Daniel Mendelsohn on Criticism

I often wonder about the state of literary criticism and if anyone other than academics or literati read the critic’s discourse anymore. In these times of Amazon, Goodreads and blogs where we all shed our opinions and praise or denounce texts or their writers, of what value is the critic?

In an interview with literary critic Daniel Mendelsohn conducted by Bookforum, Mendelsohn says:

Reading a Book Twice: Fun, Healthy or Just a Waste of Time

I’ve just started reading The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho for the second time. This book is on my top-five best-reads list. When I recommended the book to a friend, he asked me what happens and I couldn’t answer him. I know precisely what I felt and learned when reading it, but I’m fuzzy on the details.

Time to read it again, I thought. I wonder if it will make as big an impact on me as it did the first time I read it 12 years ago. I’m a bit worried I am going to be disappointed.

Rodger Jacobs’ Flash Fiction

Courtesy of lulu.com

Prior to reading Jacobs’ flash fiction, I had never developed much taste for the form. I had come across short, short stories or flash fiction as they are called and gave them a go, then I promised myself never to read them again. So when I started following Jacobs’ literary blog and came across an occasional post of flash fiction, I would skip reading it. Fortunately, and typically me, I caved in eventually and decided to give the form another try… all I can say is: I am glad I did.

Achebe on Creative Writing

In the Art of Fiction No.139 of The Paris Review, Chinua Achebe is interviewed by Jerome Brooks and the following excerpt was all that was said about creative writing. I wanted to share this as it echoed my sentiments on the topic.

INTERVIEWER

Have you ever taught creative writing?

ACHEBE

No.

INTERVIEWER

Why not?

Why Fiction?

In C.S. Lewis’ book An Experiment in Criticism, I found a thread of thought that was both engaging and insightful where he proposed a thought experiment involving literary criticism.

Lewis suggests that books should be judged by how they are read rather than how they are written, and that readers should approach any book they read for the first time without prejudgment. Any book that motivates a reader to want to reread it is then a work of art regardless of label or genre. The most succinct passages I found were those of his epilogue, which pretty much sum up the book:

5 Good (Or Not So Good) Excuses for Not Writing

Do you eat, drink, sleep, breath and in general just live writing?

I’m asking this because of the man who sat next to me on a flight back home from some much needed holidays. He walked in with a guitar case, and after storing it he sat down and took out a stack of music sheets the size of a phone book; for the rest of the flight he went though them very meticulously. His dedication was very impressive since it was only a one and a half hour trip. I could not help but be a little bit jealous.