Egalitarian Bookwormism: A #Franzenfreude Manifesto

"Male genius has far outnumbered female genius in the history of literature, and it shouldn't be a crime to say so. This issue will die when women produce more and more work of indisputable genius and, until then, we need to stop championing mediocre female work out of defensiveness, stop firing spitballs at male work and stop dissolving the line between high art and pop art.”
-A young female member of the literati in response to Franzenfreude.

Ugh. This kind of thing annoys me so much. Franzenfreude has gotten me thinking a lot about why I read and why in recent years I've been so angry about the hierarchy imposed by "literary fiction" on other genres, and the way it's connected to sexism. (Male genius has outnumbered female genius? REELY? Has someone not read her feminist lit-crit or a little book about how ladies kinda need rooms of their own to get scribbling?)

I started this blog a long time ago to discuss my love of literature in a snob-free context--thus its original "unpretentious lit crit" URL. I did this because I was ashamed of my own previous closed-mindedness, the way I'd wrinkled my nose as a late-adolescent when I saw movie tie-in paperbacks on people's coffee tables. But as I, needing books to read during difficult times or long trips, started reading said paperbacks more and more I realized that popular commercial fiction brings us back to reading the way we read as kids--ravenously, emotionally, viscerally. It's a beautiful thing, and it's important and great to mix that reading with the kind that elevates your mind as you parse its complex symbols and sentences. And really, who's to say what's "better"? In our tech-heavy, politically disastrous day and age, emotional engagement may be a truer antidote to what ails us.

I just snarfed my way through 'The Hunger Games" trilogy and I'd say it was probably the most profound reading experience I've had in at least a year, besides re-reading Emma and Dubliners. It was a one-note YA series that the Slate book club is currently analyzing and denigrating at the same time, but I'm unashamed to admit how much I loved it and how sophisticated I thought its treatment of its themes was.

That's why I'm so obsessed with Jennifer Weiner's crusade. The line between high art and pop art won't be dissolved, but who cares if it is? It's meaningless. Of course some writers are more clever, smart, talented, more ambitious in their stories, in their sentences than others. A canon-lover like me would never deny that one George Eliot is worth a thousand whoevers. But you know what? Sometimes "literary" writers have more exciting plots than their pop counterparts, and sometimes pop writers make you think about contemporary society more than their literary counterparts. Sometimes genre writers use the conventions of their form like a sonnet and make magic that's utterly original--while a lot of the lit-fic I review for Publishers Weekly feels like it was cranked out in a factory (not that it isn't usually good, but there's a sameness to it). It's pure insecurity on the part of the literati to police their borders so assiduously--why not just get good writing to speak for itself?

Yes, there's a good thought. Let's ask a bunch of questions beginning with "why". Why can't we admit that Bronte heroes get us hot under the collar and we enjoy the fart jokes in Joyce and Shakespeare even as we respect their genius? Why do so many adults who read Harry Potter have to qualify that love with some sort of snipe at Rowling's prose style? Why don't we celebrate writers who are keeping our dying written medium alive by connecting deeply with thousands of readers? After all, they're the ones who allow cutting-edge literary experimentation to happen by bringing in profits. And why do these discussions about high art and low art always smack of sexism? Franzen gets more respect than his literary female equivalents who write in similarly highbrow manners. For-profit churners-out like James Patterson get grudging respect and NYTimes Magazine cover stories. Would they do that for Danielle Steele? Me thinks not. And yet there's nooo connection between the two phenomena.

But all this consternation has made me glad that I found VCFA, where writers of speculative, realistic, literary genre and in-between fiction all learn to do the same thing together: engage the reader, stay in scene, write compellingly from the sentence through the plot arc. And I'm glad, although I neglect it often, that I have this blog--and I have you, dear readers, who share my taste and my opinions. So thank you!

And now I'm off to immerse myself in an epic, stream-of-consciousness novel in translation about the Holocaust, a review of which was due yesterday. Happy labor day and may the Egalitarian Bookworm spirit be with you.

