tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post6646186990600181749..comments2023-11-07T09:00:03.408-06:00Comments on Keith Miller: Writers on Henry JamesAbout Mehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520033748138863918noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-79055426617123442582022-01-16T11:26:24.042-06:002022-01-16T11:26:24.042-06:00Reading Henry James produces the same feeling one ...Reading Henry James produces the same feeling one gets while desperately trying to extricate themselves from a one-sided driveling droning conversation conducted by a monologist with a mucousy stuffed up nasal pharynx.Dunquehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06342970376007519350noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-6568660036274509962021-05-20T16:16:19.276-05:002021-05-20T16:16:19.276-05:00Superior to Faukkner? Please! Suoperior to Melvill...Superior to Faukkner? Please! Suoperior to Melville?<br /><br />I hate reading HJames, butlove to have read him (despite the factthat "The Beasty in the Jungle" influenced theworst, mosr fateful decision in my lifer.Tom Painehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03106360182376228436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-88235323195390780962018-08-29T02:51:10.360-05:002018-08-29T02:51:10.360-05:00Yes... Henry James is awful alright. Yes... Henry James is awful alright. Stevenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00060301716581723060noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-24807102621277208032018-08-05T14:21:28.505-05:002018-08-05T14:21:28.505-05:00Borges is quoted grossly out of context. In his pr...Borges is quoted grossly out of context. In his preface to "The Abasement of the Northmores," translated in 'Selected Nonfictions,' Borges compares the James of the late novellas to Shakespeare. kenbullockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02378459812704072266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-26280847446938804142018-03-08T01:22:05.832-06:002018-03-08T01:22:05.832-06:00After reading Wings of The Dove and Portrait of A ...After reading Wings of The Dove and Portrait of A Lady, my opinion tracks that of Lawerence Durrell and the other negative commentary. The hippopotamus can not pick up the pea, and probably can't even recognize the pea or remember what he was trying to pick-up, when he started his books. All style, no life. Nabokov, Woolf are by far superior writers. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-1890512141009041042017-02-15T00:54:16.466-06:002017-02-15T00:54:16.466-06:00I actually sort of agree that these are all valid ...I actually sort of agree that these are all valid limitations of James' work. I guess my main objection is that this criticism often seem more applicable to the writers who are speaking. I like Borges but there are hardly human beings in his books. He just writes about infinite libraries and spirals and conspiracy theories haha. And Nabokov is a ridiculously formal, intentionally difficult novelist and I barely remember Lolita, none of the characters seemed remotely as real as Isabel Archer. I read it because it seemed scandalous, but that seems like a gimmick in retrospect. The same with Virginia Woolf. I mean, "Mrs. Dalloway" reminds me of one of James' really long, doozies of a paragraph, and again I have no lasting impression of the characters or plot. Ugh and Eliot, another obscurantist, and the Wasteland to be just plain nihilism, and his Christianity little more than a fear of nihilism. Anyways James certainly seems like a limited author compared to Austen, or Dickens, or Tolstoy, but I think he is superior to really any 20th century novelist I have read.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418370665586800294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-33305877792356358902017-02-14T23:55:28.671-06:002017-02-14T23:55:28.671-06:00honestly i'm trying to remember lolita right n...honestly i'm trying to remember lolita right now and i don't remember the characters. i'm reading the portrait of a lady right now and Isabel Archer is honestly the most realistic character i've ever encountered. Lolita was endless rhetorical flourishes, and i hardly remember the characters, plot, worldview, or even a sentence or idea from the book. I think Nabokov is probably much more overrated.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18418370665586800294noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-24247324937138237852015-08-27T19:51:36.073-05:002015-08-27T19:51:36.073-05:00Bravo! Bravissimo! Excellent! Well done!Bravo! Bravissimo! Excellent! Well done!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-5694061916801671212015-08-27T10:45:08.601-05:002015-08-27T10:45:08.601-05:00"...wherever they are..." Wherever they ..."...wherever they are..." Wherever they are? WHEREVER THEY ARE? WHEREVER... WHEREVER THEY ARE? Wherever are they? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-38034307553553994602013-09-16T00:07:53.514-05:002013-09-16T00:07:53.514-05:00YES,
James could write circles and circles and ci...YES, <br />James could write circles and circles and circles around - on the spot - most definitely most sublimely and without effort, as it were, over the long haul, magnificantly better than Nabakov, but especially while also, as it were, reading very assiduously and immediatly aloud, on the spot, such as while drinking an espresso on the plaza of a Paris cafe in a moist wonderfully muggy night, a tome such as the "The Ambassadors," though a beautiful, most superbly delightful drawing-room or shall we say a saloon drama, on the spot, there are some , someoh so awesome, some magnificent effects - pardon my amenuensis' deplorable spelling - though it is like digging, as it were, on the spot, in a mine shaft with a toothpick, for one hundred so especially and amazingly frustating years, as it were. <br />On the spot.<br /><br />So there!deridahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07807215184490859324noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-39335652566377163892012-12-04T02:28:34.931-06:002012-12-04T02:28:34.931-06:00To me James is THE best writer of all time. Of cou...To me James is THE best writer of all time. Of course the other writers have their merits. What I don't understand is the remarks by Borges who accuses James's work of 'absence of life' . The novels of James full of life, although perhaps those lives are too fine for Mr Borges to appreciate. But maybe Nabokov was right: Henry James is for "non-smokers" like me. <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10564396570609113371noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-79353798365045278222011-11-13T14:57:48.450-06:002011-11-13T14:57:48.450-06:00I've just read James' "The Beast in t...I've just read James' "The Beast in the Jungle". I struggled to maintain the interest in the characters necessary to move beyond the third chapter. It seemed over-analytical and indulgent, and their relationship psychologically unconvincing. I'm reassured that I'm not alone in failing to engage consistently with his work. <br />Having said that, I can recommend "The Turn of the Screw" where his distinct style is well-applied in building suspense and suggesting horror indirectly. Based on this, I'm going to try "The Jolly Corner".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-49629353461933472962011-08-05T08:55:04.778-05:002011-08-05T08:55:04.778-05:00Thanks for chipping in, Philosophy Teacher. But do...Thanks for chipping in, Philosophy Teacher. But do you seriously believe that James could write circles around Nabokov? Have you read Lolita? Speak, Memory?About Mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17520033748138863918noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-40563142927058617142011-08-04T14:01:51.111-05:002011-08-04T14:01:51.111-05:00They should all be ashamed of themselves, wherever...They should all be ashamed of themselves, wherever they are, since James could write circles around the lot of them. (Eliot knew better--with the remark out of context the reader may miss that it was high praise).The Philosophy Teacherhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09818634065467163542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4070140306107547041.post-84824190685790905002010-06-12T20:14:54.442-05:002010-06-12T20:14:54.442-05:00This would be pretty much the opposite of 'dam...This would be pretty much the opposite of 'damning with faint praise'. I've never read Henry's stuff and am now petrified to comtemplate the possibility.Mitchnoreply@blogger.com