tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post532984526064175909..comments2024-02-23T03:28:33.435-05:00Comments on Culture Industry: various; Susan Stewart: Red RoverMark Scrogginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01431113440875342809noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-69120750801188056232009-08-01T16:23:46.551-04:002009-08-01T16:23:46.551-04:00I remain an ardent supporter of Roth, though I adm...I remain an ardent supporter of Roth, though I admit <i>The Breast</i> is not one of his better works. Among my favs: <i>Portnoy's Complaint</i> (I've read it 10 times and still laugh out loud--it may simply be the funniest novel I've ever read), <i>The Counterlife</i> (maybe his best and surely one of his most audacious in every respect) and <i>Operation Shylock</i>. He began as a brilliant "ethnic" writer, full of verve and chutzpah, but at a certain point (somewhere in the Zuckerman novels) he became something much bigger. <i>American Pastoral</i> tells us as much about...well, I hate to use the term, but the mid-20th century American Dream as any other novel of that type. Yes, he can be self-indulgent and nasty, but at his best, he has a huge intelligence and a brilliant style.Norman Finkelsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03673105579717018812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-20238771827502722192009-08-01T13:43:32.908-04:002009-08-01T13:43:32.908-04:00Alone among my colleagues, I regard Roth as an odi...Alone among my colleagues, I regard Roth as an odious shit. I mean, I kind of liked Goodbye, Columbus and The Professor of Desire. I've never read Portnoy's Complaint. But more recent stuff seems bitter, bigoted, hateful, and impossibly self-regarding. The Human Stain is one of only three books I set aside, took with me up to the wilderness, set up on a log and actually shot with my dad's old Smith & Wesson .38. Maybe that's a kind of compliment, really.<br /><br />(The others? One was a copy of my doctoral dissertation, and the other is a secret).<br /><br />BobArchambeauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17273511539172747550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-37852391255394308482009-08-01T09:15:50.414-04:002009-08-01T09:15:50.414-04:00Good to see Arrowsmith, my old teacher, mentioned,...Good to see Arrowsmith, my old teacher, mentioned, who wrote so brilliantly about the "mind of Europe" (tho' is known more for his translations)...Don Sharehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03446230480847015806noreply@blogger.com