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skew-aberration 19 hours ago [-]
I've never seen Roth mentioned without buckets of lavish praise for his apparently singular genius (often coming from very close quarters too). Yet when I go looking for works of his to start with, I can't help but feel his critics had a point - there is a clear undercurrent of spite, condescension, egotism, solipsism. He openly mocks 'small-minded middle America' and its 'perverse moral bent'.
Being a member of a younger generation that has grown up in the golden age of narcissism, I can't help but wonder that Roth has lost appeal now simply because this philosophy has been found lacking. In hindsight, who seems the more small-minded and reductionist? We are skeptical of the skeptics now. DFW called him a 'great male narcissist'. Now DFW's ironical absurdism is wearing thin too.
jonstewart 16 hours ago [-]
This is from the current issue of Salmagundi, not from 2001. Not sure how it wound up on HN, but I read the whole thing with fascination and horror. If biography is the small man’s revenge, this seems a Lilliputian dagger.
Being a member of a younger generation that has grown up in the golden age of narcissism, I can't help but wonder that Roth has lost appeal now simply because this philosophy has been found lacking. In hindsight, who seems the more small-minded and reductionist? We are skeptical of the skeptics now. DFW called him a 'great male narcissist'. Now DFW's ironical absurdism is wearing thin too.