John Freeman´s Experiments

John Freeman reviewing Only Revolutions:

The stunning lack of experimentation in American fiction during the past two decades partly explains why [Mark Z. Danielewski´s] 2000 debut, "House of Leaves," felt like a lightning bolt, even if some of its wattage was borrowed from other inventors. In an atmosphere of unquestioned realism, it challenged readers to keep track of a book within a book within a book, to sort out false stories from real ones, and to bend the laws of geometry.

Ummm, hell-fucking-lo? Stunning lack of experimentation in American fiction in the past 20 years? John, you´ve been reading The New York Times too much, amigo. Here´s a few titles to check out.

Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
Underworld, Don DeLillo
The Gold Bug Variations, Richard Powers
The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead
   John Henry Days
The Puttermesser Papers, Cynthia Ozick
The Tunnel, William Gass
CivilWarLand in Bad Decline, George Saunders
The Corrections, Jonathan Franzen
A Frolic of His Own, William Gaddis
Reader's Block, David Markson
   Wittgenstein´s Mistress
Multiple books by Vollmann
Multiple books by Scott Erickson

Not to mention, so putting your text at 45 degree angles now passes for literary experimentalism? News to me. Oh, a book within a book! How clever! Sort out false stories from real ones? Whoa!

Someone should send Freeman copies of Sorrentino´s library.

Oh, and also, House of Leaves was a thunderbolt? Again, news to me.

Can we get reviewers that don´t make assinine statements?

For the first 40 pages, it's nearly impossible to make heads or tails of what in the world these two are going on about, no matter which way you flip the book. While "House of Leaves" pushed the boundaries of genre and narrative, it pretty much left language alone, content to mimic and spoof the style of horror and academic genres.

"Only Revolutions" is, as its title promises, a true revolution - it wants to overthrow not just how we read, but what we read. Ever see "Sunnysurrounded" or "butterboys" or "viatotopolis" in the dictionary?

When did runningwordstogether become playing with language? Anyone can invent words and stick them in a book. Anyone can write 40 pages worth of shit that doesn´t make sense.

No, never mind. We´re anointing Mark Z. Danielewski the NEXTBIGTHING (see, I´m experimenting!).

Comments

[Dan Wickett]

Help me out with this one please, Scott. What was the experimentation in Delillo's Underworld? Or even in Whitehead's The Intuitionist? Not disagreeing at all with your point that quite a bit of it was being done in the past two decades, I was just surprised to see these two titles, especially the Delillo, on your list.

[Mark]

Hi Scott, I'm with Dan regarding Delillo. Never read Whitehead. To your list, I would've added Ben Marcus's The Age of Wire and String ... You are right that putting the "text at 45 degree angles" should not pass for "literary experimentalism". But a better question might be to ask, isn't the best writing always an experiment, even if it is only an experiment in working through its own assumptions? Much "literary experimentalism" tends to empty effect.

[Rodney Welch]

I don't think Underworld or The Corrections were really experimental in the classic sense, but that raises a question as to just what experimental really means anymore. Does it mean a writer tries an experiment with narrative that has not been done before? Not many of those around, are there? Ulysses, Pale Fire, The Sound and the Fury, Hopscotch.

Maybe, on your list, I would give the honor to Infinite Jest or (grudgingly, since I hated it) The Tunnel.

There's a difference between a novel that has a unique and genuine voice and one that is experimental -- and I can't really say "experimental" is a compliment, either. There are a lot of failed experiments out there. When I hear a novel described as experimental, it often sounds like a subtle critique -- a way of saying "This book sucked, and the nicest thing I can say about it is that it at least tried to be different."

[Scott Esposito]

To my eyes, Underworld`s format is very experimental. On the level of the entire novel, DeLillo creates a composite of the last 50 years through a number of disconnected vignettes told in parallel. It´s hard to describe the effect, but reading it, it felt very unconventinoal.

On the level of language, DeLillo is as creative as ever. A lot of the vignettes read as though he`s cut up several related vignettes and put them together in loosely chronological form.

Admittedly The Intuitionist is less experimental than others ont he list, but I think Whitehead`s subversion and merging of several genres counts.

[ed]

If we are to discount novels with text at 45 degree angles (and this description really doesn't do justice to Danielewski -- there's far more stylistic innovation in "House Of Leaves" than this; see, for example, the wonderful labyrinth section midway through the book whereby the footnotes form a map as mystical as the house), then we can also discount DeLillo, Whitehead and even Vollmann post "You Bright and Risen Angels."

How about this, Scott? You give me "House of Leaves" as "experimental" and I'll give you "Underworld" as "experimental." Deal? :)

[ed]

One other thing: how is "The Corrections" experimental? THAT one, I can't really buy. Unless shit monsters appearing as psychological manifestation count.

[Nora]

The typography of Only Revolutions is _not_ experimental and _not_ new. What, someone uses different fonts and colors and violates the top-centric bias of the page and we're surprised - surprised! - to see such innovation. Such wondrous ideas. Who would have thought that such things were possible?

I think it and House of Leaves are fundamentally derivative and cliched. We can applaud him for having a sense of literary and artistic history but the reviewers who insist that it's all experimental are either under-informed or duplicitous or both.

[tao]

just look at the author of the article, it's john freeman, who said disaparaging things about literary blogs a while ago

then you can understand that this post exists primarily because of that

many literary blogs will defend themselves at all costs, mostly giving up objectivity, logic, and worldview, if attacked or questioned or if even mentioned ambiguously

there is probably the same amount of blog patriotism as there is patriotism at one of those partisan political events in stadiums

[Ray]

What about the Fiction Collective (or FC2)? I think they would have to count as "experimental" par excellence... "it's only experimental if it is unreadable"

[ed]

Nora: To say that HoL is just about the design is to overlook its more pointed academic satire, its collection of inventive references (reminiscent of one of Sorrentino's lists), and the way that the design is used to convey Davidson's various experiences through the house.

Have you honestly read the book? Or did you throw it against the wall after seeing something that "violated the top-centric bias of the page?" Name me ten books this year that feature a design and layout that are inventive as Only Revolutions. The fact that Danielewski managed to get this book published through a major imprint (Pantheon) is even more to his credit.

Ray: Agree with you on FC2. And I'm surprised, Scott, that we forgot to mention Michael Martone' s work!

[Marie]

ed said:"Name me ten books this year that feature a design and layout that are inventive as Only Revolutions."

I'm going to offer up the "Host" essay from David Foster Wallace's Consider the Lobster, and parts of "Extremely Close and Incredibly Loud," which, while I may not remember the title correctly, I certainly remember some crazy-looking pages. I know, that's only 2, and they're from last year. Citing ten books from this year with non-traditional layouts is a tall order.

I'm 3rding FC2. I don't consider much on the list to be experimental, but maybe my boundaries are different.

[Anonymous]

So, Tao, you have read all FC2 titles published over the past 30+ years, and you would say that all FC2 titles are unreadable? I defy you to stand behind that comment. FC2 has published many beautifully readable books, some of those complex, difficult, meaningful books and some of them elegant, lyricial, and meaningful books. Why smear an exceptional independent publisher of diverse titles and authors with such cavalier disregard? It's really too bad. Sad, actually.

does anyone know if there are any good books/essays/blog posts on the history of structural innovations (like Pale Fire, If On A Winter's Night A Traveler, etc.) of the novel? which novels really broke MAJOR new ground formally?