21st Century Literature discussion

Ran across this article on the Guardian's website. I think US lit is very healthy. But what do you think?

The age of anxiety: what does Granta’s best young authors list say about America?
The US is in crisis - what about its literature? Michelle Dean reports on the list of American writers to watch this decade, which is as diverse as the country itself
https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

Interesting commentary on the fractured nature of contemporary American literature--thank you for posting. Contemporary art has been similarly fragmented for a couple of decades now, with no one identifiable movement. Like the author, I think inclusiveness and opening up the canon is a very good thing. But I'm curious where it will lead...further fragmentation?

I think the word "fractured" implies a negativity that's not there. The author of the article used it in reference to "fractured authority", meaning that the publishing industry is a little less dominated by the traditional white male gate keeper. The result is, naturally, more diverse voices seeing a wider audience. If it seemed there was more "unity" in what was published before, it was the artificially imposed unity of one group holding disproportionate power.

You may say "further fragmentation", I'd say "more representation of those voices that have been largely denied in the past".

Interesting article, Kirsten, thanks for posting,

Sorry if I implied that.

I wasn't trying to criticize, June! Just expressing my view on the discussion / debate. It seems like a more 'civilized' version of the whole rabid puppies response in science fiction. People who think that upstarts are destroying the ideal of a common culture, without recognizing that a dominant culture is not the same as a common culture.

Whitney wrote: "I wasn't trying to criticize, June! Just expressing my view on the discussion / debate. It seems like a more 'civilized' version of the whole rabid puppies response in science fiction. People who t..."

Indeed.

Good source of authors whose books we may want to consider reading. I am particularly fond of Dinaw Mengestu and Claire Vaye Watkins and may just nominate one of their books in the next poll.

I'm in a sour mood, probably from contemplating the 50th anniversary of Sgt Pepper. That was a breakaway sensibility I wanted to be part of and before I knew it was gone. Can anyone tell me a book as simple and direct and new as Brautigan's Trout Fishing In America?

Thanks for posting this article, Kirsten. I finally got around to reading it. The article actually seems more centered on the current uncertainty in America itself and that there's no current unifying American literary movement or identity to confront it. Are there such things in other countries right now? I mean, can anyone put into a sentence or two what French literature is currently about, or how they might define current German literature? These sorts of national identities are morphing... I'd say not so much fragmenting as thinning or stretching due to immigration and technology/the Internet. I think it's too early to see how literature responds to today's America, which still seems divided, shell-shocked, and questioning its own institutions.

Is it just me or do literary movements and identities become definable or identifiable mostly after the fact? If a country is struggling with its identity or uncertain about its future, wouldn't that be reflected in its art?

Personally, I have no concerns about American literature and its future. Uncertainty and discord make fertile soil for art to flourish.

Marc wrote: "Is it just me or do literary movements and identities become definable or identifiable mostly after the fact? If a country is struggling with its identity or uncertain about its future, wouldn't that be reflected in its art?"

That would be true of historical moments generally. But remembering is filtering. We construct the past, identity and all, according to some schema which we think fits the past that we prefer to have. Usually we just pick from the buffet and choose what others do, and exhibitors like Durand-Ruel and apologists like Appollinaire help the process along. We are always struggling with our identity, and the writers and artists toddle along. Uncertainty and discord make it possible to break out of the pack. When there is a comfortable, safe schema already, incumbents have the advantage.

If that's the sociology of it, why has it been sixty years without anything but fads? Why do pessimism and disinterest and nostalgia and despair fragment us? Where is the urgency of hope and enthusiasm?

I once looked at the notable books lists since the end of WWI and concluded that no matter what we thought at the time, somewhere around 5% of touted new novels survive, which would mean something like 0.02% of all novels published. It takes a lot to break through, but these numbers suggest we should have about 500 keepers since the policy of Mutual Assured Destruction helped to tamp down the worst of nuclear insanity.

Really? That many? Why does it seem to me that we've had sixty years of helium birthday balloons and obese profundity? Is this really the past that I prefer to have? Do lots of people feel this way? Why?

Charles, I struggle sometimes to follow up your comments because I'm entirely unfamiliar with Trout Fishing in America, nor have I heard or read anyone else's comments about it. Which only means that this one book seems to have made an indelible mark upon you that few, if any, books have made since. Is it a kind of high water mark upon which you compare other books? And, is it the writing itself, or the mark it made on you? I may be reading a kind of wistful sentiment in your thoughts that's not there, but it sometimes comes across as a desire to get back to a place you might never reach--a time when you could still be surprised by and moved by literature in a more profound way.

I find I'm often still delighted by literature but rarely surprised. Are there no American (or foreign) writers in the last 50 years that speak to you?

