I have no aspiration here to reclaim mystery and paradox from whatever territory they might inhabit, for there is, indeed, often a killing in a kiss, a mercy in the slap that heats your face . . . There is, nevertheless, a particular poverty in those alloplasts who, addressing tragedy, seek to subdistinguish motives beyond those we have best, because nearest, at hand, and so it is with love and hate--emotions upon whose necks, whether wrung or wreathed, may be found the oldest fingerprints of man. A simple truth intrudes: the basic instincts of every man to every man are known. But who knows when or where or how? For the answers to such questions, summon Augurello, your personal jurisconsult and theological wiseacre, to teach you about primal reality and then to dispel those complexities and cabals you crouch behind in this sad, psychiatric century you call your own. It is the anti-labyrinths of the world that scare. Here is a story for you. Your chair.
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Yeah, brilliant-- convoluted plea (aiw) for simplicity! Alloplast here = robot, npc-- fakey-fake as your best girl's too white teeth
Just beginning this, anon? Personally, I think it reads best at the turn of the academic year, early Fall say mid-October, but perhaps you're all alone out in the middle of the woods someplace, in which case it may well work, in which case (thou) shalt not receive this missive
yeah I just started reading it. i quite liked how evocative that 'Explicitur' was. it does seem like a fall book, it carries that ominous sorta mood.
I like him but he's an exhausting writer to read. Read An Adultery this past Spring and absolutely EVERY form of lying, pseudo-rationalization, and trickery that occurs in a doomed relationship is inventoried and exhaustively explored. One learns alot by reading him, and I must confess atp to being more than a little addicted. Have a copy of Warholic but have yet to crack it open..
His essays are light by comparison. The two volumes on the Primary and Secondary colors can be read with ease and comfort at any ol' time
Anon, when I opened Laura Warholic and read the epigraph from R B Fuller and others, then read the first page of the first chapter, I knew right then and there that I was going to enjoy Laura Warholic. I tried to read a chapter a day to savor the book, but there were times that I read 2 or 3 chapters in one sitting; it flows that easily. I've read this book 3 times; I like it that much, and I have read all of Mr. Theroux's works, pre- and post-Warholic. I am of the personal belief that this book is a great American novel. I envy you the experience of reading this book for the first time; I truly do.
Plan now is to pick it up late August. When I do I'll thread about it.
>Explicitur
Bet he nicked that from Fr. Rolfe
You know it's funny, anon. A day or so ago I was looking through the Nabokov's Literary Opinions thread just to see if anyone had anything to say about the most interesting writer on his list, Norman Douglas, which, of course, no one did. Long story short, I have of course read South Wind, but nothing of Fr. Rolfe. There was a time, however, when I thought to acquire Hadrian but never did. What is your impression of his writing? Is he worth picking up?
Oh yes, he is definitely worth reading imo; he is a great stylist. At least in his contemporary novels (Hadrian – which is definitely the place to start –, Nicholas Crabbe, and The Desire and Pursuit of the Whole), as here his wit comes through the most, and his ire: he's at his best in his invective letters (much of which he incorporates in the latter two novels; and his explicit Venice Letters). Of his other, historical, novels I've only read Don Tarquinio, but here the arcane vocabulary didn't have much vigor to it, and just showed off matters zodiacal, lapidary, and heraldic, overlaying a rather basic story.
While not giving the most accurate picture, Symons' Quest for Corvo is also a very engaging read.
I'll pick up Hadrian, thanks! Have you read Douglas? If not pick up a copy of South Wind immediately!
I haven’t, I’ll be sure to check it out.
Reddit: the writer
Kek. Don't do reddit but if so maybe I should. I was under the impression that post Stella M Cormac was 'r the w'?
Aar why this take? What (given your obvious experience on reddit) leads you to this conclusion?
>post Stella M Cormac
But that was his last book, he's dead now. There's no post Stella Maris work from Corncob
Kek, ambiguous clearly
The purport was Cormac the author post the publication of SM, but as I heard as opposed to as I know, which I don't
Surprising, I figured he was too misogynistic and anti semitic to be a reddit writer.
r/lit and r/truelit love this charlatan like you wouldn’t believe
Links?
