Files
kfitz-site/yikes/index.html
Kathleen Fitzpatrick a5c92f446a new post
2024-12-15 07:33:20 -05:00

726 lines
17 KiB
HTML
Raw Blame History

This file contains ambiguous Unicode characters

This file contains Unicode characters that might be confused with other characters. If you think that this is intentional, you can safely ignore this warning. Use the Escape button to reveal them.

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
<title>Yikes</title>
<meta name="description" content="The long-running and erratically updated blog of Kathleen Fitzpatrick.">
<link rel="alternate" href="feed/feed.xml" type="application/atom+xml" title="kfitz">
<script async="" src="https://talk.hyvor.com/embed/embed.js" type="module"></script>
<link rel="webmention" href="https://webmention.io/kfitz.info/webmention">
<link rel="pingback" href="https://webmention.io/kfitz.info/xmlrpc">
<style>/**
* okaidia theme for JavaScript, CSS and HTML
* Loosely based on Monokai textmate theme by http://www.monokai.nl/
* @author ocodia
*/
code[class*="language-"],
pre[class*="language-"] {
color: #f8f8f2;
background: none;
text-shadow: 0 1px rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.3);
font-family: Consolas, Monaco, 'Andale Mono', 'Ubuntu Mono', monospace;
font-size: 1em;
text-align: left;
white-space: pre;
word-spacing: normal;
word-break: normal;
word-wrap: normal;
line-height: 1.5;
-moz-tab-size: 4;
-o-tab-size: 4;
tab-size: 4;
-webkit-hyphens: none;
-moz-hyphens: none;
-ms-hyphens: none;
hyphens: none;
}
/* Code blocks */
pre[class*="language-"] {
padding: 1em;
margin: .5em 0;
overflow: auto;
border-radius: 0.3em;
}
:not(pre) > code[class*="language-"],
pre[class*="language-"] {
background: #272822;
}
/* Inline code */
:not(pre) > code[class*="language-"] {
padding: .1em;
border-radius: .3em;
white-space: normal;
}
.token.comment,
.token.prolog,
.token.doctype,
.token.cdata {
color: #8292a2;
}
.token.punctuation {
color: #f8f8f2;
}
.token.namespace {
opacity: .7;
}
.token.property,
.token.tag,
.token.constant,
.token.symbol,
.token.deleted {
color: #f92672;
}
.token.boolean,
.token.number {
color: #ae81ff;
}
.token.selector,
.token.attr-name,
.token.string,
.token.char,
.token.builtin,
.token.inserted {
color: #a6e22e;
}
.token.operator,
.token.entity,
.token.url,
.language-css .token.string,
.style .token.string,
.token.variable {
color: #f8f8f2;
}
.token.atrule,
.token.attr-value,
.token.function,
.token.class-name {
color: #e6db74;
}
.token.keyword {
color: #66d9ef;
}
.token.regex,
.token.important {
color: #fd971f;
}
.token.important,
.token.bold {
font-weight: bold;
}
.token.italic {
font-style: italic;
}
.token.entity {
cursor: help;
}
/*
* New diff- syntax
*/
pre[class*="language-diff-"] {
--eleventy-code-padding: 1.25em;
padding-left: var(--eleventy-code-padding);
padding-right: var(--eleventy-code-padding);
}
.token.deleted {
background-color: hsl(0, 51%, 37%);
color: inherit;
}
.token.inserted {
background-color: hsl(126, 31%, 39%);
color: inherit;
}
/* Make the + and - characters unselectable for copy/paste */
.token.prefix.unchanged,
.token.prefix.inserted,
.token.prefix.deleted {
-webkit-user-select: none;
user-select: none;
display: inline-flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
padding-top: 2px;
padding-bottom: 2px;
}
.token.prefix.inserted,
.token.prefix.deleted {
width: var(--eleventy-code-padding);
background-color: rgba(0,0,0,.2);
}
/* Optional: full-width background color */
.token.inserted:not(.prefix),
.token.deleted:not(.prefix) {
display: block;
margin-left: calc(-1 * var(--eleventy-code-padding));
margin-right: calc(-1 * var(--eleventy-code-padding));
text-decoration: none; /* override del, ins, mark defaults */
color: inherit; /* override del, ins, mark defaults */
}
/* This is an arbitrary CSS string added to the bundle */
/* Defaults */
@font-face {
font-family: "Atkinson Hyperlegible";
src: url('/css/files/atkinson-hyperlegible-latin-400-normal.woff2') format('woff2');
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Atkinson Hyperlegible";
font-weight: bold;
src: url('/css/files/atkinson-hyperlegible-latin-700-normal.woff2') format('woff2');
font-display: swap;
}
@font-face {
font-family: "Atkinson Hyperlegible";
font-style: italic
src: url('/css/files/atkinson-hyperlegible-latin-400-italic.woff2') format('woff2');
font-display: swap;
