Surprising literary news
Holy shit, dude--the long-in-the-works, semi-legendary new novel by William H. Gass (who is currently eighty-eight years old, I note) actually has a cover an' a release date an' everything.
I don't know about you, but I'M inspired. This may spur me on to finally tackle Gass's short fiction, which I haven't read to date for no very justifiable reason.
What's amazing to me is how quaint the particular literary moment that Gass is part of feels these days. Don't get me wrong; I dig some Barth and Gaddis, but it's hard to deny that the only writer in this grouping who maintains a prominent spot in our literary landscape is Pynchon. The others really have a strong feel of dusty academia about them, and this applies to no one more than Gass, always the most forebodingly ivory-tower-y of the bunch. I'm totes going to read Middle C, but I must say, it is almost impossible for me to imagine a new Gass novel in this day and age being of the remotest interest to any non-academic. However, I find the fact that he does not care about any of this and continues to follow his particular idiosyncratic muse in spite of everything to be inspiring. Mebbe he'll churn out another one just for kicks, and publish it when he's one hundred four.
I don't know about you, but I'M inspired. This may spur me on to finally tackle Gass's short fiction, which I haven't read to date for no very justifiable reason.
What's amazing to me is how quaint the particular literary moment that Gass is part of feels these days. Don't get me wrong; I dig some Barth and Gaddis, but it's hard to deny that the only writer in this grouping who maintains a prominent spot in our literary landscape is Pynchon. The others really have a strong feel of dusty academia about them, and this applies to no one more than Gass, always the most forebodingly ivory-tower-y of the bunch. I'm totes going to read Middle C, but I must say, it is almost impossible for me to imagine a new Gass novel in this day and age being of the remotest interest to any non-academic. However, I find the fact that he does not care about any of this and continues to follow his particular idiosyncratic muse in spite of everything to be inspiring. Mebbe he'll churn out another one just for kicks, and publish it when he's one hundred four.
posted by GeoX, one of the GeoX boys. at 2:27 AM
Jeremy: I can't remember if I told you this. There were some visiting Algerian students, and one of them was studying American post-modern literature. She referenced William Gass when I asked about specifics.
That's interesting. Perhaps in other countries, they have different view on these things.