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Books: The Language of the Night
Jul. 4th, 2009 11:02 amI picked up this early book of Ursula Le Guin essays used, and will be returning it to the used bookstore largely unread. I love many of Ms. Le Guin's novels unreservedly, but my gosh, her style of criticism doesn't mesh with my values as a reader, so the criticism is just not useful to me.
I am, in fact, getting pretty frustrated by my encounters with literary criticism, formal or informal, of things that I like. It tends to make me irritated when I do it, irritated when other people do it, irritated when I read it. It's like the opposite of Wheaties for my brain.
This is odd, since I love talking about elements in a story, how they're put together. And I've got an essay brewing in the back of my brain about plot, intellectual theme, and emotional theme and how the three interrelate in terms of criticism. And that essay is irritating me too. So I think I should lie down until the urge passes.
I am, in fact, getting pretty frustrated by my encounters with literary criticism, formal or informal, of things that I like. It tends to make me irritated when I do it, irritated when other people do it, irritated when I read it. It's like the opposite of Wheaties for my brain.
This is odd, since I love talking about elements in a story, how they're put together. And I've got an essay brewing in the back of my brain about plot, intellectual theme, and emotional theme and how the three interrelate in terms of criticism. And that essay is irritating me too. So I think I should lie down until the urge passes.
