tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post5884289060613879893..comments2024-03-27T16:48:21.039-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: Rough, grim, clumsy - Drum-Taps and Walt Whitman versus Henry JamesAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-30039180935088364562013-03-30T20:37:08.099-05:002013-03-30T20:37:08.099-05:00That is good, that is likely, that with distance J...That is good, that is likely, that with distance James's interest and fascination with the "vividly American" grew.<br /><br />The James of that review is only 21 or 22!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51351214620254384572013-03-29T09:18:15.266-05:002013-03-29T09:18:15.266-05:00Ouf. Brutal indeed.
I didn't mean to imply t...Ouf. Brutal indeed. <br /><br />I didn't mean to imply that James got anywhere close to adopting Whitman's sensibility (he's more like "the voice of a few people in a well-decorated drawing room"). But there's a palpable and almost bemused fascination - in <i>The Golden Bowl</i> at least - with all that's unruly and rough and "vividly American." And he seems, in looking back at America from the novel's London setting, and from the collision of the old world and new represented by the novel's Italian-American marriage, to convey, through sentences no one would dare call flat or familiar, an irrepressible awe about America - something more generous, bigger, better, with more goodness, than in his earlier work.seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-25733312669112931952013-03-28T14:32:12.377-05:002013-03-28T14:32:12.377-05:00I have not read The Golden Bowl, nor any late Jame...I have not read <i>The Golden Bowl</i>, nor any late James, but I have a hard time imagining it as too concerned with "the voice of the people." <br /><br />It could be that I have understated James's position - that early review is closer to brutal. E.g., "We fins nothing but flashy imitations of ideas." James is skeptical of the very idea of trying to set oneself up as a "national poet." <br /><br />In a later note, from 1898, a review of a book of Whitman's letters, James seems more positive about the <i>figure</i> of Whitman, at least, but this cannot be meant well, not by James: "There is not even by accident a line with a hint of style - it is all flat, familiar, affectionate, illiterate colloquy" although it is also "vivdly American" (662).Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-90492906309816873812013-03-28T13:27:00.657-05:002013-03-28T13:27:00.657-05:00"Rough, grim, democratic – what could be less..."Rough, grim, democratic – what could be less like James?"<br /><br />And yet: I'm currently reading <i>The Golden Bowl</i>, and "rough, grim, democratic" could be a phrase plucked right out of it, since James, in this his last novel, seems to be setting up and exploring the tension between "old Europe" and the rough, grim, democratic new United States (okay, so maybe not "grim," since most of his characters are awash in light and privilege). It is surprising to find James writing about Whitman, but his quite complimentary assessment makes me wonder if something of Whitman got under his skin, and this "horrible mismatch of sensibility" softened to more of a rapproachement in James' later years.seraillonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17654593356535433945noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-51112777679367158742013-03-28T10:53:27.004-05:002013-03-28T10:53:27.004-05:00For twenty or thirty years or so James was a profe...For twenty or thirty years or so James was a professional book reviewer. The two Library of America volumes of his essays get close to 3,000 pages, most of it just book reviews. Sometimes of famous books (<i>Middlemarch</i>, <i>Far from the Madding Crowd</i> - "Mr. Hardy has gone astray very cleverly, and his superficial novel is a really curious imitation of something better"), mostly of the detritus of the day.<br /><br />But you are right that his more general essays like "The Art of Criticism" are now more influential, along with the prefaces to his own books. The French book is actually mostly a collection of revised versions of his book reviews!<br /><br />Isn't it odd, Stefanie? "Loud" and "quiet" are just metaphors, yet they really do describe the difference between poems. "Mannahataa a-march! - and it's O to sing it well! It's O for a manly life in camp!" (from "Drum-Taps") - that's a loud poem.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-15355430297797790592013-03-28T09:53:13.456-05:002013-03-28T09:53:13.456-05:00James' essays have piqued my curiosity recentl...James' essays have piqued my curiosity recently, but I'd assumed they were more general topical literary criticism (like I imagine his book on the French novelists might look like) rather than actual review-based literary criticism for some reason. Interesting! Your line about Whitman being "a perplexing case" is fascinating: how often our heroes are embarrassing in one light and godlike in another!Richardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01746599416342846897noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-4055164687445945992013-03-28T09:29:29.893-05:002013-03-28T09:29:29.893-05:00Oh goodness! Henry James reviewing Whitman certain...Oh goodness! Henry James reviewing Whitman certainly is a mismatch. And thank goodness Whitman only threatened to write about the census, though I suppose if anyone could make a poem about the census interesting it would be him. I understand what you mean by "Lilacs" being quiet even though it is still at the same loud volume as the other poems. Behind the loud volume there is quite a lot of subtlety and even a sort of gentleness.Stefaniehttp://somanybooksblog.comnoreply@blogger.com