens,
I agree with your evaluation of ...Wallace Stevens,<br /><br />I agree with your evaluation of The Great Gatsby. If I had to recommend an American novel to someone who had never read one and would never read another, I'd suggest The Great Gatsby.s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-91442225740681059862016-02-21T06:46:04.279-05:002016-02-21T06:46:04.279-05:00Well 'Good as Gold' isn't as good as ...Well 'Good as Gold' isn't as good as 'Catch 22' but I would say that it is still pretty good. Or would you disagree? Charles Pigdenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01131765562671298571noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-57313632524237066492016-02-20T21:11:58.941-05:002016-02-20T21:11:58.941-05:00A propos of the Lecture series, I came across this...A propos of the Lecture series, I came across this article today,by pure coincidence. Highly relevant--it looks like ideologically-driven, romanticised views of hunter-gatherers continue:<br /><br />http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-surprisingly-sticky-tale-of-the-hadza-and-the-honeyguide-birdAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-49718173029889536742016-02-20T21:05:41.719-05:002016-02-20T21:05:41.719-05:00I agree that this is not a national thing. Some w...I agree that this is not a national thing. Some writers only have one good book in them--there is nothing in Fitzgerald that surpasses Gatsby. (Then again, there is very little in anyone else that surpasses Gatsby either!) And I would argue that Flaubert never wrote anything as good as Madame Bovary. And Stendahl's the "Red and the Black" is his only fully-achieved work--"The Charterhouse of Parma" splinters and shreds in the last quarter, notwithstanding its brilliant beginning. The there are people like Philip Roth, successful and published for many years, who suddenly move into an entirely new, profound direction, better than anything that they had done before, as Roth did in the nineties: Sabbath's Theatre, American Pastoral, I Married a Communist, The Human Stain, Operation Shylock.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5687347459208158501.post-63520399638142736112016-02-20T17:34:02.219-05:002016-02-20T17:34:02.219-05:00I don't think it's a national thing. It...I don't think it's a national thing. It's a question of personality.<br /><br />Some writers just have one great book inside them or they repeat the same books again and again. How many times did Henry Miller write The Tropic of Cancer? <br /><br />In German Thomas Mann wrote a series of novels, each one from different than the previous one, Buddenbrooks, the Magic Mountain, Doctor Faustus, etc., while Kafka wrote the same book over and over again. <br /><br />In Latin America Vargas Llosa has written a series of great books, while Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a man of one super masterpiece, 100 Years of Solitude. <br /><br /> <br /><br />s. wallersteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17448905469871566228noreply@blogger.com