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Fw: Fw: Martin Amis on Bellow , VN, et al
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EDNOTE. Yes, Amis' friendship with Bellow may have something to do with his
fixation. Does anyone know about Bellow's dental situation? Amis and VN
shared tooth woes.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott J. Baxter" <baxters@purdue.edu>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (75
lines) ------------------
> For what it's worth, I am a fan of both Augie March (read it four times
> in the last 15 years; also read most of his other major works with
> great respect) and Pale Fire. But I must admit I do grow tired of Amis
> claim that Augie is the great American novel. Somehow I thought that
> position was secured by Huckleberry Finn well before Bellow was born.
> Reading M Amis' Experience one can see that part of Amis' love for
> Bellow is related to his rather long friendship with the writer. He
> does say something in there about Nabokov and Bellow being part of his
> (sic) century but never bestows as much praise on Nabokov, mostly,
> imho, because he never had the chance to have a life-long friendship
> with him like Bellow did.
>
> Scott Baxter
>
> On Tuesday, Mar 9, 2004, at 17:57 America/Indianapolis, D. Barton
> Johnson wrote:
>
> > From: "Michael Donohue" <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
> >> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (265
> > lines) ------------------
> >> There's something interesting about the seemingly uniform reaction of
> >> list
> >> people to the Bellow post. It would appear that many Nabokovians have
> >> an
> >> aversion for the Bellovian. (Of course, this could be a complete
> > illusion;
> >> perhaps the Bellow people are just quiet.) I wonder if, Amis
> >> notwithstanding, there's something inherently different about VN and
> >> SB
> > that
> >> makes so many of us VN types react to SB with such puzzlement and
> >> indifference. Something along the lines of the old "Tolstoy vs.
> > Dostoevsky"
> >> debate.
> >
> > ----------------------------------------
> > EDNOTE. I suspect you are right, although Ellen Pifer has done admiring
> > books on both writers--so there are exceptions to the dichotomy. As for
> > myself---- I remember reading Augie in the late 50s. I am a compulsive
> > reader who can't bear not to finish a book I start. However I found
> > the book
> > so annoying that I started tearing out and throwing away each page as I
> > finished it. The only Bellow book I look back at with any affection is
> > Humbolt's Gift. which I vaguely recall is based on Delmore Schwartz
> > whom VN
> > did admire. VN expressed his opinion of Bellow in ADA.
> > Letters from Terra, by Voltemand, came out in 1891 on Van's
> > twenty-first
> > birthday, under the imprint of two bogus houses, 'Abencerage' in
> > Manhattan,
> > and 'Zegris' in London........ [Van] had little experience in the
> > intricacies of book-publishing matters, and ... was an absolute
> > ignoramus
> > there, not knowing, for example, that 'review copies' were supposed to
> > go to
> > the editors of various periodicals or that advertisements should be
> > purchased and not be expected to appear by spontaneous generation in
> > full-page adulthood between similar blurbs boosting The Possessed by
> > Miss
> > Love and The Puffer by Mr Dukes.
> >
> > -----------------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> _________________
> Scott J. Baxter
> Department of English
> Purdue University
> 500 Oval Drive
> West Lafayette IN 47907
> USA
>
> http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~baxters
> baxters@purdue.edu
>
fixation. Does anyone know about Bellow's dental situation? Amis and VN
shared tooth woes.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scott J. Baxter" <baxters@purdue.edu>
> ----------------- Message requiring your approval (75
lines) ------------------
> For what it's worth, I am a fan of both Augie March (read it four times
> in the last 15 years; also read most of his other major works with
> great respect) and Pale Fire. But I must admit I do grow tired of Amis
> claim that Augie is the great American novel. Somehow I thought that
> position was secured by Huckleberry Finn well before Bellow was born.
> Reading M Amis' Experience one can see that part of Amis' love for
> Bellow is related to his rather long friendship with the writer. He
> does say something in there about Nabokov and Bellow being part of his
> (sic) century but never bestows as much praise on Nabokov, mostly,
> imho, because he never had the chance to have a life-long friendship
> with him like Bellow did.
>
> Scott Baxter
>
> On Tuesday, Mar 9, 2004, at 17:57 America/Indianapolis, D. Barton
> Johnson wrote:
>
> > From: "Michael Donohue" <michaeldonohue@hotmail.com>
> >> ---------------- Message requiring your approval (265
> > lines) ------------------
> >> There's something interesting about the seemingly uniform reaction of
> >> list
> >> people to the Bellow post. It would appear that many Nabokovians have
> >> an
> >> aversion for the Bellovian. (Of course, this could be a complete
> > illusion;
> >> perhaps the Bellow people are just quiet.) I wonder if, Amis
> >> notwithstanding, there's something inherently different about VN and
> >> SB
> > that
> >> makes so many of us VN types react to SB with such puzzlement and
> >> indifference. Something along the lines of the old "Tolstoy vs.
> > Dostoevsky"
> >> debate.
> >
> > ----------------------------------------
> > EDNOTE. I suspect you are right, although Ellen Pifer has done admiring
> > books on both writers--so there are exceptions to the dichotomy. As for
> > myself---- I remember reading Augie in the late 50s. I am a compulsive
> > reader who can't bear not to finish a book I start. However I found
> > the book
> > so annoying that I started tearing out and throwing away each page as I
> > finished it. The only Bellow book I look back at with any affection is
> > Humbolt's Gift. which I vaguely recall is based on Delmore Schwartz
> > whom VN
> > did admire. VN expressed his opinion of Bellow in ADA.
> > Letters from Terra, by Voltemand, came out in 1891 on Van's
> > twenty-first
> > birthday, under the imprint of two bogus houses, 'Abencerage' in
> > Manhattan,
> > and 'Zegris' in London........ [Van] had little experience in the
> > intricacies of book-publishing matters, and ... was an absolute
> > ignoramus
> > there, not knowing, for example, that 'review copies' were supposed to
> > go to
> > the editors of various periodicals or that advertisements should be
> > purchased and not be expected to appear by spontaneous generation in
> > full-page adulthood between similar blurbs boosting The Possessed by
> > Miss
> > Love and The Puffer by Mr Dukes.
> >
> > -----------------------------------------
> >>
> >>
> _________________
> Scott J. Baxter
> Department of English
> Purdue University
> 500 Oval Drive
> West Lafayette IN 47907
> USA
>
> http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~baxters
> baxters@purdue.edu
>