'To be a little baroque about it, it was as if, while the baby of art was tossed out ‘in the direction of literature,’ the baby of literature was likewise tossed out ‘in the direction of art,’ but, with both babies still in the air, it was decided that ‘time should stop.’ And that's how Solomon determined that the real Mother is Philip Traylen. Great review, dude!
As usual, another fabulous read. I especially love the phrase, "miasmic effluvia of the craft-ridden present" ... I'm keeping this one in my email box to read whenever I need a chuckle and a lift for the day. If I couldn't forget myself when I face a blank canvas or empty journal, I'd never write or paint again!
I have never actually read Underworld but the opportunity to destroy any Kakutani review is always welcome.
I think progressivists want a usable past because it is a sign that another world is possible and things could have gone differently. But so much has been lost because of modernity that progressivists cannot claim to be the clear or simple inheritors of that past beyond a certain point. Saidiya Hartman squared the circle in "Lose Your Mother" by saying that we can imagine that we are fighting for what the slaves would want and the slaves are fighting with us.
I think my main idea about progressivism is that redemption is nothing to do with what anyone does but with the passage of time itself, which they consider inherently redemptive. But because this idea is so obviously incorrect it requires a certain solidification of the past which I think might be what nostalgia is; I think nostalgia is perhaps the most Machiavellian of all feelings, it doesn't even try to refer to the past, it's doing something completely different. I don't know why I hold these opinions; I think you're saying something almost totally different here, that progressivists are attempting what Benjamin calls 'blasting open the continuum of the past' [such that the slaves become a kind of transhistorical agent]. Maybe the middle ground would be to say that what progressivists do is 'performative Benjaminianism,' they pretending to be opening up the past by are in fact closing it (since progressivism almost by definition means 'the closure of the past'). I have the feeling though that people on the right are doing exactly the same thing; both use the past for moral self-assurance, so the more closed - the more 'solid' - it is the better.
"To be a little baroque about it, it was as if, while the baby of art was tossed out ‘in the direction of literature,’ the baby of literature was likewise tossed out ‘in the direction of art,’ but, with both babies still in the air, it was decided that ‘time should stop.’"
The painting as painted word meets the words that fail to mean anything other than themselves. And "Here's your PhD, kiddo." The babies are very good here.
I would like to say that "milk-rotted inertitude" metaphor doesn't work because "the head of the United States of America" a half a century ago surely couldn't have been the English department at Yale. The sad thing (one of the sad things) is that the metaphor works so well.
it's not particularly relevant, but I didn't know the word 'inertitude' even existed until it suddenly 'occured to me' while writing this; I then spend at least 20 minutes trying to decide between inertia, inertness and inertitude (I believe 'inertance' may also be an option). Apparently it was used by Thomas Blount in 1656, and I suppose he used it because the latin is inertitūdo. It seems he used quite a lot of words which no one else has ever, generally it seems that quite a lot of words appear only in his books, which may have been primarily dictionaries, e.g., 'nevosity'
All his novels are sporting events. She was that much more truth in advertising than you give her credit. Somebody pay me to review your soorting event @ oneunitapartment@ yahoo.com. That was the idlest most perdurable mashup of little people as gauged by my spectral participation. And big mouths grieving some misstep in self promotion on a summary execution of last will and testament I ever. Let me think yes. That One has ever enterred by a hurricane fence and left feeling jazzed, tired. Blase. Gassed, in a word. Sports are our shorts. After the event's manner of speaking, jury is out! It surely is hot today innit? " I will include a shmear of race realism with this sidebar: " if there are 12 percent of this country de rigeur black people, aren't there that many 6 foot +nth Dutch giants? " For coloration....Delillo is great. He represents the slow wit movement with sports talk. In media res. Viva la teevee.
Oy fucking vey. Michiko, Rachel and James, then Michael. The insulting familiarity of it all. I especially appreciate the latter's excoriation, the extolling of his virtue as the ne plus ultra of conceptual art having ruined my MFA, and me quite possibly. His VW bus parked outside a museum was pretty funny though, as if to say, "I, me, the artist, am here, just outside, waiting for your reverence."
Great stuff, this has led to me tracking down James Wood's review of Underworld, which surprisingly is very difficult to find and seems to exist only in his collection "The Broken Estate." Curious if you've read it...
Wow! If I could re-do undergrad, I would like to be made to read this review hungover one awful morning in 2020, be confused and then angry about reading it, and then be made to read everything that went into it, tenderly raising this review in my mind, like a child raises a precious dog, tenderly observing to Benjamin, to DeLillo, to Hegel like training the dog to be potty trained, to sit, to stay, to follow, to truly love the dog, and then be made, my senior year, to not just kill but mangle the dog, destroy the review: and emerge blood-dimmed, baptized, reborn. Great review. Raises the floor on everyone, so that they must either learn to swim or drown.
'To be a little baroque about it, it was as if, while the baby of art was tossed out ‘in the direction of literature,’ the baby of literature was likewise tossed out ‘in the direction of art,’ but, with both babies still in the air, it was decided that ‘time should stop.’ And that's how Solomon determined that the real Mother is Philip Traylen. Great review, dude!
