Details
Synopsis
Gardner's controversial book, first published in 1978, tackles the question of morality in fiction, and pleads for a more compassionate and meaningful engagement on the part of writers. Art, he claims, should serve a moral purpose. He takes to task writers who he categorizes as either "nihilistic existentialists" (e. g. William Gass) who refuse to "celebrate and affirm," and "trivializers" (almost everyone else) who place language above the important themes of social responsibility that occupied great writers such as Homer, Dante, Tolstoy, and Shakespeare.
| Size | | Height: | 8.3 in | | Width: | 5.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 5.6 oz |
Industry Reviews
"After my first novel was in proofs, I had the priviledge of spending an afternoon with the late John Gardner, who had recently published 'On Moral Fiction'. Gardner said that he was looking forward to reading my novel...which...subverted all the principles and prescriptions set forth in his manifesto. 'I don't think you're going to like it,' I said. Gardner gave me a wink and a nod and said, 'I like a lot more than I let on.' I think he came to appreciate, as [Tom] Wolfe no doubt will, just how fruitless and vain it is to attempt to prescribe the modes and subjects of contemporary art."
Harper's - T. Coraghessan Boyle (02/19/1990)
"[G]ardner does a sharp job on some of his colleagues. He sees much of modern fiction violating humanity since, in a time of chaotic challenge, chaos often tries to cultivate standards of evil, miscalling them standards of truth. This time is, to him, a period of hollow profundity in writing....He asks for meaning in place of fashionable opacity, asks that concern and not outrage be the impetus."
Christian Science Monitor - Henrietta Buckmaster (05/08/1978)
"Because Gardner's anger is honest and wholesome the criticism of his contemporaries never descends to mere vindictiveness or gossip."
Nation - Max Apple (04/22/1978)
"[A] thoughtful, amusing, and arrogant little book designed to pick fights...."
Schott
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