tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post115284910368742525..comments2024-03-27T02:00:49.152-04:00Comments on Kate's Book Blog: Off on the Wrong FootKate S.http://www.blogger.com/profile/16897618197257393697noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1153237460911180742006-07-18T11:44:00.000-04:002006-07-18T11:44:00.000-04:00The peeing and the breast fixation may just be a m...The peeing and the breast fixation may just be a middle-age male fixation. Peeing seems to be a middle-age male issue.<BR/><BR/>Lodge, being that he's an academic and novelist, may be fall into the category of being a better critic than novelist. I've yet to read his fiction, but his critical work is excellent.exileonninthstreethttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11103824145411299090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1153125187174685272006-07-17T04:33:00.000-04:002006-07-17T04:33:00.000-04:00saturday.. i love that book :)..saturday.. i love that book :)..Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1153095792686079382006-07-16T20:23:00.000-04:002006-07-16T20:23:00.000-04:00I've never been crazy about David Lodge, I think i...I've never been crazy about David Lodge, I think it's the kind of fiction that dates awfully quickly--I remember as a teenager reading that one that's called (something like--hmmm, can't really remember...) "How Far Can You Go?" because it was on Anthony Burgess's 99 Novels list, and finding it not really transcending the limitations of its time and circumstances of composition. And of course I read the academic satires as I was heading to grad school (& Nice Work when it came out later--is that the one with the incredibly annoying Silk Cut/Marlboro conversation in the opening? how irritating...). I think that they're fairly unabashed light reading but that I prefer my light reading more obviously enjoyable! (I thought James Hynes' "The Lecturer's Tale" was the funniest academic satire I've read for a long time, but in general I avoid academic satire, unless it is the wizard universities of Terry Pratchett and Diana Wynne Jones....)Jenny Davidsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02295436498255927522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1153090839501935902006-07-16T19:00:00.000-04:002006-07-16T19:00:00.000-04:00Wow, the "this is what I look like" mirror device ...Wow, the "this is what I look like" mirror device is brutal! That's like a first year creative writing workshop rookie mistake! And the cherries... breast/fruit similes should be offences punishable by hefty fines. Yikes. The piss scene bothers me less, though I think your implication rings true... I can't readily think of a female character having a pee scene... except the one I recently wrote, but it was pertinent to my plot, which involved a pregnancy test. So there! Thanks for the fun lit-crit.j-lovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15332251772933635958noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1152919863490201712006-07-14T19:31:00.000-04:002006-07-14T19:31:00.000-04:00"First, there is the obligatory peeing scene. What..."First, there is the obligatory peeing scene. What is it about male characters of a certain age that we must, within pages of meeting them, accompany them to the toilet for a pee?"<BR/><BR/>Oh, Kate. SO TRUE!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1152907793577775002006-07-14T16:09:00.000-04:002006-07-14T16:09:00.000-04:00Oh dear! I was reading your post and struggling to...Oh dear! I was reading your post and struggling to remember Nice Work which I read many years ago now. I did enjoy it, but I'm sure he is guilty of all kinds of truisms of realism. Don't give up on Lodge - you may well find a way to appreciate him yet.litlovehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10952927245186474480noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13774780.post-1152894507215474662006-07-14T12:28:00.000-04:002006-07-14T12:28:00.000-04:00Dear Kate, I don't think you're off on the wrong ...Dear Kate, I don't think you're off on the wrong foot in the least -- I don't remember the first chapter of this book, but everything you say strikes me as accurate and the examples you cite are indeed of objectionable writing habits. Your review reminds me of one reason I so love hearing about and re-reading things I enjoyed in the past: it allows you to chart the way you've changed as a reader, to see what you've lost patience with, what you crave, what you don't find funny anymore. I remember enjoying Nice Work very much. I read it when I was a graduate student in English twenty years ago (or possibly shortly after I gave that up) and I think I'd just finished reading a lot of Gaskell. I felt like Lodge had welcomed me to a club of some kind, where membership required a passing acquintance with academia. I had at least that price of admission and was amused to be allowed inside. Now, this sort of thing doesn't interest me as much, but I'm easily amused, so maybe I could still be lured inside. All this is to say, Kate, that your early impressions are thought provoking and, as always, so interesting! Looking forward to more, BLAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com