}
:root {
--font-family: "Atkinson Hyperlegible", -apple-system, system-ui, sans-serif;
--font-family-monospace: Consolas, Menlo, Monaco, Andale Mono WT, Andale Mono, Lucida Console, Lucida Sans Typewriter, DejaVu Sans Mono, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, Liberation Mono, Nimbus Mono L, Courier New, Courier, monospace;
font-size: 18px;
}
/* Theme colors */
:root {
--color-gray-20: #e0e0e0;
--color-gray-50: #C0C0C0;
--color-gray-90: #333;
--background-color: #fff;
--text-color: var(--color-gray-90);
--text-color-link: #d61d4a;
--text-color-link-active: #853439;
--text-color-link-visited: #e8325e;
--syntax-tab-size: 2;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
:root {
--color-gray-20: #e0e0e0;
--color-gray-50: #C0C0C0;
--color-gray-90: #dad8d8;
/* --text-color is assigned to --color-gray-_ above */
--text-color-link: #1493fb;
--text-color-link-active: #6969f7;
--text-color-link-visited: #a6a6f8;
--background-color: #15202b;
}
}
/* Global stylesheet */
* {
box-sizing: border-box;
}
@view-transition {
navigation: auto;
}
html,
body {
padding: 0;
margin: 0 auto;
font-family: var(--font-family);
color: var(--text-color);
background-color: var(--background-color);
}
html {
overflow-y: scroll;
}
body {
max-width: 40em;
}
/* https://www.a11yproject.com/posts/how-to-hide-content/ */
.visually-hidden {
clip: rect(0 0 0 0);
clip-path: inset(50%);
height: 1px;
overflow: hidden;
position: absolute;
white-space: nowrap;
width: 1px;
}
p:last-child {
margin-bottom: 0;
}
p {
line-height: 1.5;
}
li {
line-height: 1.5;
}
a[href] {
color: var(--text-color-link);
}
a[href]:visited {
color: var(--text-color-link-visited);
}
a[href]:hover,
a[href]:active {
color: var(--text-color-link-active);
}
main,
footer {
padding: 1rem;
}
main :first-child {
margin-top: 0;
}
header {
border-bottom: 1px dashed var(--color-gray-20);
}
header:after {
content: "";
display: table;
clear: both;
}
footer {
border-top: 1px dashed var(--color-gray-50);
}
.links-nextprev {
display: flex;
justify-content: space-between;
gap: .5em 1em;
list-style: "";
border-top: 1px dashed var(--color-gray-20);
padding: 1em 0;
}
.links-nextprev > * {
flex-grow: 1;
}
.links-nextprev-next {
text-align: right;
}
table {
margin: 1em 0;
}
table td,
table th {
padding-right: 1em;
}
pre,
code {
font-family: var(--font-family-monospace);
}
pre:not([class*="language-"]) {
margin: .5em 0;
line-height: 1.375; /* 22px /16 */
-moz-tab-size: var(--syntax-tab-size);
-o-tab-size: var(--syntax-tab-size);
tab-size: var(--syntax-tab-size);
-webkit-hyphens: none;
-ms-hyphens: none;
hyphens: none;
direction: ltr;
text-align: left;
white-space: pre;
word-spacing: normal;
word-break: normal;
overflow-x: auto;
}
code {
word-break: break-all;
}
/* Header */
header {
display: flex;
gap: 1em .5em;
flex-wrap: wrap;
align-items: center;
padding: 1em;
}
.home-link {
font-size: 1.5em; /* 16px /16 */
font-weight: 700;
margin-right: 2em;
}
.home-link:link:not(:hover) {
text-decoration: none;
}
/* Nav */
.nav {
display: flex;
padding: 0;
margin: 0;
list-style: none;
}
.nav-item {
display: inline-block;
margin-right: 1em;
}
.nav-item a[href]:not(:hover) {
text-decoration: none;
}
.nav a[href][aria-current="page"] {
text-decoration: underline;
}
/* Posts list */
.postlist {
list-style: none;
padding: 0;
padding-left: 1.5rem;
}
.postlist-item {
display: flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
align-items: baseline;
counter-increment: start-from -1;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.postlist-item:before {
display: inline-block;
pointer-events: none;
content: "" counter(start-from, decimal-leading-zero) ". ";
line-height: 100%;
text-align: right;
margin-left: -1.5rem;
}
.postlist-date,
.postlist-item:before {
font-size: 0.8125em; /* 13px /16 */
color: var(--color-gray-90);
}
.postlist-date {
word-spacing: -0.5px;
}
.postlist-link {
font-size: 1.1875em; /* 19px /16 */
font-weight: 700;
flex-basis: calc(100% - 1.5rem);
padding-left: .25em;
padding-right: .5em;
text-underline-position: from-font;
text-underline-offset: 0;
text-decoration-thickness: 1px;
}
.postlist-item-active .postlist-link {
font-weight: bold;
}
/* Archive list */
.archivelist {
padding: 0;
padding-left: 2.5rem;
}
.archivelist-item {
align-items: baseline;
margin-bottom: 1em;
}
.archivelist-item::marker {
text-align: right;
margin-left: -1.5rem;