I would also be curious to hear what newer American authors other members feel are making a mark, carrying on the literary torch so to speak.

Marc wrote: "I would also be curious to hear what newer American authors other members feel are making a mark, carrying on the literary torch so to speak. "

Thinking of newer American authors, the first ones that came to mind were Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, who lives in the US and in Nigeria, Dinaw Mengestu, born in Ethiopia and living in the US, and Junot Díaz, born in the Dominican Republic and living in the US. There work focuses, I think, focuses on the immigrant experience.

But if by "American" you mean someone who was born and grew up in the US and who don't tell us about the "newer" immigrant experience , then I'm impressed with -- Rachel Kushner, Colson Whitehead, Joshua Ferris, C.E. Morgan, Jennifer Haigh, Claire Vaye Watkins, Z.Z. Packer, Helen Phillips, and N.K. Jemisin. Apologies in advance if my research was defective in identifying the second group as US-born and raised. Also, I know that Jemisin is categorized as science fiction/fantasy, but I think she is a newer author whose work can be considered literary as well.

Marc, you've hit a lot of points. I came on Brautigan soon after the book was published, when I arrived from the provinces for an MFA. "Wow! You can DO that?" But there's more to it. Interested in some aspects of voice, I once analyzed some 100 authors for legato (long-breathed or staccato phrases) and "urgency" (increasing or decreasing phrase length) and found some surprises. Samuel Johnson was the normative author, for example. But to the present point, I found that my formative books were first encountered at certain times in my life, and my receptivity closed at about age 30 when I discovered Dickens, and through Bleak House a mass of 19C fiction. So, emotionally, you are probably right. (I'd like to hear on another thread whether these experiences are common.) -- to be continued...

[con't from #13] But, being a writer, what interests me now are matters of craft, mostly. I simply don't see anything I can learn from. Patti Smith's M Train is one -- I nominated it once but was disallowed as not being fiction. Joann Sfar's The Rabbi's Cat (graphic) Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Stills (not new). Some others. But here we are still trying to assimilate the achievements of High Modernism, to say nothing of Moby Dick. I don't see Western literature son much as fragmented or fractured as stagnated, with the frantic scurrying about like hungry mice looking for something to eat.

LindaJ #12 I've copied your list to investigate. Thanks.

Here are some narrative possibilities I would like to see explored.

*Irrelevancy. Structures containing intrusions of no apparent purpose. How can a narrative be composed so as to compel the reader to find a solution.

*Structures which defy the story-telling imperative of beginning-middle-end, but instead use the structure of everyday life, one thing after another. Zen mindfulness. The world as I found it.

*Koan-like structures which use humor and other devices to frustrate exegesis without being tiresome puzzles.

*Poetic polysemy and density.

And I don't mean these as "experimental" but ways to tell stories ordinary experienced readers will read.

I should add Sikandar Chowk Park and Lydia Davis and A Suitable Boy and Stevie Smith (mostly not new) to the list.Sikandar Chowk ParkLydia DavisA Suitable BoyStevie Smith

Charles, have you read Mark Leyner's The Sugar Frosted Nutsack? A kind of endlessly looping, recursive narrative structure that entirely calls attention to itself but I found really funny and affecting.

No, I haven't. I'll give it a look. This group will lengthen your to-read shelf way too fast.

I stand accused of whining, and I plead guilty. I've just been listening to Dylan's Nobel speech. Not only does he have a lot to say, he performs it. His range is huge and his detail is fine-grained and you listen to this and you learn why you decided to study literature in the first place. I am humbled.

I appreciate you taking the time to expand on the Brautigan book, as well as what you're seeking in literature. I didn't see you whining--just frustrated. Although, underneath it all, I think you are right in that there is no unifying direction or voice (like Modernism or Post-Modernism, regardless of what anyone actually thinks of those movements). It would seem that voice and perspective are having their day over structure and experimentation with many of the writers mentioned on the list giving voice to marginalized cultures, events, etc. And many of these are at the intersection of identities and social changes that will shape the future. I wonder, too, as a writer, if at some point you don't end up doing more teaching or exploring with your own work than learning from others at some point. Your list of narrative possibilities made me think of Lynne Tillman, László Krasznahorkai (non-U.S.), and Karl Ove Knausgård (non-U.S.)--none of whom are new writers, but all are still putting out new work. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman also came to mind, although that takes us back a few centuries... Glad to hear Dylan inspired you! (The lecture is here for those, like myself, who haven't yet listend to it: https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/2016/dylan-lecture.html)

That's quite a wonderful list from LindaJ!

Some other new(ish) U.S. writers I admire (not already mentioned above): Miranda July, A.M. Homes, Heidi Julavits, Ben Marcus, and Teju Cole. I have a tendency to look backwards when it comes to literature, which is one of the reasons I joined this group.