I have been ruminating lately on how certain genre writers broke out into the mainstream after making the acquaintance/coming to the attention of certain influential critics -- specifically, Bradbury meeting Christopher Isherwood, and Cormac McCarthy becoming the (strictly metaphoric, so far as I know, and generally literary) love interest of Harold Bloom.
So here's the question:
How do I get this person a job at the New York Times Review of Books? And why isn't she already famous?
Now, don't get me wrong: I know I've received a great deal of love from various and sundry Individuals of Stellar Taste who may very well be on their way to Influential Criticosity within (at least) Our Genre . . . but I need somebody who's already big.
Dang it.
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About Me
- MWS
- firmly believes that if you don't already know who he is, you're wasting your time hanging around here. Go buy a book or something.
7 comments:
Hell, she's right; pieces come back to me at random moments - Palpatine's appalled "This was a plan?!" is a tagline amongst my friends for, well, you know.
And it's not even my favorite Star Wars novel; Traitor is.
Anakin's landing the ship in Revenge of the Sith echoes a common saying among unicyclists; "Just because he (Kris Holm) can do it doesn't mean it's possible."
That review just sent me back to the memory of when I first read that novel, even though it's been a while. I remember all those words (especially after hearing the audiobook narrating by the great Jonathan Davis).
I remember it for Obi-Wan and his heroic simplicity, for the "Tell me what you want" scene, and for that chilling moment when we see "This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker... forever."
I liked Shatterpoint by then and I was amazed by Traitor, but the ROTS novel is what won me over.
Holy hell!
You're very welcome for the review.
I don't think I can communicate just how surprised I was when I clicked the link and found my own damn review. I was wondering why my approval rating suddenly escalated. Seems that it's also taken the front page now. ><
Thank you very much for reading it, and even more thanks for writing that book. There are two things I cherish in this world: philosophy and Star Wars, and you managed to bring them together oh, so successfully.
Sorry that I'm not with the New York Times (or a girl xD) but I'm getting the word out anyway I can. I only regret not reading Shatterpoint and RotS sooner. ><
RotS is great for re-reading, there's a lot to pick up there. For example, the very beginning "Age of Heroes" passage, which I used to see as mostly a matter of setting Epic Stakes also has a great bit about how everyone watching on the Holonet knows the Republic cannot survive without Palpatine. Well, when you think about that line you realize it's not something you'd say in a functioning democracy. And if you know a little bit of history about authoritarian messaging (think "Hitler is Germany!") in media...
Of course, an otherwise intelligent friend of mine said "This is how it feels to be Obi-Wan. This is how it feels to read crap." So there's no accounting for taste.
I don't think I would have given nearly as much of a shit about the movie without the awesome novel to fill in the margins. The prologue is, honestly, the best part. All that jazz about kids across the galaxy playing Skywalker & Kenobi... I dunno. It made the whole idea of Star Wars suddenly very real to me. I came out of the book actually liking Obi-wan, which I hadn't expected.
One of my favourite things in your SW work, Matt, is how you reuse the same phrase over and over. It adds a strange rhythmic sense to the work, and I think it's extremely cool. The "this is how it feels" bit was an awesome bookend to Anakin's journey, in the same way that Vergere's "Don't you know that everything I tell you is the truth?" was an incredible payoff in Traitor. I had to put that book down right then and go off to laugh for a while.
I actually just read this book for the first time this May (shame on me!) and it may very well be my favorite SW book, bar none. I maintain that Traitor is the deepest SW book, Shatterpoint is the darkest, Revenge of the Sith the most stylish, and Shadows of Mindor the most fun.
The prologue to RotS is my most favoritist prologue ever, to the tune of reading probably 8 times, and having passages memorized. But I do love that "Tell me what you want" scene: "Corellia." "The planet, or the system?"
And dang, now I've got an itch to read Traitor again. (And I've yet to read a SW book twice--at least one not written by Brian Daley.)
This is a great poost
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