A quick correction! Slightly Foxed is still going strong & they just paid me a generous amount for an article… would be good to stock in your bookshop, Katie!
This is my error - and really ridiculous of me to have phrased it this way - I miss it because I no longer have a subscription! I wasn't getting enough of it read to warrant the sub but I did so enjoy it and this mention reminded me. Sorry for the confusion!
The Mezzanine is one of my favourite reads. Also Room Temperature. Very fond memories of reading them for the first time decades ago, one of those personal turning points when you realise what can be done with writing.
Yes, and in some ways I don't think he's bettered them as writing (though I am fonder of Nory as a novel). I think he's essentially a very gifted writer of non-fictional prose -- the perfect New Yorker essayist -- for which he has managed to find various lightly fictional vehicles.
That's interesting -- I'll be writing more next week about how I think I misread The Anthologist to some extent because I heard it as the standard Baker non-fiction voice advancing a theory of poetry. I still don't feel Paul Chowder is the most convincing of characters (and I still haven't read Travelling Sprinkler) but on re-reading I appreciated more how his arguments about poetry are also expressions of who he is. Perhaps AM too read it as a textbook + monologue!
Ordering myself some Baker right now, thanks for this - and I miss Slightly Foxed.
A quick correction! Slightly Foxed is still going strong & they just paid me a generous amount for an article… would be good to stock in your bookshop, Katie!
With an upcoming article from fellow alumna Maartje Scheltens, Ann. We both enjoyed your piece.
Thanks Harriet! I look forward to Maartje’s article. Do you know what issue it will be in?
I muddled my literary publications up - the article will in fact be in the newly relaunched Persephone publication, not in SF.
Oh thanks Harriet, glad Persephone is relaunching that.
This is my error - and really ridiculous of me to have phrased it this way - I miss it because I no longer have a subscription! I wasn't getting enough of it read to warrant the sub but I did so enjoy it and this mention reminded me. Sorry for the confusion!
I admit that despite my admiration I also allowed my sub to lapse… but will now renew…
Oh no! I didn’t know it had stopped
Well, you've certainly made me want to read it (love the "mixed traffic" doughnut).
It’s a gem! As with all of NB’s books, though, just don’t expect much by way of narrative — the phrasing is all…
The Mezzanine is one of my favourite reads. Also Room Temperature. Very fond memories of reading them for the first time decades ago, one of those personal turning points when you realise what can be done with writing.
Yes, and in some ways I don't think he's bettered them as writing (though I am fonder of Nory as a novel). I think he's essentially a very gifted writer of non-fictional prose -- the perfect New Yorker essayist -- for which he has managed to find various lightly fictional vehicles.
I had a row with Andrew Motion about ‘The anthologist’ he felt it was Baker doing the same thing yet again, I felt it was a new departure.
‘Emerged’ - so much more interesting than immersed which has become a cliché.
That's interesting -- I'll be writing more next week about how I think I misread The Anthologist to some extent because I heard it as the standard Baker non-fiction voice advancing a theory of poetry. I still don't feel Paul Chowder is the most convincing of characters (and I still haven't read Travelling Sprinkler) but on re-reading I appreciated more how his arguments about poetry are also expressions of who he is. Perhaps AM too read it as a textbook + monologue!