renata adler

how is spark's intro, when is spark's into from, wait is spark even still alive

it's an afterword, it's awful, and she died in 2006

well not awful but like, idk if i were a college english prof i would give it like a B. no close reading or insight, gets kind of hung up on this one instance where adler interchanges her own name with the purportedly fictional character's and spends 2/3 of it wondering whether she's renata adler or a fictional character

/:

So I bought Pitch Dark the other day having never read anything by here (can never find Speedboat in the shops/library, always forget about it if I'm on amazon and have the cash to splash)...I'm only 20pp in so don't really have the hang of it yet...without raining spoilers down (though feel free because I don't ever really mind knowing how a book ends before I've got there) does it remain a series of weird little vignettes that contain almost-corny bits of OMG WOW THAT IS WHAT LIFE/LOVE/PEOPLE ARE LIKE?

lol uh it gets less like that, there are like 2 or 3 longish moreorless continuous "scenes"

i can't remember if pitch dark is supposed to be good or not

but if you don't have an appetite for weird little vignettes w/ almost-corny bits, then maybe renata adler is not for you!

Will delve in properly tonight (got engrossed in Lee Mack's autobiography LOL) and report back.

Do ppl fuck with her nonfiction? I've read a couple things:

1. Her book about the New Yorker, Gone, which I found hugely entertaining, sort of like a really good and really long NYer piece, actually. I didn't think her indictment of the NYer was convincing, but I have thought about it recently in light of the recent (and terrible!) NYer redesign.

2. Her famous piece about Pauline Kael, which is very insightful and nicely written but goes over the top, I think, in the cruelty dept.

My overall impression from the little I've read is that she is a huge snob. This seems to extend to her prose too, which is good for ppl who are snobs about prose (i.e. who like good prose). I didn't read Speedboat but this thread makes me want to...

Her collection Canaries in the Coalmine has some of my favorite political writing of the last 25 years.

How did everyone 'read' Speedboat? I'm struggling to take in more than 10 pages at a time...

I'm reading Speedboat now, something feels very try-hard and dated about it. I don't find her observations half as sharp as she seems to think they are. Every vignette is dripping with self regard.

i am v confused by dwight yorke's description of 'pitch dark' above

i might reread speedboat, idk

I love Speedboat and Pitch Dark but have read none of her actual journalism, incl. Pauline Kael piece.

Should I? I don't want my high opinion of her to come tumbling

I loved Speedboat when I read it last year. Funnily enough, tried Elizabeth Hardwick's vaguely similar Sleepless Nights (possibly inspired by Wayne Koestenbaum's essay, or Jenny Offil's Dept of Speculation) recently and "every vignette is dripping with self regard" was pretty much my thoughts on that.

Adler's Kael essay seems driven by some deep personal animus. Read somewhere - here? - recently that it was driven by Adler's resentment that Kael didn't have to follow New Yorker house style?

I never got past the first 20 pages of Pitch Dark so I share your confusion, Thomp.

Gave up on Speedboat too.

i really liked speedboat. keep meaning to pick up pitch dark. i think she's a very good writer, and smart too.

I have a long post to make about Renata and why I think she's more than bucolic observations about life but I'll wait until a sleepless night to get it all down

i reread 'speedboat'. i liked it more, this time

like the narratorial position in both books seems deeply unhappy and aware of a lack, it seems a long way away from 'bucolic', i don't know how one would get that impression

Holy moly, a long interview with Adler on Longform's podcast. She's difficult, but it's a compelling conversation.

sounds interesting

did anyone get the collected essays/journalism volume?

idk that she's at all difficult in that interview ????????????????

i read a lil of the collected, not enough, & kinda wasn't loving the diagnostic political stuff, it was sorta pedantic compared to didion's forensic

In Speedboat I loved the description of making meals twice, aware of the limitations and allowances of the times, and of the injuries sustained at boarding schools, and the poison ivy.

did anyone get the collected essays/journalism volume?

― ♛ LIL UNIT ♛ (thomp),

Big fan of Canaries in the Mindshaft. Read her Bork and Clinton impeachment essays.