A few more links worth reading:

• Is the New York Times' book section really a boys' club? (Slate crunches the #s)
  
• I write a nasty book. And they want a girly cover on it | Lionel Shriver
• Jonathan Franzen Reviewed on Video (WaPo's Ron Charles)
  
• Franzen Frenzy! (Lizzie Skurnick @ book beast )
  

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Sights and Reads in Northwestern France

Je reviens encore. Simon and I had a blast on our honeymoon hiking the jagged cliffs of Belle-ile and the wide, fort-dotted and shell-strewn beaches of St. Malo, with a bit of a bookending in the City of Love itself. We had a wonderful time, and got lots of reading done--four books each! I read my first "Wooster and Jeeves" novel, Cold Comfort Farm, and the first two Hunger Games books. You should have seen us two maniacs running through the Dublin airport, while our flight was boarding, searching for "Catching Fire."

It was a wonderful time, and in the interim I got some encouraging words from my advisor at VCFA. Unfortunately all of my angsty fictionista motivation evaporated in France, and now I'm pretty much dedicated to writing odes to cliff walks and crepes rather than the New York stories I'd started scribbling in July. I AM excited for "Mockingjay," though.

I trust all of my readers are well as the last heat-suffused weeks of summer drift towards the inviting golden-flecked shadows of September. I am doing most of my blogging on tumblr these days, so find me there if you're interested!

aguilles de port coton, belle-ile

cliffs, coves, Belle-Ile

ramparts and beach, st. malo

the walls of the "intra-muros" St. Malo

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To e-read or not to e-read?

After spending yesterday morning setting up my dad's nook, I'm seriously considering springing for one myself. I read so much, quickly and efficiently for work and now for school, and my bookshelf at home is literally overrun by piles and piles of books just spilling out of every crack and tottering dangerously in various stacks, that it seems logical. Plus, the price just dropped. Are any of you kindle or nook users and if so, what is your advice?

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URL change/update

Hi to my readers from the great state of Vermont, where I'm immersed in my ten-day prose reading and writing extravaganza. I'm having a truly amazing time, and will detail more later--but suffice it to say that it's mind-blowing for this Harvard grad to be surrounded by people who are serious and brilliant but not particularly competitive. I'm a bit bewildered, to be honest, at the lack of backstabbing, but I could get used to it.

I realize I owe my faithful readership a lot of book reviews: Alice Munro, Guernsey Literary, and the new Sookie. And the New Yorker fiction issue. I will try to return to regular blogging upon my return.

Oh, and this blog has moved: the new URL is egalitarianbookworm.blogspot.com. The RSS feed should be the same, and the redirect from sarahmselter.com. But if you're not getting updates, please re-subscribe here.

And ALSO, I'm tumbling a lot more these days. It's pretty random and occasionally personal stuff, but should you be interested it's fellowette.tumblr.com.

Til we next meet!

Recuerdo, and update

So this is where I've been, what I've been doing, what I've been recovering from.

Slideshow from our outstanding photographer, Scott :

I've been back in reality for a while--as soon as the nups were concluded, it was back to intensely prepping two highschoolers for exams. Plus my first book review assignment post-wedding was a 600 page behemoth about the middle east conflict...perfect timing right? But now I'm making my way through the fiction issue of a certain well-regarded locally-produced magazine (a mixed bag thus far) and then it's time to snatch a bit of summer reading (Guernsey Literary/Potato Peel etc) before I start wading through the heavy stuff for my writer's retreat at VCFA at month's end.

What have you been reading during this EBC hiatus, dearest friends o'th'blog?

My first JASNA meeting

Last weekend, Simon and I went to our first Jane Austen society regional meeting right here in our neighborhood, at local Fancypants U's swanked-out faculty house.

So I pulled out a string of nice fake pearls I hadn't worn since the bar-mitzvah era, put on a pair of heels and a cardigan, and elegantly hobbled over. The day began with a scrumptious, and free, three course-lunch with wine for new members, most of whom were ahem! a bit older and more female than Simon but who were delightful. During the course of the luncheon, names like Mary Eliot and Jane Fairfax were bandied about as though they were mutual friends of all of ours, which in a way, of course, they were. These characters and their tales were the major threads that knit us together. As the wine kept coming and the Prada chocolate cake came out, things got very loose indeed as we debated whether Mary knew that Charles had proposed to Anne first.

