Comments on: Tiny Shocks: Uncovering the Reductive Plot of James Wood’s How Fiction Works

By: Art as Inheritance, part 2: Making New Art Appear as Old Text Disappears (as if by Magic!) « BIG OTHER

Tue, 10 May 2011 20:17:57 +0000

[...] in this view, collage becomes a means of realistically rendering the urban landscape. (Take that, James Wood!) In much the same spirit, John A. Walker notes that: The peeling, torn or lacerated posters found [...]

By: A Guide to My Writing Here at Big Other « BIG OTHER

A Guide to My Writing Here at Big Other « BIG OTHER — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:07:42 +0000

[...] Tiny Shocks: Uncovering the Reductive Plot of James Wood’s How Fiction Works — I reject Wood’s book’s central argument, and reveal several factual errors he makes [...]

By: Why I Hate the Avant-Garde, pt 2 « BIG OTHER

Why I Hate the Avant-Garde, pt 2 « BIG OTHER — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:24:51 +0000

[...] in other works) until it overwhelms the more familiar aspects of her artwork, distorting and enstranging the entire thing. Hence Manet and Degas exaggerated the de-emphasis of line and more energetic [...]

By: Seventeen Ways of Criticizing Inception (aka, All Knowledge Isn’t Equal) « BIG OTHER

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 01:48:34 +0000

[...] Tiny Shocks: Uncovering the Reductive Plot of James Wood’s How Fiction Works: 967 views [...]

By: A D Jameson

A D Jameson — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 23:07:27 +0000

Thanks for the comment! I like it, too…in my own way.

(Although I’d call it a nutcracker of a book.)

By: the hat

the hat — Sat, 09 Oct 2010 21:37:33 +0000

I think James Woods wrote a cracker of a book! I like it!

By: What Is Experimental Art? « BIG OTHER

What Is Experimental Art? « BIG OTHER — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:52:39 +0000

By: The Dominant, ctd. « BIG OTHER

The Dominant, ctd. « BIG OTHER — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:29:38 +0000

[...] James Wood doesn’t like Harry Potter, but the writing is third-person limited and focused on image. [...]

By: Tiny Shocks Revisited « BIG OTHER

Tiny Shocks Revisited « BIG OTHER — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 03:08:16 +0000

[...] Earlier today John pointed toward Nigel Beale’s cleverly-titled criticism of my post “Tiny Shocks: Uncovering the Reductive Plot of James Wood’s How Fiction Works.” I’m looking forward to Nigel’s longer criticism; in the meantime I thought I’d [...]

By: Douglas Storm

Douglas Storm — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:01:05 +0000

Good Gravy, that’s some great work by everyone. What a breath of fresh air. Wood is something of a Mathew Arnold, completely reductive in so many ways and it’s so interesting that “belief” seems his mantra in the same way. This “reality” must be sacred and good and believed. It is morally reductive as well.

Nicely done. Wonderful to see someone resurrect the work of Gass in this way (sadly, he is something of a gasbag in his own work–primarily his constantly alliterative essays–exhausting frankly); he is brilliant where Gardner (and Wood) seems so pedestrian and simple–the Fiction Police.

Appropriate that you post about this would be Big Brother of Fiction at the Big Other.

Fantastic.

Best,
Storm