font-size: 0.8125em; /* 13px /16 */
color: var(--color-gray-90);
}
.archivelist-date {
font-size: 0.8125em; /* 13px /16 */
color: var(--color-gray-90);
word-spacing: -0.5px;
}
.archivelist-link {
font-size: 1.1875em; /* 19px /16 */
font-weight: 700;
flex-basis: calc(100% - 1.5rem);
padding-left: .25em;
padding-right: .5em;
text-underline-position: from-font;
text-underline-offset: 0;
text-decoration-thickness: 1px;
}
.archivelist-item-active .archivelist-link {
font-weight: bold;
}
/* Tags */
.post-tag {
display: inline-flex;
align-items: center;
justify-content: center;
text-transform: capitalize;
font-style: italic;
}
.postlist-item > .post-tag {
align-self: center;
}
/* Tags list */
.post-metadata {
display: inline-flex;
flex-wrap: wrap;
gap: .5em;
list-style: none;
border-top: 1px dashed var(--color-gray-20);
border-bottom: 1px dashed var(--color-gray-20);
padding: 3px 0px 3px 0px;
margin: 0;
font-size: .8em;
}
.post-metadata time {
margin-right: 1em;
}
/* Direct Links / Markdown Headers */
.header-anchor {
text-decoration: none;
font-style: normal;
font-size: 1em;
margin-left: .1em;
}
a[href].header-anchor,
a[href].header-anchor:visited {
color: transparent;
}
a[href].header-anchor:focus,
a[href].header-anchor:hover {
text-decoration: underline;
}
a[href].header-anchor:focus,
:hover > a[href].header-anchor {
color: #aaa;
}
h2 + .header-anchor {
font-size: 1.5em;
font-weight: bold;
}
h1 {
font-weight: bolder;
}
summary {
font-size: 1.5em;
font-weight: bold;
margin-bottom: .5em;
}
img {
display: block;
margin-left: auto;
margin-right: auto;
}
blockquote {
display: block;
margin-left: 2em;
margin-right: 3em;
padding-left: 10px;
border-left: 10px solid var(--text-color-link);
}
hr.new {
border: none;
border-top: 1px dashed var(--color-gray-50);
}
/* Webmention Section */
.webmentions {
display:block;
text-align: left;
}
.webmentions__facepile {
display:flex;
align-items: center;
flex-wrap: wrap;
}
.webmentions__face {
width: 2rem;
height: 2rem;
border-radius: 50%;
object-fit: cover;
flex: none;
}
.webmentions__list {
list-style-type: none;
padding:0;
}
.webmentions__item {
margin-bottom: 2rem;
}
/* Single Webmention */
.webmention {
display:block;
}
.webmention__meta,
.webmention__author {
display: flex;
align-items: center;
flex-wrap: wrap;
}
.webmention__meta {
margin-bottom:.5rem;
}
.webmention__author {
margin-right:.25rem;
}
.webmention__author__photo {
height: 3rem;
width: 3rem;
border-radius: 50%;
object-fit: cover;
margin-right:.5rem;
}
.webmention__pubdate {
font-style: italic;
}
/* Message Box */
.message-box {
--color-message-box: #ffc;
display: block;
background-color: var(--color-message-box);
color: var(--color-gray-90);
padding: 1em 0.625em; /* 16px 10px /16 */
}
.message-box ol {
margin-top: 0;
}
@media (prefers-color-scheme: dark) {
.message-box {
--color-message-box: #082840;
}
}</style>
</head>
<body>
<a href="#skip" class="visually-hidden">Skip to main content</a>
<header>
<a href="/" class="home-link">kfitz</a>
<nav>
<h2 class="visually-hidden" id="top-level-navigation-menu">Top level navigation menu</h2>
<ul class="nav">
<li class="nav-item"><a href="/">Home</a></li>
<li class="nav-item"><a href="/blog/">Archive</a></li>
<li class="nav-item"><a href="/about/">About</a></li>
<li class="nav-item"><a href="/projects/">Projects</a></li>
<li class="nav-item"><a href="/presentations/">Presentations</a></li>
<li class="nav-item"><a href="/teaching/">Teaching</a></li>
<li class="nav-item"><a href="/feed/feed.xml">Feed</a></li>
</ul>
</nav>
</header>
<link href="/pagefind/pagefind-ui.css" rel="stylesheet">
<script src="/pagefind/pagefind-ui.js"></script>
<div id="search"></div>
<script>
window.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', (event) => {
new PagefindUI({ element: "#search", showSubResults: true });
});
</script>
<main id="skip">
<heading-anchors>
<h1 id="yikes">Yikes</h1>
<ul class="post-metadata">
<li><time datetime="2002-07-18">18 July 2002</time></li>
<li><a href="/tags/novels/" class="post-tag">novels</a></li>
</ul>
<p>Should a reviewer of contemporary fiction actually be required to, say, like contemporary fiction?</p>
