loved this! but I need to defend my boy Saul Bellow really quickly. there is a big different between Herzog/Humboldt's Gift and Mr. Sammler's planet. the reactionary descent happened over the course of his career. As a prose stylist, he's S-tier. As a commentator on the human condition, he ranges from nearly miraculous to reactionary crackpot.
also, I feel like Tony Tulathimutte is the obvious freudian rejoinder to 'stinky lunch' stories.
thanks! many, many conservative-coded friends at UChicago and around town have urged me to read yet more Bellow, but, at this point, I know what I don't like...
fair enough! for what it's worth, I'm far from conservative-coded and those books were still very important to me. part of that is because I am interested in how artists and great thinkers sometimes turn into little evil gremlins, but I digress.
but especially if you live in Chicago, I'd say that Bellow and Algren are the most essential reads IMO
Yep, a comprehensive trashing of Bellow (as opposed to some judicious criticism) is not a good look for someone who wants to be taken seriously as a literary critic.
As someone who understood every word of Lei-Lanilau’s pidgin, I am thrilled to read the full thing. (Not sure that passage would reward deep Joyceian research but ymmv.)
But I’ll also note that much of the modern burden of articulating the subaltern complaints of today’s AAPI Portnoys actually falls on stand-up comedians. (Not at all coincidentally, a very, very Jewish art form.) I’d argue that Margaret Cho is far more comparable to Philip Roth from a cultural perspective than any author. Even beyond Ali Wong, I could rattle off a long list of comedians over the past decade that are in effect shouldering the yellow man’s burden.
The problem of course is that I’m not just throwing around Kipling references for fun. In the Asian American lit context, gender is just not a factor we can easily ignore. Roth and his sexually frustrated Jewish contemporaries you cite are all men. The Asian-American authors you’ve talked about in detail are all women, and it’s the female Portnoys that have made much more traction. (Yes Vuong and Lee appeared in this post but they’re too mid for this convo. Even in more PG contexts, big names are all female. Amy Tan, Jhunpa Lahiri, Maxine Hong Kingston. There’s no point in citing niche poets like David Mura and Bao Phi here.)
Why is that? Well…this comment has gotten long enough already.
I’m not exactly thrilled there was an American Portnoy, but that’s just me
loved this! but I need to defend my boy Saul Bellow really quickly. there is a big different between Herzog/Humboldt's Gift and Mr. Sammler's planet. the reactionary descent happened over the course of his career. As a prose stylist, he's S-tier. As a commentator on the human condition, he ranges from nearly miraculous to reactionary crackpot.
also, I feel like Tony Tulathimutte is the obvious freudian rejoinder to 'stinky lunch' stories.
thanks! many, many conservative-coded friends at UChicago and around town have urged me to read yet more Bellow, but, at this point, I know what I don't like...
fair enough! for what it's worth, I'm far from conservative-coded and those books were still very important to me. part of that is because I am interested in how artists and great thinkers sometimes turn into little evil gremlins, but I digress.
but especially if you live in Chicago, I'd say that Bellow and Algren are the most essential reads IMO
Yep, a comprehensive trashing of Bellow (as opposed to some judicious criticism) is not a good look for someone who wants to be taken seriously as a literary critic.
Why would we need or want an “Asian” (or any other) Portnoy? Why is that book such a touchstone? It’s famous but it isn’t any good.
Sometimes you need a bad book so other people can write good books.
Jews created the comic book and cartoon, like Superman, and the Asian comic book is manga and anime
As someone who understood every word of Lei-Lanilau’s pidgin, I am thrilled to read the full thing. (Not sure that passage would reward deep Joyceian research but ymmv.)
But I’ll also note that much of the modern burden of articulating the subaltern complaints of today’s AAPI Portnoys actually falls on stand-up comedians. (Not at all coincidentally, a very, very Jewish art form.) I’d argue that Margaret Cho is far more comparable to Philip Roth from a cultural perspective than any author. Even beyond Ali Wong, I could rattle off a long list of comedians over the past decade that are in effect shouldering the yellow man’s burden.
The problem of course is that I’m not just throwing around Kipling references for fun. In the Asian American lit context, gender is just not a factor we can easily ignore. Roth and his sexually frustrated Jewish contemporaries you cite are all men. The Asian-American authors you’ve talked about in detail are all women, and it’s the female Portnoys that have made much more traction. (Yes Vuong and Lee appeared in this post but they’re too mid for this convo. Even in more PG contexts, big names are all female. Amy Tan, Jhunpa Lahiri, Maxine Hong Kingston. There’s no point in citing niche poets like David Mura and Bao Phi here.)
Why is that? Well…this comment has gotten long enough already.
portnor's is about getting people's minds out of the gutter of sci-fi and fantasy and instead on high-brow sexuality
Check out Lois-Ann Yamanaka, in my opinion, one of the great writers of our time. I'm not sure why nobody talks about her.
She certainly has a powerful narcissistic voice.