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Title: Living by Fiction by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0-06-091544-7 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 September, 1988 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (3 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Living with Art
Comment: In Living by Fiction, Annie Dillard begins her introduction with, 'This is, ultimately, a book about the world.' I can't be sure of what you're thinking but I wrote 'holy crap' in my margin. She later goes on to explain, 'Fiction can deal with all the world's objects and ideas together, with the breadth of human experience in time and space; it can deal with things the limited disciplines of thought either ignore completely or destroy by methodological caution, our most pressing concerns: personality, family, death, love, time, spirit, goodness, evil, destiny, beauty, will.' It's characteristic of Dillard to deliver a surprising assertion throughout her book, which peaks enough interest that the reader is able to grapple with the theory-based arguments and eventually make one's way to beautiful, gentle explanations that are often times hard to disagree with since she covers many perspectives. Dillard's strength lies in her ability to intertwine theory with her own creativity in writing, making metaphors out of her arguments: 'Science works the way a tightrope walker works: by not looking at its feet. As soon as it looks at its feet, it realizes that it's operating in midair.' This is what we would have imagined a theory book to read like years ago, if a creative writer had written it.
Dillard's main concerns in her book deal with modernism and its place in the contemporary world, the never-ending argument of what constitutes art, and her caution not to commit to any absolutes in the world of knowledge and intelligence. This is the closest that a reader could get to having a conversation with a theorist. At one point when Dillard is discussing the marketplace and Melville's essay, The Encantadas, and how it's always been classified as fiction, she asks as though she's sitting with us listening to the same discussion, 'Is it because Melville usually wrote fiction? Is it because it is a narrative? Is it because the characters are colorful? Is it because it is good? Or is it because much of it is hearsay?' Dillard is reassuring (or disconcerting'depending on how you view the literary world) in her text that there are no absolutes to how fiction fits in the world, how art movements change, or how meaning is made. This book probably addresses a more advanced writer in its focus on theory and non-focus on craft.
Rating: 5
Summary: Glorious - and crucial - Dillard
Comment: I think there are few books about literature as important, erudite, witty or insightful as this one. In typical Dillard fashion, Annie Dillard begins with a rather narrow focus - an interpretation of "contemporary modernist" fiction (a term she hopes will not catch on because it is so clumsy) - the works of Nabokov, John Barth, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Italo Calvino, Robbe-Grillet and Beckett - and then she proceeds to expand her inquiry to include, firstly, the finding of meaning in literature and, ultimately, the finding of meaning in the world. These questions - does the world have meaning? do we find meaning or make it up? how do we best interpret the world? - are questions which dog "Living by Fiction"; rather than gloss over them Dillard investigates them. And she comes up with some surprising - and glorious - ideas. Ultimately, she makes a challenging and vital case for the importance of literature in terms of making meaning out of the world. This is, truly, critiscm at its best. I have no doubt that Dillard's reading of the contemporary modernists will be regarded as seminal in years to come. So for anyone even remotely interested in contemporary literary critiscm, this book is crucial. But the wider scope of the book is one should fascinate anyone who cares about literature and meaning. These are burning questions that Dillard asks. If you've never read Dillard's other works - Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Holy the Firm, etc. - this is a wonderful introduction into her particular talents and methods. If you're a Dillard fan and you haven't read this one, you are really missing out.
Rating: 5
Summary: stimulating and thought-provoking
Comment: I thought Ms. Dillard distinguished herself with this literary piece of literary criticism. She got into some pretty deep and convoluted places with this book, but I felt that every point was well-made and well-taken. I feel the book is an education in itself. Loved it!
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Title: The Writing Life by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0060919884 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 26 September, 1990 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Teaching a Stone to Talk : Expeditions and Encounters by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0060915412 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 September, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Holy the Firm by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0060915439 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 September, 1988 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: For the Time Being by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0375703470 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 08 February, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard ISBN: 0060953020 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 28 October, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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