A pause and "biographic" round of collective applause, Alison, from the
intuitive witness of the gathered for the completion of the novel (whether
it be a "ghastly" commercial endeavor or not!) Bread on the table is no
small thing, tho many a table 'cry for the lack of poetry.' You got both,
and may your winning hand be praised!
Before you move back on or forward, as already!
Stephen V
Blog: http://stephenvincent.durationpress.com
> Glancing off an earlier argument here, in a recent review of a book of
> essays by Hermione Lee, Lynne Barber is all for nosey gossip in biographies
> of writers.
>
> http://tinyurl.com/5ovlk
>
> Now, I think Lynne Barber encapsulates all the reasons why I dislike
> biographical peeking - shallow voyeurism, for instance, or a total dislike
> of actually talking about art. Barber objects that although Lee's book is
> kinda fun, she's an "academic" (even potentially a "grim... feminist
> academic" - oh no!) and that she talks about obscure and presumably boring
> writers like Eudora Welty. Ho hum. Then she complains that the book
> doesn't tell her anything "serious" about why biography is so popular these
> days. She complains:
>
> "But it seems that Hermione Lee Goldsmiths' Professor of English
> Literature at Oxford University, biographer of Elizabeth Bowen, Willa Cather
> and Virginia Woolf is not in the habit of browsing the life-writing of,
> say, Jordan or Posh Beckham. Moreover, like many Eng Lit academics, she is
> obviously queasy about the whole genre. She talks about "the moral
> reservations so often attached to biography dislike of gossip, distrust of
> 'low' sources of information, squeamishness about reading private
> correspondence, suspecting witnesses of having a private agenda".
>
> "Dislike of gossip! Where would any biographer be without gossip? As Lee's
> excellent essay "Jane Austen Faints" perfectly demonstrates, one tiny item
> of hand-me-down gossip that Jane Austen fainted when told that her family
> was moving to Bath can be worked up by subsequent biographers into pages
> or even chapters of psychological exegesis."
>
> Presumably Lee is pretty keen on biographical writings, but I guess I'll
> have to read some of her work to find out why. And I hasten to say, I'm not
> against it per se, or I wouldn't read biographies.
>
> Barber is the person who a few months ago was challenged to back her claim
> of disliking theatre by actually going and seeing some plays. Her
> subsequent article was printed in the Guardian and elicited this response
> from Encore:
>
> "Let's not make a big deal of this because who really cares what Lynn Barber
> thinks? However, before her article becomes landfill, we should just note
> some particular howlers:
>
> Challenged by her editor, she admits that the last two things she saw were
> Mamma Mia and Jerry Springer - The Opera and that she hasn't seen a play for
> years.
> She went to The Woman in Black believing it was The Woman in White . I
> thought the point was to go and see plays , so neither evening would have
> been particularly appropriate. But, soft, she explains; she went for the
> Lloyd Webber because it was recommended to her by that paragon of theatrical
> taste, Michael Winner.
> She saw Much Ado About Nothing at the Globe but left at the interval because
> the seat was uncomfortable.
> She found Democracy dull and The Old Masters (right ) duller, which is fair
> enough because they are (but hasn't she got any friends? anyone who could
> have told her that?). Meanwhile, she adored The History Boys.
> She adds that the programmes are excessively expensive (true) and that
> actors sometimes shout too much (they do). And from this comprehensive
> survey she diagnoses the theatre's problem in the fact that 'the plays are
> all such crap'.
>
> Imagine someone who said they disliked rock music. You ask them why and they
> explain that they have only bought a Steps and a Gareth Gates album in the
> last five years. So you send them off to educate themselves and they come
> back and tell you that ( a) they accidentally bought REO Speedwagon instead
> of REM, ( b) that they gave up on Exile on Main Street halfway through, ( c)
> that they find Coldplay and Keane bland but they adore Travis, and ( d) they
> think the mark-up on CDs is excessive and they wish those Emo bands didn't
> whine so much. From this, they lament that 'rock music is all such crap'. "
>
> (How's that for discrediting? And sorry for the length, I got on a roll...
> But you must admit, Encore has a point...)
>
> Best
>
> A
>
> Alison Croggon
>
> Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
> Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
> Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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