Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Just finished the book...
Just finished the book and decide to pick up Howard's End to read, investigating the suggested similarities. More like identities. I had never read Howard's End before (don't really remember how the 90's Thompson/Hopkins movie was even though I watched it) and I know that thoughout history authors have paid "homage" to others by using their plots and devices but come on... Otherwise, a very well written book but I need to look back into it because I am not certain what I got out of my reading of it.
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8 comments:
Howard's End or On Beauty? (last sentence is ambiguous).
You can read Howard's End Online under the Gutenberg project.
Also, if you want to read some really great criticisms online, go to google - go under book search - type "British Fiction Today" - there should be a book that pops up by Philip Tew and Rod Mengham. Click on the book and scroll down to, around chapter eleven entitled "Identifying the Precious in Zadie Smith's On Beauty" by Fiona Tolan. I really didn't get into the book until I read this article. I discerned most of what they were saying, but Tolan posited the varyiing levels of aesthetic critiquing throughout each character, which I enjoyed. I liked Zora's character for a reason, and now I know why.
I was referring to On Beauty. Hey Gripp, thanks for the heads up on the essay but it appears that the essay you are talking about has been omitted from the book preview. Quite unfortunate.
Having never read Howard's End, nor being familiar with the plot, am I to assume that the title reflects the action in On Beauty, namely, "The end of Howard"?
Brilliant essay. Glad to read it after my Simone Weil post. Guess I had a similar interpretation.
I got the essay at: http://books.google.com/books?id=0_aYvHn1LugC&pg=PA128&lpg=PA128&dq=%22British+Fiction+Today%22+On+Beauty&source=bl&ots=LaS1pFBsSX&sig=QfrAkmnAplGUkYaZZDiN0NRnt14&hl=en&ei=RB13SqWIE4iOMcq0yLEM&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
I think I share the frustration of Smith and Scarry re. academic. We work at deconstructing and critique, and then we are left with 'a handful of dust' rather than truth, beauty, goodness, God. Saying you believe in any of these things invites a derision, as if to believe in them in naivete.
There is a great essay by Roger Shattuck from his book, The Innocent Eye. The gist is that we (academics/literary critics/profs spend years studying art so that we can talk about and understand what we are looking at as if we are looking at it for the first time with an innocent eye. I think at the end of the smith book, Howard moves through the slides without talking because he is seeing these paintings again as if for the first time with an innocent eye. Ending with the picture of Rembrandt's lover and reacting to it with a personal connection to his wife. He sees beauty in all of her awe.
Ahhh, that gift that Paul Ricouer calls "the second naivete." To be able to look innocently again, post experience...
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