Something I really appreciate about Glass Century so far (only 100 pages in; it's really good!) is the way it doesn't really spell out the irony with the Trump stuff, in a way that a lot of contemporary novels would. No winking and nudging when Saul assumes that "Rocky," that brash New York Republican, will be president one day, for instance; I assume Saul recreating the picture of his wife with the Unisphere is a subtle Trump gag too (but I could be wrong!)
"And in this rebirth, there may be less of a need to shrink into our silos and huddle among the usual compatriots. Everything that rises must converge, and it’s usually best that it does."
That's a pretty spot-on distillation of *Glass Century* (or that was my takeaway from the novel, at least)
Part of the issue of specialization comes from a lack of cross mobility across social classes and regions. There was a great Vlog essay I saw last year about why script writing has gone down the can.
Early in the silver and golden years of tv and film, the writers and producers were people who had extensive life experiences—poverty, crime, fought in wars, handyman do-it-yourself skills, problem solving, ambition. We now have several generations of people who are the children of actors and film school darlings who never ran off to sea and joined the navy, never cut wheat and rolled bales. They’re not the John Steinbecks, who also was a journalist before he was a novelist.
The structures you discuss are a reinforcement of the same groups and ideas. Not folks who came up in the world. If those people want real art, they need to experience the world that is actually around them, not just rub elbows at the same country spas as everyone else.
Reading SubStack after a day off, not seeing a reference to La Didion. Challenge Level: Unpossible. Didiondidiondidion. "There are other saints," wrote a mutual--or someone--not long ago. Yesterday, maybe.
Good luck with your transition. I found the biggest difference between fiction and non-fiction at the most basic level is dialogue. Its much different in fiction than just quoting someone. My more personal finding is that fiction isn't considered an appropriate place by those who promote it to explore our technological world. Human reaction to it - yes. But how things actually work, no. It's all magic. That's unfortunate given the world we live in. James Aach, author Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear Power.
Rebecca West looms pretty large for me, personally, when it comes to writers with one foot apiece in the worlds of journalism and fiction. Was pleasantly surprised to see McNally Editions reissue her book on Lord Haw-Haw earlier this year...
w/r/t writers and politics, my own pet theory is that the 80s/90s culture wars shuffled things around somewhat. I write this as a lefty myself, so I may be completely spitballing here, but I'd imagine that being a writer with both artistic ambition and rightward politics in the era of Jesse Helms et al calling for the NEA to be defunded might have pushed some people to the ostensible left...
....that said, I've seen a few writer friends move rightward in recent years. I also wonder to what extent debates over the war in Iraq affected literary ideologies; Ian McEwan's "Saturday" has long struck me as a novel that's ultimately making a liberal-interventionist argument while nominally being about something that has nothing to do with either war or Iraq.
Specialization seems inevitable in a technocracy. We’ve developed systems which are complex, compartmentalized, and still entirely interdependent. Radical change comes with tremendous risk to vulnerable communities. The right understands this so they’ve adopted amoralism/irresponsibility as a political expedient. But being a serious, moral writer on the left requires subjecting personal conviction to an assembly line of experts, lawyers, professional watchdogs and alarmists.
Hi Ross. A nice, concise piece. Thanks. One question (a quibble?): you use the words 'different' and 'than', as in: 'x was different than y'. Is this standard usage in American/ New York English? Where I'm from (South Africa/Australia/UK) we use 'x was different from y'. Many might use 'x was different to y', but this is/was considered bad usage. 'Different than' would send my teachers and other language guardians into deep apoplexy.
Good question, and I would like to know the opinion of the author as well. When I write (small blog hobbyist, not by trade) I would typically restructure my sentence to read "x and y are different" as opposed to the other possibilities mentioned. Saying "x is different than y" nearly gives "different" a - no pun intended - different usage. Although if you look at other comparatives, many use "than": bigger than, faster than, etc. This entire comment would cause my wife to roll her eyes at me (nothing new there 😏), but I am seriously interested in anything that can make me a better, more effective, more readable writer. It's what makes us different than, from, and of the apes. 😜
Something I really appreciate about Glass Century so far (only 100 pages in; it's really good!) is the way it doesn't really spell out the irony with the Trump stuff, in a way that a lot of contemporary novels would. No winking and nudging when Saul assumes that "Rocky," that brash New York Republican, will be president one day, for instance; I assume Saul recreating the picture of his wife with the Unisphere is a subtle Trump gag too (but I could be wrong!)