After lunch the gentlemen retired to the library for brandy and cigars--err, that is, we all went up stairs and listened to a provocative lecture on the secret subtext of Emma, from Arnie Perlstein. Perlstein is convinced and has a stack of evidence to prove that all Jane Austen's books have secret pregnancy narratives embedded within the text. He thinks that Emma is oblivious to the fact that Jane Fairfax is knocked up throughout the nine months of her time in Highbury. While the exact details of Perlstein's counter-narrative didn't always sit well with me, I think he was picking up on the screening-effect of Emma's limited perspective, and on the fact that Jane Fairfax is the heroine of an alternate story. In fact, many people have noted that in a more typical Austen tale Jane would be the heroine and Emma her meddlesome, spoiled foil. But the way Emma hews so tightly to the almost myopic perspective of the titular lady does give the novel a mysterious feeling--a feeling of a plot unraveling. Still I think there's more of an emotional component to this: it's the mystery of how the world works being gradually revealed to a young person who has a self-centered view of things and later learns to expand her line of vision. The lecture made me appreciate the subtle genius of St. Jane all the more.

Also, we began the session by solving the "charades" or riddles from Emma. We also tackled one riddle posed long ago by Austen's brother Henry. Simon was the only person in the 70-person or so crowd to solve it off the top of his head. I am all the more convinced that I will soon be making a most fortunate alliance.

So dear readers, 'twas a success! I'm excited to be joining JASNA just as the NY chapter begins to gear up for hosting its national general conference in 2012.

Spring musings--what are you reading?

Hi guys. I'm in the middle of a reading frenzy. I finished Angela's Ashes and am in between Persepolis I and Persepolis II, which I'm trying to read to keep up with a student. Also reading Susan J.Douglas's "Englightened Sexism" for a piece, and about to delve back into the Baby-Sitters Club for a piece. And ALSO have a new review book to read and so on and so on until breathless...whew!

how about you? What are you bringing out into the garden or park to read as the weather grows mild?


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Snowpocalypse De-Lurk--What Are You Reading?

Dearest readers. It's been a wild week and the wildness should continue for a while. I've been doing various betrothal-related errands, I caught Cathleen Schine's reading at Barnes and Noble, I had to finish all my work by Weds because I was due to serve a deadly boring period of voir-dire free jury duty (which I did, and it gave me a migraine), I attended a loud, late, fun pop concert which may have contributed to said migraine, I stressed out about the figure skaters and skiiers each night (seriously, the Olympics are not good for blood pressure), and although I happily got another MFA acceptance, I know that after the acceptances (and then the silences that equal rejection) comes my decision and so that very slight, but persistent pressure is mounting. Oh, and we've been hit with the most insane snowstorm yet! I was hoping for a weekend of skiing to purify my soul and perfect my technique, but it looks like conditions are keeping us stranded in the city.
Sigh.

Still, these manic periods in la vie moderne have a fun quality to them--they're exciting, they make you feel alive. So much is happening, you sort of have to surrender control. And I've been reading wonderfully inspiring literature throughout it all. I read a great review book for PW that is very EBC-ish and am now making my slow, tear-stained way through Jhumpa Lahiri's first published book, her Pulitzer winning collection of stories Interpreter of Maladies.

If there's one contemporary writer I want to be like, it's definitely she. Some day in the distant future, after my MFA program and the cruel realities of adult life have honed my blunt, youthful pen to a fine-tipped edge, I'd like to see myself as a Jewish Lahiri with a tiny bit of a satirical touch.

I love her writing because its brilliance lies in directness and honest rather than rhetorical flourish. Her style is so unobtrusive that 'we're launched right into the worlds of her character and often forget the conceit. She isn't afraid to "tell" us what her characters are feeling as well as showing us. She valiantly confronts the awful things in life like death and infidelity and bitter disappointment, but she does it lovingly, not cruelly. I just can't rave about her enough.

So what are you reading beneath these sleety, snowy drifts of weather and of life? Come check in with your harried blogstress and share.

Falling softly, softly falling

Yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. It was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the Bog of Allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous Shannon waves.

