David Moran wrote:
> A great book to read on this score is B.R. Myers's
"A Reader's Manifesto:
An
> Attack on the Growing Pretentiousness in American
Literary Prose." I
usually
> hate literary polemics, but Myers has got a lot of
really smart things to
say
> about the way American letters have been going; he
doesn't blame an
> increasingly illiterate populace, but a mutual
back-scratching conspiracy
of
> bad authors and snobby critics. Myers bashes a
number of critically
adored
> writers that unequivocally deserve to be bashed.
Unfortunately, one of
those
> writers happens to be my beloved Cormac McCarthy,
but Myers makes some
very
> good points about him, taking him to task for his
most egregious excesses
of
> windbaggy, overheated prose. The offenses seem even
worse when he
compares
> them to passages of unpretentious concision and
clarity from Zane Grey.
********************** Great post. And thanks for the
recommendation, David. The Myers book sounds interesting.
Strange about the complaints about McCarthy, though. I
thought that his florid style was meant to contrast the stark
scenery he was describing. I thought it worked, too.
miker
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