If I already like ...

DAVID STOCKHOFF · 18 Apr 2012, 17:48 · from 2012-April.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (DAVID STOCKHOFF)
Date: Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:48:09 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: (urth) If I already like ...
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Again, well put. The few times I encounter negative personal (i.e., nonprofessional) reviews of LB, the same causes are cited: repetition, inaction, lack of resolution. These are at least observable and therefore superficially real---but they are the kind of challenges that made me reread it again and again. What DID happen? How DID it end---or did it?To me, a thousand pages with only a few gorgeous glimpses of something exalted and unreal just behind the veil are well worth it.

Some people may not get it that the story eventually turns back around to themselves. What are they left with when the Tale moves on, to wherever it goes, and they return to their own lives? Truth and meaning will not be delivered to the reader as on a plate---maybe can't even be achieved, merely sought and approached. Readers of Wolfe should not find this situation unfamiliar.

________________________________
 From: Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com>
To: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>; The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:40 PM
Subject: Re: (urth) If I already like ...

Do you think it's the style? Crowley writes in that anti-Wolfe, "art-literary" not-much-happening-for-awhile style that circles around itself. When Wolfe looks like he's navel-gazing, there's really a lot going on. When Crowley's navel-gazing, he's going deep and putting everything else on pause. That gets to one of those questions of taste. But I think it's something that has frustrated people I know.

Crowley's one of those observational, "hey did you ever notice" writers...whereas Wolfe doesn't re-notice the familiar -- he takes you places you've never been.

________________________________
 From: Dan'l Danehy-Oakes <danldo at gmail.com>
To: Craig Brewer <cnbrewer at yahoo.com>; The Urth Mailing List <urth at lists.urth.net> 
Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 11:35 AM
Subject: Re: (urth) If I already like ...

On the other hand...

There's something about Crowley that works for some people and not
others. I'm one of the others. I read all of _Little, Big_ and
ultimately asked myself, "So what?" I could not penetrate beyond page
50 or so of _AEgypt_.

I'm not sure why, but Crowley just goes right over, under, or beside me.

-- 
Dan'l Danehy-Oakes

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