tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post6072851721902637666..comments2024-03-29T03:04:00.853-05:00Comments on Wuthering <br>Expectations: A pair of heavy pliers, drawing the wire through the holes of a drawplate held in the vise - Zola describes workAmateur Reader (Tom)http://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-84388145772687953322014-07-16T08:29:05.291-05:002014-07-16T08:29:05.291-05:00Good, a blog post. Good luck!Good, a blog post. Good luck!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-33759588953940254512014-07-16T08:17:54.062-05:002014-07-16T08:17:54.062-05:00It's not so much character-story-action that I...It's not so much character-story-action that I find myself looking for either these days. I'll have to give this matter a bit more thought ... I think there's a blog post coming up here...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-86509956120578755172014-07-15T11:39:19.891-05:002014-07-15T11:39:19.891-05:00I plan to stick with sheer physicality. Character,...I plan to stick with sheer physicality. Character, story, action - it's not like we have a shortage of that stuff in other books.Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-23990330550287821752014-07-15T11:03:18.562-05:002014-07-15T11:03:18.562-05:00The lists "are effective as brilliantly thick...The lists "are effective as brilliantly thick scene-setting, but they crowd out character, story, and action. These baroque sensory passages threaten to become the point of the book."<br /><br />Yes, absolutely. I do actually find this frequently a problem with Zola. I haven't yet read The Kill or The belly of Paris, but all too frequently, Zola's obsession with the detailed physicality - often expressing itself in the form of lists - does all too easily drown out character, story, and action. Usually, Zola gets the better of his urge to overwhelm his novel with physical detail,but sometimes, only just. And in one novel "Au Bonheur des Dames", the lists take over altogether. In this novel, Zola depicts the emergence of the consumer society - that point when we stopped being citizens and became consumers - but the endless descriptions - and yes, lists - of the merchandise in the newly opened department store crowds everything out.<br /><br />I still love Zola's writing, but increasingly, I find myself less interested than I used to be in the sheer physicality of things: I want writers who are more interested in matters intangible. I suppose it's just my temperament changing with age. I have to try another Zola novel again to see how I react to it now.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-20183813661176710692014-06-29T23:52:31.033-05:002014-06-29T23:52:31.033-05:00I had fun with L'Assommoir! And in these post...I had fun with <i>L'Assommoir</i>! And in these posts, I have not even gotten to the fun stuff. The post that goes up tomorrow, that finally - finally - gets to the fun stuff.<br /><br />The railroad novel is, in the 16 January, 1884 Goncourt entry, titled <i>Les Chemins de fer</i>, but I assume you are right. Zola was not ready to write it at that time. "He would rather make a start on something about a strike in a mining district, beginning with a bourgeois having his throat slit on the first page."Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-13103225436275461812014-06-29T19:42:41.838-05:002014-06-29T19:42:41.838-05:00With all these posts, you're making L'Asso...With all these posts, you're making L'Assommoir sound like a fun, enjoyable novel, but must admit it's my least favourite Zola (I know a lot of people like it), utterly overshadowed in my opinion by its offspring (particularly Germinal).<br /><br />The novel with all the railroad research is presumably La Bete Humaine.obookihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03885121629202810216noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-57648671145237991022014-06-29T17:06:28.630-05:002014-06-29T17:06:28.630-05:00In the Goncourt Journal, Zola often expresses his ...In the Goncourt <i>Journal</i>, Zola often expresses his anxiety, or even panic, about getting all of the information right. He plans to write a novel about railroads, for example, but how is he going to learn what he needs to know about railroads? <br /><br />He must have spent time in every one of these workshops, taking notes, sponging it all up for the book.<br /><br />The party scenes are the essential point of continuity between the earlier Zola novels and this one. I think of them as a quite different technique, but I would not want to argue the point too much. By the end of a party, it is true that Zola has brought in a huge amount of <i>stuff</i>, like he did with the lists, just organized differently. It is perverse to think of <i>L'Assommoir</i> as a food novel, but it is, it really is!Amateur Reader (Tom)https://www.blogger.com/profile/13675275555757408496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-49954983031386180162014-06-29T16:37:16.135-05:002014-06-29T16:37:16.135-05:00We also seem to get a lot of detail about food, ma...We also seem to get a lot of detail about food, maybe because there just wasn't enough of it, that when they do get to eat,they savour it more. That wedding banquet is a great example of the 'list' approach maybe?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3383938214852108244.post-50246341985064762452014-06-29T09:33:14.118-05:002014-06-29T09:33:14.118-05:00I think it's great when writers master a speci...I think it's great when writers master a specific knowledge and cram novels with it, just to show off. In many ways, information has become the main character of the novel in recent times. But I better not insist on that or we're back at James Wood.LMRhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08538873868140070018noreply@blogger.com