Lol! This piece is certified 100% Traylen.
As usual, another fabulous read. I especially love the phrase, "miasmic effluvia of the craft-ridden present" ... I'm keeping this one in my email box to read whenever I need a chuckle and a lift for the day. If I couldn't forget myself when I face a blank canvas or empty journal, I'd never write or paint again!
I have never actually read Underworld but the opportunity to destroy any Kakutani review is always welcome.
I think progressivists want a usable past because it is a sign that another world is possible and things could have gone differently. But so much has been lost because of modernity that progressivists cannot claim to be the clear or simple inheritors of that past beyond a certain point. Saidiya Hartman squared the circle in "Lose Your Mother" by saying that we can imagine that we are fighting for what the slaves would want and the slaves are fighting with us.
I think my main idea about progressivism is that redemption is nothing to do with what anyone does but with the passage of time itself, which they consider inherently redemptive. But because this idea is so obviously incorrect it requires a certain solidification of the past which I think might be what nostalgia is; I think nostalgia is perhaps the most Machiavellian of all feelings, it doesn't even try to refer to the past, it's doing something completely different. I don't know why I hold these opinions; I think you're saying something almost totally different here, that progressivists are attempting what Benjamin calls 'blasting open the continuum of the past' [such that the slaves become a kind of transhistorical agent]. Maybe the middle ground would be to say that what progressivists do is 'performative Benjaminianism,' they pretending to be opening up the past by are in fact closing it (since progressivism almost by definition means 'the closure of the past'). I have the feeling though that people on the right are doing exactly the same thing; both use the past for moral self-assurance, so the more closed - the more 'solid' - it is the better.
"To be a little baroque about it, it was as if, while the baby of art was tossed out ‘in the direction of literature,’ the baby of literature was likewise tossed out ‘in the direction of art,’ but, with both babies still in the air, it was decided that ‘time should stop.’"
The painting as painted word meets the words that fail to mean anything other than themselves. And "Here's your PhD, kiddo." The babies are very good here.
I would like to say that "milk-rotted inertitude" metaphor doesn't work because "the head of the United States of America" a half a century ago surely couldn't have been the English department at Yale. The sad thing (one of the sad things) is that the metaphor works so well.
it's not particularly relevant, but I didn't know the word 'inertitude' even existed until it suddenly 'occured to me' while writing this; I then spend at least 20 minutes trying to decide between inertia, inertness and inertitude (I believe 'inertance' may also be an option). Apparently it was used by Thomas Blount in 1656, and I suppose he used it because the latin is inertitūdo. It seems he used quite a lot of words which no one else has ever, generally it seems that quite a lot of words appear only in his books, which may have been primarily dictionaries, e.g., 'nevosity'
All his novels are sporting events. She was that much more truth in advertising than you give her credit. Somebody pay me to review your soorting event @ oneunitapartment@ yahoo.com. That was the idlest most perdurable mashup of little people as gauged by my spectral participation. And big mouths grieving some misstep in self promotion on a summary execution of last will and testament I ever. Let me think yes. That One has ever enterred by a hurricane fence and left feeling jazzed, tired. Blase. Gassed, in a word. Sports are our shorts. After the event's manner of speaking, jury is out! It surely is hot today innit? " I will include a shmear of race realism with this sidebar: " if there are 12 percent of this country de rigeur black people, aren't there that many 6 foot +nth Dutch giants? " For coloration....Delillo is great. He represents the slow wit movement with sports talk. In media res. Viva la teevee.
If a book were a creature its about were to creature and it is.
Oy fucking vey. Michiko, Rachel and James, then Michael. The insulting familiarity of it all. I especially appreciate the latter's excoriation, the extolling of his virtue as the ne plus ultra of conceptual art having ruined my MFA, and me quite possibly. His VW bus parked outside a museum was pretty funny though, as if to say, "I, me, the artist, am here, just outside, waiting for your reverence."
Great stuff, this has led to me tracking down James Wood's review of Underworld, which surprisingly is very difficult to find and seems to exist only in his collection "The Broken Estate." Curious if you've read it...
I also had to hunt it down, it seemed too complicated to attack, I couldn't manage to form any opinion about it (or about James Wood) haha
Don’t give up! I’m sure you’ll find some way to attack James Wood.
I bring it up because I think he may be more in agreement with you than the other reviews (haven't finished it yet). I'll report back.
Good piece. Got a chuckle out of "the respected American novelist Rachel Kushner says..."
Almost snorted my espresso out my nose
)))
Wow! If I could re-do undergrad, I would like to be made to read this review hungover one awful morning in 2020, be confused and then angry about reading it, and then be made to read everything that went into it, tenderly raising this review in my mind, like a child raises a precious dog, tenderly observing to Benjamin, to DeLillo, to Hegel like training the dog to be potty trained, to sit, to stay, to follow, to truly love the dog, and then be made, my senior year, to not just kill but mangle the dog, destroy the review: and emerge blood-dimmed, baptized, reborn. Great review. Raises the floor on everyone, so that they must either learn to swim or drown.
thank for reading William, we all long to be destroyed
I think it would be nice to be put to the knife, josef k style, like a dog!
🤣🤣 merci bien