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Archives for January 12, 2004

OGIC: Wouldn’t it be nice…

January 12, 2004 by Terry Teachout

…if every organ of criticism took the trouble of laying out its priorities, prejudices, and understanding of its mission? The Atlantic has done just that in its January/February issue, and the results are extremely interesting and gratifying. They bespeak an accountability that is refreshing to see. And aside from the wonderful High Principle of it all, the specific principles noted by Benjamin Schwarz lean toward the bracingly blunt. Last I checked, no content from this issue was yet available online, so here are some cullings:

We assume that our readers look to this section as a critical organ rather than a news source–which means that unlike, say, The New York Times Book Review, we don’t have to cover the waterfront. For example, we chose not to review Pat Barker’s latest, because although she’s an important novelist we admire, her most recent book happens to be very far from her best effort. Its review, we reasoned, would be unfavorable but, since it would also point to her obvious talent, would hardly be an evisceration; in other words, it would almost necessarily be equivocal and boring (that good novelists so often produce less than stellar novels largely accounts for the fact that fiction reviews are so often politely qualified and, well, dull).

So true, although somebody has to review such novels (hello, NYTBR), and the Atlantic‘s rationalization is of little help to those stuck with the task of establishing this presumed critical consesnsus in an interesting and readable way. Still, they’re right that some portion of the high number of dull book reviews out there are dull because they are responsible. In an ideal world, even reviews of middling books would be fascinating, but this task takes a special kind of ingenuity from a special kind of critic–a fairly rare commodity that most of us would probably rather see spent on books that are really occasions, or are objects of genuine controversy–and that, frankly, very few reviewers are paid well enough to be able to muster, even if that special kind of critic is lurking somewhere in them.


Moving along:

One aesthetic penchant does militate in favor of British writers specifically: we prefer wit, wryness, and detachment to zeal. Whereas didactic blather and a pedantic spirit still infect too much American fiction, we find that British authors often write with the kind of insouciant precision we prize (as does an American writer such as Lorrie Moore).

Not a characterization of American fiction that I much recognize, but still, it’s good to know where the book review editors stand. Better to own the prejudice than to pretend it doesn’t exist. And finally:

We run fewer than the predictable number of reviews of books on politics, public policy, and current affairs. This is partly because we assiduously cover these areas in other parts of the magazine, but mostly because a very high proportion of these titles are just godawful.

Not to put too fine a point on it or anything.

TT: Hooray for me!

January 12, 2004 by Terry Teachout

I just finished writing the first chapter of my Balanchine book, and now am headed for bed. Lots of accumulated work-for-money to do tomorrow, so don’t expect any staggeringly brilliant postings, but I promise to give you something worth reading on Tuesday, if not Monday night.


In the meantime, Our Girl’s rocking! So back to work for me. Read her instead.

OGIC: Overheard

January 12, 2004 by Terry Teachout

Over at Golden Rule Jones, Sam takes notice of the 75th anniversary of I. A. Richards’ Practical Criticism, more than a bit of a relic as far as literary critical methods go, but excellent as a primer in close reading, and, sad to say, always good for some mirth at the expense of Richards’ guinea pig students. Richards’ book records what happened when the author, a Cambridge professor, removed identifying information from a set of poems that were all over the map in terms of quality, and asked his students to evaluate them. He is withering about the students’ reactions, which generally fell precisely opposite his own and the canon’s. Christina Rossetti, Donne, and Hopkins, if memory serves, are some of the literary lights that were unceremoniously snuffed out in the students’ judgment, while several pieces of doggerel were declared classics. Richards applies a high hand in diagnosing these failures of reading, and the results can be hilarious (and very good training).


George Orwell read Richards’ book in 1944, and wrote of the experience:

But still, some of the comments recorded by Dr. Richards are startling. They go to show that many people who would describe themselves as lovers of poetry have no more notion of distinguishing between a good poem and a bad one than a dog has of arithmetic.

Flipping back to the present, Haypenny Magazine is working the Richardsian angle with “Actual Comments Overheard in a Poetry Workshop” by Steve Caldes. (Link via Maud, who’s back!)

OGIC: Anybody wanna host a poker tournament?

January 12, 2004 by Terry Teachout

Somewhere out there, Jim McManus is shedding a tear. So is OGIC. So should anyone who never experienced Benny Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas in person. Where else could you play dollar blackjack, have the cards lobbed cheerfully at your head, and get a great bowl of homemade gumbo at the honest-to-god lunch counter into the bargain?


Maybe Binion’s will re-open, but it’s hard to be optimistic. In retrospect I see that when they removed the million-dollar cash-horseshoe display, it was the beginning of the end.


UPDATE: The second link above, to a Los Angeles Times story, requires registration. This better news story does not.

Terry Teachout

Terry Teachout, who writes this blog, is the drama critic of The Wall Street Journal and the critic-at-large of Commentary. In addition to his Wall Street Journal drama column and his monthly essays … [Read More...]

About

About “About Last Night”

This is a blog about the arts in New York City and the rest of America, written by Terry Teachout. Terry is a critic, biographer, playwright, director, librettist, recovering musician, and inveterate blogger. In addition to theater, he writes here and elsewhere about all of the other arts--books, … [Read More...]

About My Plays and Opera Libretti

Billy and Me, my second play, received its world premiere on December 8, 2017, at Palm Beach Dramaworks in West Palm Beach, Fla. Satchmo at the Waldorf, my first play, closed off Broadway at the Westside Theatre on June 29, 2014, after 18 previews and 136 performances. That production was directed … [Read More...]

About My Podcast

Peter Marks, Elisabeth Vincentelli, and I are the panelists on “Three on the Aisle,” a bimonthly podcast from New York about theater in America. … [Read More...]

About My Books

My latest book is Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, published in 2013 by Gotham Books in the U.S. and the Robson Press in England and now available in paperback. I have also written biographies of Louis Armstrong, George Balanchine, and H.L. Mencken, as well as a volume of my collected essays called A … [Read More...]

The Long Goodbye

To read all three installments of "The Long Goodbye," a multi-part posting about the experience of watching a parent die, go here. … [Read More...]

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