2005_06_01_archive

Clive James doesn't make connections

In the ample space of the TLS, Clive James reviews John Bayley's

collection of literary essays (I wonder if it includes this one?). The

third paragraph begins:

[Bayley] sees no end of connections [between novels], the best thing

about which is that they are not theoretical. Apart from his

intellectual objections, the main reason Bayley has no time for

literary theory is that he is absorbed in literary practice.

Of course, James likes to think he also has no time for such

pretension. A lot further on he announces that:

A work of art exists to occupy the whole space between tumultuous

reality and the artist's attempt to give it shape, with no supervening

providence to nullify the order of what has been achieved.

Who needs theory indeed?

at 6:31 PM 5 comments

July 2005 May 2005 Home

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

My Shelfari Bookshelf

Shelfari: Book reviews on your book blog

email address

Please contact me, Stephen Mitchelmore, at steve dot mitchelmore at

gmail dot com

Literary and other links

* British Literary Blogs

* ReadySteadyBook blog

* Spurious

* Book Depository: Editor's Corner

* The Literary Saloon

* The Existence Machine

* The Reading Experience

* Scarecrow Comment

* Guardian Books Blog

* The Quarterly Conversation

* KCRW Bookworm

* BookForum

* wood s lot

* Mountain 7

* Todd Colby's Glee Farm

* Three per cent

* Tales from the Reading Room

* The Bibliophilic Blogger

* The Penguin Blog

* TLS: Peter Stothard

* Mary Beard

* Nomadics: Pierre Joris

* Lenin's Tomb

* Dispatches from Zembla

* Waggish

More literary blogs

* Jonathan Swift's Journal to Stella

* The Best of New Writing on the Web

* John Self's Asylum

* Anatomy of Melancholy

* The Truth About Lies

* Nigel Beale: Nota Bene

* Thomas McGonigle's ABC of Reading

* Vertigo: Collecting WG Sebald

* Un Arbre dans la Ville

* The Wooden Spoon

* The Joyful Knowing

* The Reader Onliine

* In Abstentia Out

* Jacob Russell's Barking Dog

* eNotes Book Blog

* Diderot's Diary

Book buying

* *Steve's Wishlist*

* The Book Depository - Cheap books and free delivery

* Booksprice - price comparisons

* Abebooks

Favoured author sites

* Maurice Blanchot

* Thomas Bernhard (German equivalent)

* Gabriel Josipovici

* Peter Handke (German equivalent)

* Princeton Dante Project

* Proust: Temps Perdu

* The Kafka Project

* Charlotte Mandell

* Noam Chomsky

* John Pilger

Blog Archive

* February 2008 (1)

* January 2008 (10)

* December 2007 (26)

* November 2007 (28)

* October 2007 (16)

* September 2007 (24)

* August 2007 (15)

* July 2007 (17)

* June 2007 (11)

* May 2007 (23)

* April 2007 (11)

* March 2007 (24)

* February 2007 (27)

* January 2007 (21)

* December 2006 (9)

* November 2006 (24)

* October 2006 (21)

* September 2006 (19)

* August 2006 (15)

* July 2006 (33)

* June 2006 (17)

* May 2006 (24)

* April 2006 (17)

* March 2006 (18)

* February 2006 (15)

* January 2006 (8)

* December 2005 (8)

* November 2005 (10)

* October 2005 (7)

* September 2005 (14)

* August 2005 (14)

* July 2005 (8)

* June 2005 (15)

* May 2005 (11)

* April 2005 (13)

* March 2005 (9)

* February 2005 (7)

* January 2005 (16)

* December 2004 (2)

* November 2004 (4)