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Jonathan Franzen Backlash Thread

post #1 of 66
9/1/10 at 3:36pm
Thread Starter 
Anyone else getting just a tiny bit tired of the mainstream media's sudden knob-slobbing of him? He is marginally talented at best. A poor man's John Updike, and even he was a colossal bore.
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post #2 of 66
9/1/10 at 4:24pm
We are in agreement, Doc. I just recently saw some blurb on how talented and important he is and it made me cringe.

On Updike: I love to read his sentences but not his books.
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post #3 of 66
9/1/10 at 4:29pm
What are they k-s-ing over him about? I've missed it, not being a very active consumer of MSM.

What little I know of him suggests he's annoying self-important. But I would disagree with "marginally talented at best". The Corrections was a really good, enjoyable book, and his earlier book about St. Louis was ok. He probably isn't as talented as he thinks he is, but that's an entirely different question.
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post #4 of 66
9/1/10 at 4:30pm
who dat
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post #5 of 66
9/1/10 at 4:35pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by gdl203 View Post
who dat

An annoying, nerdy, schmucky novelist that Time magazine recently declared "The Great American Novelist," and whose upcoming book has been called "The Great American Novel" by about 20 different papers and magazines.

It's an angst-ridden yawnfest about the secret struggles of a middle class American family. Because, ya know, that subject has never been explored in print or on film.
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post #6 of 66
9/1/10 at 4:38pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arrogant Bastard View Post
An annoying, nerdy, schmucky novelist that Time magazine recently declared "The Great American Novelist," and whose upcoming book has been called "The Great American Novel" by about 20 different papers and magazines.

It's an angst-ridden yawnfest about the secret struggles of a middle class American family. Because, ya know, that subject has never been explored in print or on film.

Sounds like a literary Paul Thomas Anderson
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post #7 of 66
9/1/10 at 4:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gdl203 View Post
who dat

+ ?
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post #8 of 66
9/1/10 at 5:04pm
I liked The Corrections. looking forward to reading his new book.
Quote:
Originally Posted by gdl203 View Post
Sounds like a literary Paul Thomas Anderson
I'd love to hear you qualify this.
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post #9 of 66
9/1/10 at 5:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mharwitt View Post
I'd love to hear you qualify this.
Feel free to search the cinema thread for the discussions of PTA around the time of TWBB.
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post #10 of 66
9/1/10 at 7:06pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gdl203 View Post
Feel free to search the cinema thread for the discussions of PTA around the time of TWBB.

you think Aronofsky is "ground-breaking."
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post #11 of 66
9/1/10 at 7:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mharwitt View Post
you think Aronofsky is "ground-breaking."

I'm not following this conversation - what point are you making ? Are you simply trying to say that you love PTA's work and that my comment above was unwarranted - and in order to get that simple statement out, you prefer to refer to unrelated things I wrote about another director?

I don't know if I wrote that Aronofsky is ground-breaking (I may have) but he is a very talented director with a lot of original ideas. He's no Orson Welles or Stanley Kubrick but he's strong and I don't continually roll my eyes when I watch his stuff (unlike most of PTA's). YMMW of course.
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post #12 of 66
9/1/10 at 7:12pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gdl203 View Post
Are you simply trying to say that you love PTA's work and that my comment above was unwarranted - and in order to get that simple statement out, you prefer to refer to unrelated things I wrote about another director?

yes.
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post #13 of 66
9/1/10 at 7:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by mharwitt View Post
yes.
OK.
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post #14 of 66
9/1/10 at 7:23pm
Aronofsky>>PTA
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post #15 of 66
9/1/10 at 7:28pm
Aw c'mon...everyone knows Boogie Nights was awesome.
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