"And in this rebirth, there may be less of a need to shrink into our silos and huddle among the usual compatriots. Everything that rises must converge, and it’s usually best that it does."
That's a pretty spot-on distillation of *Glass Century* (or that was my takeaway from the novel, at least)
Add to your list of journalists also novelists: Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Ernest Hemingway.
Hemingway worked in Toronto century ago, no wonder he went to Paris & Key West after 1 winter here.
Part of the issue of specialization comes from a lack of cross mobility across social classes and regions. There was a great Vlog essay I saw last year about why script writing has gone down the can.
Early in the silver and golden years of tv and film, the writers and producers were people who had extensive life experiences—poverty, crime, fought in wars, handyman do-it-yourself skills, problem solving, ambition. We now have several generations of people who are the children of actors and film school darlings who never ran off to sea and joined the navy, never cut wheat and rolled bales. They’re not the John Steinbecks, who also was a journalist before he was a novelist.
The structures you discuss are a reinforcement of the same groups and ideas. Not folks who came up in the world. If those people want real art, they need to experience the world that is actually around them, not just rub elbows at the same country spas as everyone else.
Reading SubStack after a day off, not seeing a reference to La Didion. Challenge Level: Unpossible. Didiondidiondidion. "There are other saints," wrote a mutual--or someone--not long ago. Yesterday, maybe.
Good luck with your transition. I found the biggest difference between fiction and non-fiction at the most basic level is dialogue. Its much different in fiction than just quoting someone. My more personal finding is that fiction isn't considered an appropriate place by those who promote it to explore our technological world. Human reaction to it - yes. But how things actually work, no. It's all magic. That's unfortunate given the world we live in. James Aach, author Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear Power.
Rebecca West looms pretty large for me, personally, when it comes to writers with one foot apiece in the worlds of journalism and fiction. Was pleasantly surprised to see McNally Editions reissue her book on Lord Haw-Haw earlier this year...
w/r/t writers and politics, my own pet theory is that the 80s/90s culture wars shuffled things around somewhat. I write this as a lefty myself, so I may be completely spitballing here, but I'd imagine that being a writer with both artistic ambition and rightward politics in the era of Jesse Helms et al calling for the NEA to be defunded might have pushed some people to the ostensible left...
....that said, I've seen a few writer friends move rightward in recent years. I also wonder to what extent debates over the war in Iraq affected literary ideologies; Ian McEwan's "Saturday" has long struck me as a novel that's ultimately making a liberal-interventionist argument while nominally being about something that has nothing to do with either war or Iraq.
I feel like this essay is worth revisiting every few years: https://www.nplusonemag.com/online-only/online-only/why-dont-republicans-write-fiction/
Specialization seems inevitable in a technocracy. We’ve developed systems which are complex, compartmentalized, and still entirely interdependent. Radical change comes with tremendous risk to vulnerable communities. The right understands this so they’ve adopted amoralism/irresponsibility as a political expedient. But being a serious, moral writer on the left requires subjecting personal conviction to an assembly line of experts, lawyers, professional watchdogs and alarmists.
Canticle for Fran Lebowitz? Don't know that 1. Testicle?
Hi Ross. A nice, concise piece. Thanks. One question (a quibble?): you use the words 'different' and 'than', as in: 'x was different than y'. Is this standard usage in American/ New York English? Where I'm from (South Africa/Australia/UK) we use 'x was different from y'. Many might use 'x was different to y', but this is/was considered bad usage. 'Different than' would send my teachers and other language guardians into deep apoplexy.
Good question, and I would like to know the opinion of the author as well. When I write (small blog hobbyist, not by trade) I would typically restructure my sentence to read "x and y are different" as opposed to the other possibilities mentioned. Saying "x is different than y" nearly gives "different" a - no pun intended - different usage. Although if you look at other comparatives, many use "than": bigger than, faster than, etc. This entire comment would cause my wife to roll her eyes at me (nothing new there 😏), but I am seriously interested in anything that can make me a better, more effective, more readable writer. It's what makes us different than, from, and of the apes. 😜