Comments on: Mailer’s Muddled Methods http://quarterlyconversation.com/constant/mailers-muddled-methods The weblog of The Quarterly Conversation Fri, 04 Mar 2011 18:41:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Scott Esposito http://quarterlyconversation.com/constant/mailers-muddled-methods/comment-page-1#comment-15 Scott Esposito Thu, 25 Feb 2010 21:00:57 +0000 http://quarterlyconversation.com/constant/?p=234#comment-15 Great post, John! A lot to deal with here, but I'm going to stick to commenting on your remarks vis a vis Shields. I agree that a lot of the coverage has been imprecise in regards to Shields' thesis. This is probably part a reflection on the nature of Shields' book (which is purposely diffuse) and part a reflection on said reviewers' lack of skill. (And I have a review of this book pending that I hope will do better.) But, well, to put it plainly, Shields is very upfront about his thesis and puts it right there on page 1 for anyone to see. I don't think he sees the novel as dead so much as wanting it to conform to a very particular vision he has of it (hence the manifesto). As regards Mailer, I think Shields wouldn't have time for a lot of the detail you say Mailer puts in here, although I think he'd be mightily intrigued at the blend of styles and the way that Mailer pushed you to thoughts without openly asking you to think. Great post, John! A lot to deal with here, but I’m going to stick to commenting on your remarks vis a vis Shields. I agree that a lot of the coverage has been imprecise in regards to Shields’ thesis. This is probably part a reflection on the nature of Shields’ book (which is purposely diffuse) and part a reflection on said reviewers’ lack of skill. (And I have a review of this book pending that I hope will do better.) But, well, to put it plainly, Shields is very upfront about his thesis and puts it right there on page 1 for anyone to see. I don’t think he sees the novel as dead so much as wanting it to conform to a very particular vision he has of it (hence the manifesto).

As regards Mailer, I think Shields wouldn’t have time for a lot of the detail you say Mailer puts in here, although I think he’d be mightily intrigued at the blend of styles and the way that Mailer pushed you to thoughts without openly asking you to think.

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