Tuesday, December 31, 2019

from the man, the myth, the legend. . .

From the man, the myth, the legend, the meaty proof that Lish will never be more than ground-chuck wannabe to Haber's filet-mignon Gordon, and, by the way, it was the latter who published "Frade Killed Ellen":




Monday, December 30, 2019

almost 2020

It's almost 2020, and I haven't had a chance to make any lists or resolutions. Happy New Year!

Wednesday, December 18, 2019

once more. . .

Fight for Your Long Day is again compared to Joyce's writing:

"In a review of Fight for Your Long Day, William Pannapacker
judges Kudera’s “depiction of the life and psychology of an
adjunct teacher” to be “realistic.” But Pannapacker balks at the
repellent quality of Kudera’s protagonist: 'Fight for Your Long
Day is not without problems. The sexual and digestive
preoccupations of the protagonist seem like distractions from
the larger message of the novel. One could argue that they
relate to Maslow’s hierarchy; in any case, they are revoltingly
described," which "undermines any sympathy the reader might
have for him as a representative of adjuncts.' Perhaps it is the
rare artist who can craft gastrointestinally challenged
characters with high literary merit — James Joyce, Samuel
Beckett, and Monty Python come to mind. Pannapacker
recognizes that Kudera’s novel participates in a significant shift
in the representation of faculty on the contemporary campus,
but he misreads its 'sexual and digestive preoccupations' as
distractions. On the contrary, they are the abject essence of the
novel.

"Duffleman’s musings on and fantasies about bathrooms, bowel
movements, and farts parallel the abject conditions of his
employment as an adjunct who moonlights as a security guard.
His search for a clean public restroom at the close of his
evening security shift at Liberty Tech is, as Pannapacker
complains, a bit of a slog. The nearly 30 pages through which
Duffy carefully considers his routine evening toilet break — its
time, location, and stall — also signal his “overworked adjunct
state” and his equally routine shame that he “hasn’t written
anything beyond email in several years.” Soon the reader, too,
begins to long for relief from his digestive issues. Duffleman’s
lack of gastrointestinal and professional movement reflects
another common quality of the Adjunctroman — neither the
protagonist nor the narrative progresses."

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Book Reviews for Fight for Your Long Day

Genealogies of Modernity " Fight for Your Long Loud Laughs " by Jeffrey Wald at Genealogies of Modernity (January 2022) The Chron...