How is he a charlatan?
>charlatan
Every writer of fiction's a pretender, anon. I guess only the one's (we) like are dubbed 'genius'? But what do /you/ dislike intensely about Theroux? Why is he not a *real* but rather a fake faker?
I read half of this book, after which I read an interview with the unknown faker/shill for other fakers George Salis. Salis asked him about his immense vocab and he admitted he just browses thesaurus. Salis then asked him the meaning of a difficult word from the book and he refused to answer because he didn't know it. I lost all respect for him. He isn't very good narratively either. Another one of those belly achers who think themselves Melville after being supposedly wronged by being unread. These guys, Theroux, McElroy, Gass etc. just aren't first rate writers.
Gonna have to disagree strongly with that assessment of Gass, anon, although I've only read him as an essayist (3 volumes). Are you alluding to his capacity as a writer of fiction exclusively here?
What are some topics of Gass’ essays?
Life and Lit, pretty much. Last I read was Finding a Form about a year ago. It's around here somewhere; I'll find it and pic the ToC
What immediately comes to mind is a fantastic mid-form essay on the topic of Gertrude Stein, her life and work, but I forget which volume it's in.
Ok, found it
Thank you. I read some of his short fiction and only liked one thing. An anon suggested to try his essays
I've not read any of Gass's fiction but he really is a superb essayist, the generally acknowledged American 'master of the form' for the last 40 years of his life! Can't really imagine him in any other capacity but if any anon wants to rec what they consider a great fictional work of his I'm willing to check it out.
https://thecollidescope.com/2020/07/05/the-apocalypse-of-wordlessness-an-interview-with-alexander-theroux/
Here is the interview where Theroux supposedly admits he "just' browses a thesaurus. Others can determine if they come to the same conclusion as anon. I don't.
The only thing I get from this interview is that Theroux is a grumpy boomer, which I don't really mind, I feel like pretty much a lot of the writers who are in his generation and write the same kinds of books can be categorized the same.
>AT: My students used to mock me and tell me that I spoke like a character – I cannot remember who – on The Electric Company, a program that came along far after I began watching television.
kek, what character did he sound like?
This novel has a party scene that's basically picrel but with catholicism instead of The Beatles. One of the great literary spergouts.
There's also a single footnote in the entire 700+ pg book, and it's just listing the illicit lovers of Elizabeth I.
Darconville and Warholic are both thinly-disguised rants about how shit America was at the time of writing. The latter is like one big bloated corpse, ready to burst. Theroux's mistake, other than not consulting an editor, was thinking that we couldn't sink any lower after the '90s (which is the era it deals with), when in fact there was plenty of gas left.
Oscar the Grouch
Twittergays hate him
These men are like women to me, I can't imagine being such a womanish man. They're more feminine than trannies.
>"Writing itself is in a very real sense about revenge – see George Orwell’s 1948 essay, “Why I Write.” So, the preoccupation, it would seem, follows suit. It would be much easier to answer your question about which great novels do not center on revenge. Why don’t we go ahead and simply list Moby-Dick, Wuthering Heights, Great Expectations, A Tale of Two Cities, Les Miserables, The Scarlet Letter, Hadrian VII, The Great Gatsby, Lorna Doone, Kidnapped, The Custom of the Country, Jude the Obscure, Tess of the Durbervilles, The Portrait of a Lady, The Golden Bowl, The Little Sister, The 39 Steps, Absalom, Absalom!, The Snopes Trilogy, Nightwood, Murder on the Orient Express, True Grit, e-girlta, Carrie, Blood Meridian, and let others make their own additions."
What the frick is this idiot talking about? Moby dick centers on revenge.
Goddamn you're stupid.
You and your idol are both moronic.
Why is this book so fricking expensive? If McElroy's Women and Men can get a reprint why not Darconville's Cat?
1. Theroux in his Darconville phase had affairs with students so he's basically "cancelled". This was brought up and investigated sometime after metoo. I don't know if there were any lawsuits or what the outcome was, but any publisher would have to answer as to why they're reprinting the autofiction of a teenybopper-chasing sleazebag.
