"I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us. If the book we are reading doesn't wake us up with a blow on the head, what are we reading it for? ...we need the books that affect us like a disaster, that grieve us deeply, like the death of someone we loved more than ourselves, like being banished into forests far from everyone, like a suicide. A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us."
-Kafka
I've read a few criticisms like this, all talking about how JSF is gimicky and trying to be heavy handed and playing at the readers heartstrings. I think there could be some truth to that, but it also could be totally untrue. I'd have to wait and talk to him to make up my mind.
He's got some good and bad stuff in there. I think he completely missed the point of the pictures in ELIC, but I think that he's absolutely right about Foer having a rather negative worldview in his literature. It's all tragedy. And I think, having been away from his writing so long, I can look and see what he means about Foer being this Guru figure. I was really caught up in his writing and what he had to say that it personally offended me when he broke the trust I had in him with his bias in Eating Animals. That's... an excessive amount of influence, for better of for worse.
I've read a few criticisms like this, all talking about how JSF is gimicky and trying to be heavy handed and playing at the readers heartstrings. I think there could be some truth to that, but it also could be totally untrue. I'd have to wait and talk to him to make up my mind.
ReplyDeleteOn a side note, I'm going to have to convince my family to buy those new Haggadahs...
ReplyDeleteHe's got some good and bad stuff in there. I think he completely missed the point of the pictures in ELIC, but I think that he's absolutely right about Foer having a rather negative worldview in his literature. It's all tragedy. And I think, having been away from his writing so long, I can look and see what he means about Foer being this Guru figure. I was really caught up in his writing and what he had to say that it personally offended me when he broke the trust I had in him with his bias in Eating Animals. That's... an excessive amount of influence, for better of for worse.
ReplyDelete