Another snowy day on the East Coast. I've been working on novel edits all day and my eyes are getting all bleary, so time to venture out into the whirling white flakes and try to stumble to the gym and grocery stores before it gets too dark.

My favorite literary snowfalls are the obvious ones: Robert Frost and James Joyce. There's a wonderful snowy night in "Emma" in which our characters dine at the Westons and poor Mr. Elton is rejected in the carriage home. And there are dozens more. "The Giver" "To Light a Fire" "Sarah Plain and Tall"...

What, to you, are the most memorable snow scenes in literature?

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Another Year Older and Deeper in Debt

Hi readers! Instead of my any kind of passage of time reflective angsty birthday post, I'm just going to say that I'm 27 as of today, and very happy.

I have a lot of exciting stuff in the works this year, and even though I've been sick this past week I've been spending time with my beloved family, my twin brother, and my loyal betrothed one. My parents and Simon accidentally got me the same present -"Bright Star" on DVD, which I will cherish. They know me so well.

I'm unexpectedly without reading material. I have a few days to dawdle before I get my next review book, so I'm going to tackle something new and fun and unknown as of yet. Or I may just listen to my new ipod on my commute and zone out (thanks mom and dad!--yes I've been sans ipod for years).

What are you all reading during this dreariest of months?

Reading, writing, life goals for 2010

It's a little late for this, but here goes.

In 2010, my HLP and I are going to be affirming our love in the most conventional, legal, Jane-Austen novel/Shakespeare Comedy-ending-ish of ways imaginable (but our celebration itself is going to be laid back and unconventional, although I believe it will involve eating, drinking, and being merry and inheriting a small parsonage on Colonel Brandon's estate ).

I'm hoping that that lovely occasion in my personal life will also be joined by some leaps in my literary life.

I really to take more steps to get my own fiction-writing in ship-shape. That involves revising, writing A LOT more, studying craft, and eventually submitting my work for the wide world's approval or disapproval. That also means being more honest and open with myself about the fact that this is a serious goal of mine, not just a hobby that I hope will work out.

And as for reading? I want to read the following books: Brave New World, Native Son, Barchester Towers, a bunch of short stories by Alice Munro and Lorrie Moore, at least two more irritating male mid-century American novels (Rabbit, Portnoy, etc) and two Shakespeare histories. I would really love to read more Latin American women-penned fiction, Allende, Cisneros, etc. I also have my Bronte challenge to look forward to, and the next Sookie Stackhouse book. And I'd like to read a Georgette Heyer regency romance for fun. And lastly, of course, a few more Pulitzer-winners from the last couple of decades as well as any new books that rock the literary world.

What are your 2010 goals, friends-of-EBC?

Happy Solstice, Redux

...From me and Dar Williams (whom I'm seeing live this weekend!) and my beloved Robert Frost. Enjoy the darkest evening of the year.

Dar Williams, "The Christians and the Pagans:


Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

Robert Frost
New Hampshire
1923

Question of the holiday season: what are you reading?

Hope all's well out there readers. It's been busy times here at EBC headquarters trying to maximize snow-frolicking, finish all work in time to PLAY with my family and friends, and get my end-of-year reading done too.

I finished "March" and a new Sue Miller novel for review later this year, and now am making my way through Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay," which is hilarious so far but dense and may take me through New Year's.

What tomes are you cozying up with?

This Week in Jane + An Update

TWIJ:

Cold Case: Jane Austen : At Jezebel, discussing the Morgan Library exhibit and the new theories surrounding Jane's demise.

Jane Austen Movie Throwdown from Jane Austen Today - Vote for the hottest man in uniform from the golden age of Austen adaptations (read: 1995.) It's Ciaran vs. Alan. Go cast thy ballot.

Things That Are True About Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey: At Isak, Anna discusses the sheer joy of reading Northanger Abbey for the first time. I feel you sister--some of us will never have the pleasure of opening a brand new Austen-novel again. But we can live vicariously, and we do. P.S. Henry Tilney is a hottie. Oh yes, a man who knows his muslins is not to be ignored.

