Gummed-Up Works or Got Lives?

Gerry Quinn · 16 Dec 2011, 14:28 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: gerry at bindweed.com (Gerry Quinn)
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 14:28:44 -0000
Subject: (urth) Gummed-Up Works or Got Lives?
In-Reply-To: <SNT123-W366C39B41C72D722A44925CFA00 at phx.gbl>
References: <SNT123-W366C39B41C72D722A44925CFA00 at phx.gbl>
Message-ID: <6B52FE0D6CA84D76A71660A4CA79C92D@Rover>

From: Lee Berman 

> > Daniel Petersen: However, I don't agree with Stockhoff's harsh belittling 
> > of Quinn (yet I do find the latter frustrating in what does indeed seem to 
> > be a rather obtuse attitude that could do with more nuance and the ability 
> > to try to see from within others' worldviews - not least, Wolfe's own).

> Many (including myself) have expressed dismay at the vitriol and extended
> length of some of the argument/debates in here. But there is one person 
> who has never expressed this dismay: Gerry Quinn. Is he really an object of
> pity?

The fox expressed dismay when the scorpion stung him halfway across the river.  A wiser fox would have recognised the scorpion for what he was and treated him with wariness, thus removing the cause for dismay.

> I don't think so. This is a very complex and multi-layered human being. It is
> clear he is not content to discuss Wolfe in a dry, dispassionate, purely
> intellectual manner. His posts are designed to elicit emotional responses as 
> well. And who can deny that he is adept at doing so? Not an object of pity at
> all. Perhaps admiration of a skilled social operator at work is the more 
> appropriate sentiment.

This is not the first time you have accused me of the kind of machinations you indulge in.

With regard to Daniel?s point:  I do attempt to see the worldviews of others, and I question elements of those worldviews, or the analyses based on those worldviews, that seem to me ineffective with regard understanding Wolfe.  If my understanding of these worldviews were so poor, would my observations incur so much resentment?

I am not proposing that absolute rigour is a necessary or useful virtue in literary criticism, but I do see arguments posted that seem to me so devoid of rigour as to constitute little more than noise.  Lee would, I think, prefer if the list resembled a workshop overseen by Forlesen?s bosses, where ?creating creativity? is the only activity and the only result, and is praised to the heavens.

- Gerry Quinn

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