tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post2015749606467125883..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Cultivating a sufficient distrust of printed matter - notes on Erewhonian pedagogyAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-57479393315429375942011-03-03T17:20:49.089-06:002011-03-03T17:20:49.089-06:00Shelley, Butler's is the funny version. Much ...Shelley, Butler's is the funny version. Much of what I'm calling thin is when he goes for the more obvious jokes. But as concept gets deeper and the jokes get funnier, or at least stranger.<br /><br />I don't think Butler ever reaches the level of Book 4 of <i>Gulliver's Travels</i>, where Swift's satire becomes almost sublime, but he's in that tradition.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-33904879401878722652011-03-03T10:56:40.805-06:002011-03-03T10:56:40.805-06:00Satire needs an edge--it has to be either very, ve...Satire needs an edge--it has to be either very, very, incisively funny, or black-death absurdist serrated-edge despairing.<br /><br />Satire is not, as some writers seem to think, "high-concept."Shelleyhttp://dustbowlpoetry.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-59107971912901594912011-03-02T22:17:51.703-06:002011-03-02T22:17:51.703-06:00Mardi had enough surface differences that I did no...<i>Mardi</i> had enough surface differences that I did not see that it is, like <i>Erewhon</i>, another descendant of Thomas More. <br /><br />Butler's book is not a quarter as jam-packed with <i>stuff</i> as <i>Mardi</i>.<br /><br />I'm with you - it's when we start to lose the allegory that the ideas begin to have some room to do something, whether or not they're doing what their author wants.<br /><br />This was true of Wells, too, actually. I don't think I'm going to write about it, but I enjoyed <i>The Island of Dr. Moreau</i> a lot because it was the craziest Wells novel I read. It made less sense, and <i>therefore</i> was richer.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-8208291457431920462011-03-02T17:58:47.126-06:002011-03-02T17:58:47.126-06:00This is thin stuff, really, but as Butler piles on...<em>This is thin stuff, really, but as Butler piles on the nonsense, the satire becomes more tangled, and thus, to my mind, sharper, more universal.</em><br /><br />I wonder if this isn't how this always works. E.g., <em>Mardi</em>: The first stuff is wicked basic, church, lawyers, corsets. Starts to get more tangled with the whole worldwide political allegory. But the more jumbled everything gets, the harder it is to keep up with the allegory (if it's still really there), and the more universal it starts to seem. I haven't actually read <em>Erewhon</em> but based on your post it doesn't sound totally dissimilar.<br /><br />Other than the length, of course.nicolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17532641082944082516noreply@blogger.com