2. Theroux was pretty much "cancelled" before all this as well, due to two incidents in the '90s concerning racism and plagiarism. It basically destroyed what was left of his reputation, and he never recovered. I honestly don't know how he's been keeping himself afloat for the last 30 years or so. His only remaining anchor/champion in the lit world seems to be Steven Moore, and even he's something of an outsider.
3. The lit industry in general seems to have a hard time with him and his giga-crank ways. He refuses to have DC reprinted on a small press out of vanity, and the big houses either don't care or won't do it.
4. Theroux's body of work is sadly not of the type that gets "rediscovered" and "reassessed" in current year. His books are almost comically misogynistic and hateful, and people are less likely to separate art from the (living) artist than ever.
5. He's also a hard sell because his only remaining readers are skeezy lit bros who are all, to various degrees, little mini-Therouxes at odds with the lit climate of today. He's not for the trendy and highly profitable "book haul" instagram crowd, nor the theorycel pomo homos. He's good, but old-fashioned.
tl;dr difficult author (in multiple ways), cranky old white male, no commercial potential and little prestige to be had.
>I honestly don't know how he's been keeping himself afloat for the last 30 years or so
His short fiction has been getting reprinted at least
I guess I'll just have to accept that I'll never own a copy of DC.
Tough Poets Press has published 5 of his books
>Early Stories
>Fables
>Later Stories
>Truisms
>Artists Who Kill & Other Essays on Art
I know because these are the only books of his that I have lol
Kek
What a nifty little litany that nonetheless does concern matters of great extra-literary import in the time-honored form of gossip. But I'm just a 'mini-Theroux,' what the f*ck do I know?
>comically misogynistic and hateful
He's every bit as merciless on his male characters as well, of course, but I guess it's convenient to bypass neutralizing factors when the 'concern' is making non-points look like points. He does write with 'verve' 'brio' 'passion' 'competence' which, I understand, can be reduced to 'hatred' by a cadre of etc. etc. --Why go through this again?
The charges not only insinuate far more than they 'reveal' but this is typical of an age that would retain all the 'literary trappings' without the bother of actual literature.
not that guy but dont you think it's a bit misogynistic to say that women have a harder time creating great art than men?
Depends on the context, obviously. There's a huge difference between *that* and 'incapable'. What comes to my mind immediately (forget the historical record) is that 'physically' a reasonably healthy man is generally able to sustain his concentration in relative (physical) comfort, as compared to a comparably healthy woman, over a lengthy period of time. That's just nature. Women must overcome regular aches and pains healthy men just don't have to experience over the course of their artistic careers. Is that fair?
Fellow Theroux-heads would be wise to pick up a copy of Laura Warholic while they still can. When that book is gone it's gone gone; I can't see it getting back in print ever again.
When Alexander Theroux made an appearance at The Strand Bookstore in New York City after Laura Warholic was published, I ordered 3 signed copies (still have them!). A year or two later, I ordered a dozen copies of this literary masterpiece from the Edward R. Hamilton Bookseller at the reduced cost of $5.00 each, and over the years gave away 10 copies to friends of mine who appreciate great books, and so have 2 left.
I believe you are right, anon, because I do not see this book being reprinted any time soon either. Mr. Theroux has even stated that the public library where he resides does not have a copy of the book.
All in all, I am of the belief that 99% of Americans are dunces who would not recognize
a great novel if it came up and bit them on their derrières. (Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick comes to mind when it appeared in the 19th century as a colossal failure.) As an example, in which I should have known better, I searched in vain for Javier Marias’s newest, last work, Tomás Nevinson, at a Books-A-Million. As it was, all I wanted to do was take a flamethrower to the entire place, especially those funko pop things.
Such is life in 21st century America.
Stop writing like a gay for once in your life.
Theroux is Melville only in his dreams. It's a way for him to cope. Nothing he has written is worth rediscovering a la Moby Dick, and politics has nothing to do with it.
This has absolutely nothing to do with anything that was said in the post responded to. Aar I admire your conviction, even if it *is* stupid
Can someone post a page of Laura Warholic? Or describe what it’s like or similar to?