Should Modern Novels Be More Like The Wire?
Walter Benn Michaels to novelists: Please start writing more about class issues and the social order of contemporary life! Michaels’ polemic in Bookforum.
The Rumpus.net
Waste time better.
the daily rumpus
The Rumpus Blog
newest posts from The Rumpus
Most Popular Posts
- Conversations About the Internet #5: Anonymous Facebook Employee 131 comment(s)
- Reality Boredom: Why David Shields is Completely Right and Totally Wrong 67 comment(s)
- SWINGING MODERN SOUNDS #17: Higher Love 58 comment(s)
- SWINGING MODERN SOUNDS: Metal Machine 45 comment(s)
- THE EDITOR'S DESK: What it Means to Be a Hipster 44 comment(s)
- Presto Book-O (Why I Went Ahead and Self-Published) 43 comment(s)
- More Crappy News for Short Story Writers 39 comment(s)
- Katie Roiphe’s Big Cock Block 35 comment(s)
- FUNNY WOMEN #15: How to Move to San Francisco 34 comment(s)
- The Rumpus Interview with David Shields 34 comment(s)
Get a cool ass Rumpus t-shirt.
Subscribe to The Daily Rumpus |
April 22nd, 2009 at 8:47 am
I tend to agree with Michaels that too many modern novelists use historicism as a way to narrowly look inward and/or participate in collective self-congratulations. Yet, his essay seems to leave no room for the novel that revisits history (and personal identity) while also shedding light on the tragedy of modern social orders. Would 2666’s (granted, not an American novel) portrayal of class-specific Mexican murders be as effective without the book’s Holocaust scenes? That is to say, if history reveals things about the human condition that help us to process the workings of current hierarchies, shouldn’t it be embraced? I wrote about 2666 and The Wire on this site:
http://therumpus.net/2009/03/american-apocalypse-the-wire-and-2666/
I think that if American novelists can infuse their work with history in order to more fully address the modern market and the social problems it creates, Michaels’ revolution becomes unnecessary.