<p>The question is raised for me by Dale Pecks <a href="http://www.thenewrepublic.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020701&amp;s=peck070102&amp;c=1">review</a> of Rick Moodys <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=66UQJ18C6P&amp;isbn=0316578991">The Black Veil</a>, steered my way by faithful reader <a href="http://www.wombatfile.com">BT</a>. The review is not so much a review as a skewering, and not so much a skewering as an explosion of bile and vitriol. From the very first line:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Rick Moody is the worst writer of his generation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>And a bit further on:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>When I finished <em>The Black Veil</em> I scrawled “Lies! Lies! All lies!” on the cover and considered my job done.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>If, however, the strongest conclusion that I drew from this review was that Dale Peck really, really, really doesnt like Rick Moody, Id say hey, to each his own, whatever. I read <a href="http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=66UQJ18C6P&amp;isbn=0316706000">The Ice Storm</a> (granted, after having seen the movie), and enjoyed and appreciated much about it — for instance, I did not find the novel, as Peck does, to have “a troubling fascination with adolescent sexual organs” so much as a concern with the ways that adolescents preoccupation with their own sexual organs is driven by the simultaneously prurient and passionless obsessions of the grownups who are ostensibly raising them — but thats a matter of interpretation and taste. Peck doesnt like Moody. Whatever.</p>
<p>But then theres this, when Peck attempts to figure out how American literary culture can have gone so wrong as to lionize such a pathetic figure as Moody:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In my view, the wrong turn starts around the time Stephen Dedalus goes to college in <em>A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man</em> and echoes all the way through Don DeLillos ponderously self-important rendering of Bobby Thompsons shot heard round the world in the opening chapter of <em>Underworld.</em></p>
</blockquote>
<p>In fact, the article, by its conclusion, comes to damn contemporary writers by association the entire lineage of twentieth-century fiction dating back to Joyce:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All Im suggesting is that these writers (and their editors) see themselves as the heirs to a bankrupt tradition. A tradition that began with the diarrheic flow of words that is <em>Ulysses;</em> continued on through the incomprehensible ramblings of late Faulkner and the sterile inventions of Nabokov; and then burst into full, foul life in the ridiculous dithering of Barth and Hawkes and Gaddis, and the reductive cardboard constructions of Barthelme, and the word-by-word wasting of a talent as formidable as Pynchons; and finally broke apart like a cracked sidewalk beneath the weight of the stupid — just plain stupid — tomes of DeLillo.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Pecks not wholly off base, I think, in his assessment of postmodernism as a “white mans ivory tower,” or in his suggestion that the dominance of this select group of writers has skewed the contemporary high-literary scene toward sterile experimentation devoid of affect and compassion. But one nonetheless wonders how useful this kind of judgment is in a piece that arguably supposed to tell whether to buy Moodys latest or not.</p>
<p>So again, the question: should a reviewer of contemporary fiction actually be required to like contemporary fiction?</p>
<ul class="links-nextprev"><li class="links-nextprev-prev">← Previous<br> <a href="/academic-obsolescence-indeed/">Academic Obsolescence, Indeed</a></li><li class="links-nextprev-next">Next →<br><a href="/return-of-the-depressed/">Return of the Depressed</a></li>
</ul>
<hyvor-talk-comments website-id="9100" page-id="/yikes/"></hyvor-talk-comments>
<div class="webmentions" id="webmentions">
<h3 id="webmentions-2">Webmentions</h3>
<p>No replies yet.</p>
</div>
</heading-anchors>
</main>
<footer>
<p><em>Built with <a href="https://www.11ty.dev/">Eleventy v3.0.0</a>. All content <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.en">CC BY 4.0</a> if you're human.</em></p><p></p>
</footer>
<!-- This page `/yikes/` was built on 2024-12-15T12:32:24.630Z -->
<script type="module" src="/dist/rJ3_G-2ArF.js"></script>
</body>
</html>