Another Plank in the Reader's Manifesto

Now Denis Johnson has gotten the B. R. Myers treatment in The Atlantic: "A Bright Shining Lie." In case you don't know, Myers is the author of A Reader's Manifesto, based on an essay published in The Atlantic, a piece of old-fashioned, accessible literary criticism that takes to task some of our most celebrated current authors for not writing in plain English. Myers points out what the common man has always suspected: the literary fiction is pretty much bunk, a kind of confidence game played with language. The emperor has been naked for a long time, and finally someone's had the courage to say so.

Or, to put it another way, Myers does to modern fiction what Twain did to Fenimore Cooper. I'm just not convinced that the stylistic crimes in the former case always rise to the level of the latter.

Myers always makes sense to me within the context of his own writing. When he skewers the pretensions of the great and those with aspirations greatward, I'm invariably delighted. If I go back to the original text, though, I'm not so convinced. I can't help feeling that, to bolster the argument, he has to pretend as if intelligible passages really aren't. He seems to think that any use of language that is unusual, that strays from dictionary definitions, is so imprecise as to be incomprehensible. Still, he has a point. Artistic pretensions are bolstered by people afraid to admit they don't "get" it, and the result is often praise of what ought rather to be censured. I find myself agreeing with him in principle but not on particulars.

There's no doubt, though, that Myers is doing what a critic should -- spelling out what a good novel should be and skewering anything that doesn't fit. I don't always agree with him, but like John Aldridge's Talents and Technicians, I think he's required reading for those of us who want to speak to an audience wider than that of our fellow writers.

Comments

[chip responds]

But...don't you think he's imposing one particular view of the novel onto everyone's writing, Mark? I think he's interesting, but I think he has a tendency to skip over or criticize anything that doesn't fit his pre-set conditions. Just a thought. -Melvin P Hickenlooper

[J. Mark Bertrand]

You're right on all counts, Chip. I like the fact that he's got a fixed idea and pursues it to the brink of nuisance. That's what keeps him from being a mere hatchet-man. For the record, I don't think the Emperor is naked, or even in danger of catching a chill, but Myers reminds us that universal praise isn't always the bedrock indicator of quality that it ought to be.

[Nathan Knapp]

You know Mark, the contrast between your Re:Thinking Worldview page and really show the different tones of your writing styles. On one hand we have Mark, the affable thinker, on one hand, eager to discuss ideas; and then we have Mark#2, whose brow is heavy with thoughts of the human condition, ready to present the crime and bring the reader to a startling conclusion.

[Nathan Knapp]

*between the Re:Thinking page and this one*