http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/05/29/diaries/ culture blogging for the good of the planet Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:40:22 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/05/29/diaries/#comment-36535 newcritics - » Surprise Saints of My Generation: The Who Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:55:10 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/05/29/diaries/#comment-36535 [...] Check out Tom Watson’s own appreciation of the band if you haven’t already done so. [...] [...] Check out Tom Watson’s own appreciation of the band if you haven’t already done so. [...]

]]> http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/05/29/diaries/#comment-33574 newcritics - » Alan Bennett on Democracy, Reading, and the Queen of England Mon, 08 Oct 2007 23:40:44 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/05/29/diaries/#comment-33574 [...] Incidentally, I’m not the only Bennett fan around here. Gara LaMarche praised his Untold Stories back in May. [...] [...] Incidentally, I’m not the only Bennett fan around here. Gara LaMarche praised his Untold Stories back in May. [...]

]]> http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/05/29/diaries/#comment-4682 Dan Leo Wed, 30 May 2007 04:13:35 +0000 http://newcritics.com/blog1/2007/05/29/diaries/#comment-4682 There's a whole category of writers whose diaries or letters are as good or better than their "official" stuff. I think I first thought about this when I picked up William Burroughs's "Collected Letters". I remember thinking, "This shit is fucking great! Too bad so much of his published fiction is so impossible to read." Another one is Bukowski; I love his poems and fiction, but his letters are just as brilliant. One more: Kingsley Amis. I've been a fan of his ever since I accidentally discovered "One Fat Englishman" in the library when I was about 14. He never wrote or even tried to write a "great" novel; I think the whole concept of the "great" novel kind of annoyed him, and he probably also knew his limits; but, his "Collected Letters", all 11,000 pages of it, are -- to me -- like a great novel. There’s a whole category of writers whose diaries or letters are as good or better than their “official” stuff. I think I first thought about this when I picked up William Burroughs’s “Collected Letters”. I remember thinking, “This shit is fucking great! Too bad so much of his published fiction is so impossible to read.” Another one is Bukowski; I love his poems and fiction, but his letters are just as brilliant. One more: Kingsley Amis. I’ve been a fan of his ever since I accidentally discovered “One Fat Englishman” in the library when I was about 14. He never wrote or even tried to write a “great” novel; I think the whole concept of the “great” novel kind of annoyed him, and he probably also knew his limits; but, his “Collected Letters”, all 11,000 pages of it, are — to me — like a great novel.

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