Country: USA
Genre: Essays/Literary Criticism
Pages: 196 KB
You can buy Chiaroscuro here
Levi Asher is the man behind Literary Kicks, which is (to my knowledge) the longest lasting blog dedicated to literature. He's been running it since 1994. How many of you were even aware about the internet back then? This year, Levi has started publishing anthologies, which are revised and rewritten versions of his greatest hits. Interesting exercise, especially for somebody who's been blogging with such regularity, for so long. Chiaroscuro is the third anthology he published this year after Why Ayn Rand Is Wrong and The Cards I'm Playing: Poker And Postmodern Literature.To me, Chiaroscuro was the most intriguing because it proposes something that I haven't found very interesting for many years, literary criticism. Knowing Asher can get his point across and not bother with the Academic form, I thought maybe this could get me into criticism again.
Since the deconstructionists like Derrida, Foucault and Deleuze have judged it would be a good idea to talk about books, literary criticism has been staggering. Even the most dynamic critics like Slavoj Zizek and Fredric Jameson have struggled with the tidal wave of data the deconstructionists have given us to process. Seriously, has anybody without a PhD ever bothered going through Derrida's Of Grammatology? Personally, I've never passed page thirty. Levi Asher doesn't bother with that problematic and affirms his stance in his essay on T.S Eliot's Poem "The Love Song Of J. Alfred Prufrock":
"Prufrock" is an incredibly innovative and important poem, but that's not why I want to write about it.
Yesss, do you know how liberating it is to hear this for an ex-literature student? One of the many problems of literary criticism is that it's so entrenched in its form that nobody ends up saying anything, but "acknowledging the importance of one's work". Asher affirms his essayist stance, frees himself from any academic obligation and says something different. And different is the accurate word here.
His essay "Five Overrated Writers" is easily his most courageous and his most prone to controversy. I don't agree with everything he says in it myself, but I admire the balls it took to write it. Asher has very different reasons to think each of those writers are overrated. The most efficient criticism he poses is of Philip Roth, a writer who according to him (I also happen to agree) has been limiting himself and his vision to a narrow perspective of the world. Asher also made me smile for calling out William Vollman for his intentionally difficult style. It's something I've been struggling with also, especially that Vollman is so clear and accurate whenever he writes non-fiction. Asher also happens to dislike Cormac McCarthy for the same reasons I like him, but I'll leave you to discover them.
I'm not going to go in detail about each essays, but I'll tell you this. Asher varies his tone and his approach to every single one of them and that keeps the reading fun, informative and fluid. Great Chick-Lit of the 70's talks about books not much people will know, but Asher's nostalgic stance on them will give you a positive outlook on them right away. His description of his encounter with John Updike in the New York public library is very touching and yet it's not a complacent love letter to the writer. His Modernism Vs Postmodernism In Concrete essay is one of the toughest but it's still a very impressive effort in popularization. And that's what literary criticism needs. To loosen up a little.
Chiaroscuro counts twelve essays, they are fun to read and they are a good introduction to literary criticism. That alone, would make you curious. Even if you've been following Literary Kicks forever, the essays have been re-written and revised from the ground up. Chiaroscuro is a breathe of fresh air in literary criticism. They are short, clear and to-the-point essays about varied issues that can be very intellectual, but Levi Asher never loses his reader's common sense and it wraps his vision up nicely. If you happen to own a Kindle and feel curious. Give a chance you Chiaroscuro and you will love what you read.
"Prufrock" is an incredibly innovative and important poem, but that's not why I want to write about it.
Yesss, do you know how liberating it is to hear this for an ex-literature student? One of the many problems of literary criticism is that it's so entrenched in its form that nobody ends up saying anything, but "acknowledging the importance of one's work". Asher affirms his essayist stance, frees himself from any academic obligation and says something different. And different is the accurate word here.
His essay "Five Overrated Writers" is easily his most courageous and his most prone to controversy. I don't agree with everything he says in it myself, but I admire the balls it took to write it. Asher has very different reasons to think each of those writers are overrated. The most efficient criticism he poses is of Philip Roth, a writer who according to him (I also happen to agree) has been limiting himself and his vision to a narrow perspective of the world. Asher also made me smile for calling out William Vollman for his intentionally difficult style. It's something I've been struggling with also, especially that Vollman is so clear and accurate whenever he writes non-fiction. Asher also happens to dislike Cormac McCarthy for the same reasons I like him, but I'll leave you to discover them.
I'm not going to go in detail about each essays, but I'll tell you this. Asher varies his tone and his approach to every single one of them and that keeps the reading fun, informative and fluid. Great Chick-Lit of the 70's talks about books not much people will know, but Asher's nostalgic stance on them will give you a positive outlook on them right away. His description of his encounter with John Updike in the New York public library is very touching and yet it's not a complacent love letter to the writer. His Modernism Vs Postmodernism In Concrete essay is one of the toughest but it's still a very impressive effort in popularization. And that's what literary criticism needs. To loosen up a little.
Chiaroscuro counts twelve essays, they are fun to read and they are a good introduction to literary criticism. That alone, would make you curious. Even if you've been following Literary Kicks forever, the essays have been re-written and revised from the ground up. Chiaroscuro is a breathe of fresh air in literary criticism. They are short, clear and to-the-point essays about varied issues that can be very intellectual, but Levi Asher never loses his reader's common sense and it wraps his vision up nicely. If you happen to own a Kindle and feel curious. Give a chance you Chiaroscuro and you will love what you read.