Speaking of reading an Austen tome for the first time, I'm absolutely finding Wives and Daughters to be among the best of the almost Jane but not quite novels (AJBNQ?) I've ever read. It doesn't have that broad Victorian scope I'm used to from Gaskell, going more into detail about two families and their sorrows and intrigues, which reveals a more direct debt to Austen's novels of manners. I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying this book, fairest readers. I never want it to end. Which is good, because it doesn't! (Gaskell died before completing it). Any others who've read the book know what I'm talking about?

I still owe you reviews of Netherland, Push, and Whitethorn Woods among others. Will catch up ASAP--it's a terribly busy time of year, is it not?

Some Things Never Change

3047_47
Originally uploaded by fellowette

What were your reading habits like as a kid? Were you nuts like me, sneaking out a book in the middle of the night and reading throughout long car trips (can't believe I did that!), or did your bookworm proclivities develop later?

Question of the Week/De-Lurk: What are you reading?

I need to catch up on my reviews in a serious way--I was up north in Montreal last week tearing through Sookie. Now I've exhausted Ms. Stackhouses wacky magical adventures, and I'm reading an interesting Italian book in translation for a review. I also just started Netherland. After that I look forward to returning to the 19th century--any recs for me?

And what are YOU all reading? To my regular gang, please come back and comment and help inspire me to pump some life into this blog :)

Autumn's in the air

and I'm back, or I'm going to try to be, after a long late-summer hiatus. I've seen most of my EBC readers on the twitterwaves, but I've been remiss on the blog :)

To be blogged:

-Lost in Austen

-Inspector Lewis

-The Grapes of Wrath

-Jamaica Inn

-Mad Men

and other literary goings-on. What have you all been occupying yourself with at summer's end?

Question of the Weekend: Broadway, Much?

My wonderful HLP knows I liked musicals so he kindly bought me home a copy of the original Ethel Merman Gypsy cast recording--which is exactly the version I grew up singing and dancing to as a little kid. I spent much for the morning soft-footing it around the apartment, bellowing "Let me entertain you!" in appreciation.

It may be incongruous with my penchant for Victorian novels, feminism, and hippie music, but golden age musicals are my not-so-secret passion. Along with Gypsy and South Pacific, my faves are Guys and Dolls, Fiddler on the Roof, West Side Story, Peter Pan, Show Boat, She Loves Me, Oliver! The Most Happy Fella, Kiss Me, Kate, and the other Rogers & Hammerstein gems.

I'm less into more contemporary musicals--hate Andrew Lloyd Webber and have more limited appreciation for Les Mis and Rent.

Do you like musical theater, readers, and if so, how does your taste in them compare to mine?

Back from the beaches...

(Welcome to my new subscribers, tweeps, friend-feeders, well-wishers and ill-wishers.)

While I was away getting sunburned and slogging through Moby Dick, two of my literary articles were published, and here they are. The first is an overview of women's fiction, memoir, biography and non-fiction, while the second is an analysis of several feminist books. I alluded to this upcoming project earlier this year :)

COVER STORY: Women's Writing Fires Up Summer Reading Lists

This year's literary output by women offers plenty of heft for the summer tote bags. From sensational memoirs to serious sociology, check out what women are writing about and the prizes they've been snapping up so far in 2009...

from Women's eNews - Jun 14, 2009 6:00 AM

New Feminist Books Offer Multifaceted Critique of Culture Wars

This spring and summer have been remarkable ones for books about sex, gender and reproduction -- the avid women's issues reader has been up to her ears in provocative feminist tomes. What's amazing about the books discussed below is not just the powerful arguments they make individually, but the way they together paint a complete picture of our culture wars at home and abroad...

from Reproductive Health | RHRealityCheck.org - Information, News, An - Jun 15, 2009 10:13 AM

Non-Literary Question of the Weekend: Mountains or Beach?

(me in the alps and the NE canadian beach, respectively, vacations past)

I'm off to the misty New England shore for a week, and posting will be light. I leave you with the following question: if you had to take a vacation by the mountains or the shore, which would you choose (or is it an impossible question)? When I was a kid it was the beach all the way. But wheni was a teenager and longing for excitement and drama and adrenaline, I would have picked the mountains in a second--the snowier and lake-ier the better.

Now that I'm a working woman, the soothing quality of the beach has a renewed appeal. It would be very hard to decide.

Have a great week, readers!