Arnold Weinstein (1)Reseñas

Improperly titled. A more accurate title would be "20th-Century American Experimental Fiction."

As a selection from the Teaching Company's "Great Courses" series, in "A Day's Read" three university professors introduce short works of literature via recorded lectures. The work is available as downloadable digital files from Audible, and used copies are available in both CD and DVD form.

Each of the 36 lectures focuses on a relatively short work of literature, one that can be read within one or a few sittings. The lectures introduce the works in the context of their authors, themes, nature, history, significance, and impact. The idea is that people with busy lives who lack the time to tackle larger works of literature by eminent writers of fiction can sample shorter works by such authors. Thus, readers not ready to try James Joyce's "Ulysses" will benefit from reading and learning about "The Dead", and those intimidated by Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying" can start with "Pantaloon in Black". The works presented span the 19th and 20th centuries, and include those from such authors as Austen, Melville, Kafka, Hemingway, Chopin, Wilde, Woolf, Proust, Munroe, and Stevenson, along with a few more modern authors.

I consider the series of lectures to be well- conceived and well- executed, and overall, a fine way to become acquainted with eminent authors and their works of literature. For several of the authors the particular short work selected offers an excellent introduction. For example, "Billy Budd" is a masterpiece of literature, and guided by the analysis of the lecturer (Gerald Voth), the new reader will likely be ready to try Melville's longer works (such as "Moby Dick"). Likewise, "Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" is the most accessible and well-known of Stevenson's fiction, and a fine introduction to the new reader who has yet to experience "Treasure Island"

In some cases, the selection discussed will help the reader judge whether to continue with a given author's works. Notably, "A Country Doctor" is a good way to begin with work by Franz Kafka. Lecturer Arnold Weinstein helps guide the reader through strange imagery that would otherwise seem alien and off-putting. A reader who (despite Weinstein's analysis) finds the tale too confusing should probably stay away from "The Trial" or "The Castle".

In other cases, the selection analyzed is not typical of the author's other work. For example, Flaubert's "A Simple Heart" is (in my view) far less enjoyable than "Madame Bovary", and the quality of "Lady Susan" notwithstanding, I would recommend that it be read *after (not before) Jane Austen's novels. In still other cases, the short work selected is of lesser quality than an author's other work, a category in which I would include Hemingway's "Old Man and the Sea".
Likewise, one can question the omission of certain authors, my list of which would include Dickens, Forster, Maugham, Steinbeck, and Vonnegut. But tastes differ

Below is a list of the 36 works discussed, along with their authors.

1. Kafka, Country Doctor
2. Prevost, Manon Lescaut
3. Flaubert, A Simple Heart
4. Faulkner, Pantaloon in Black
5. Borges, Short Story Selections
6. Hemingway, Old Man & the Sea
7. O'Connor, Short Story Selections
8. Lagervist, The Sybil
9. Vesaas, The Ice Palace
10. Calvino, Invisible Cities
11. Duras, The Lover
12. Coetzee, Disgrace
13. Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea
14. Austen, Lady Susan
15. Balzac, Girl with the Golden Eyes
16. Meredith, Modern Love
17. Huysmans Against the Grain
18. Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde
19. Wilde, Portrait of Dorian Gray
20. Jame, Beast in the Jungle
21. Joyce, The Dead
22. Proust, Lemoin Affair
23. Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street
24. McEwan, On Chesil Beach
25. Cather, Alexander's Bridge
26. Lu Xun, Short Story Selections
27. Chopin, The Awakening
28. Melville, Billy Budd
29. McCullers, Ballad of the Sad Café
30. Chekhov, Short Story Selections
31. Hersey, Hiroshima
32. Satrapi, Persepolis
33. Jataka, Short Story Selections
34. Munro, Short Story Selections
35. Basho, Narrow Road of the Interior
36. Siljie, Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress

Short fiction is not something I've ever given a lot of thought to. I read a good bit more of it last year than I have in a good long time, and have come to appreciate the short story and novella forms. It was with that in mind that I tackled A Day's Read, from The Great Courses, wanting to know more about both the forms and works that are good, even great representatives of them. In a series of 36 lectures, Professors Weinstein, Allen, and Voth explore 36+ works of literature which can all be read in the course of a day, some in only a few hours.

It's a wide-ranging collection of stories that spans several centuries and a number of different countries. Well-known authors such as Kafka, Hemingway, Balzac, and Joyce are represented along with authors who are lesser known but no less deft in creating small gems. In the course of the 18+ hours, I compiled a huge list of things that I very much want to read, and authors I want to get to know, such as Borges, Calvino, Lagerkvist, Satrapi, Hersey... most of the authors represented here, in fact.

The lecturers break the works down by theme, which is an excellent way of approaching such a broad selection, but in the end, it's the stories themselves, the allure of the whole, that tempts me. But you can't organize everyone's subjective responses to this information, and so theme -- Who are we? How do we love? -- is a good starting point.

I'm a great believer in understanding what we read. I don't just mean comprehending the words on the page, but understanding their context in the world, and in our own lives. Approaching literature in easy bites, learning what ideas and concerns drove the writers represented here, makes it easier to approach their longer works with a greater level of comprehension. This course can go a long way to easing the reader into a greater understanding of not only the works presented but literature in general.

I’m a city girl. I love Chicago and have lived here all my life. I can barely imagine living anywhere else, though Copenhagen is a close second. I found this survey of how art describes the city to be fascinating, even though it’s mainly focused on European cities, and then on the city in previous centuries.

It’s a dark course, at least in part because the city is a dark concept in many ways. Urban crime, urban grime, the manner in which isolation increases in a city environment (I don’t find that true, but then I’m an introvert for whom the city provides just enough contact with others.) Art describes this as surely as it does the vibrancy of the city, and the way the arts flourish within it.

Professor Weinstein is an excellent guide, citing not only literature, but fine arts, film, and every other art form that has been used to express what the city is. This is one of the shorter Great Courses I’ve listened to, but there is so much material here, that the sources would make for months of reading and viewing if you found yourself wanting to explore the subject more deeply and broadly.

As with most of the Great Courses, I recommend this one unreservedly.

Great courses lectures about classic novels of the western canon, running from the 18th century through the twentieth. Weinstein does a good job in both his analysis and in his presentation of the material. Even when I wasn't necessarily interested in one of the texts he chose to discuss, it was mostly a pleasure to listen to him. (I'll tell ya what: he sounded like Richard Thomas playing John Boy Walton, and that was just fiiine with me.) Especially toward the end, I got a little impatient with his choices of material (a lot of this was just personal preference: I'd have much rather have heard him talk about Mrs Dalloway, for instance, than To the Lighthouse. But some of it was less so: many of his discussions of an individual text spanned two or even three lectures, and while I agree that some of them deserved that extended treatment, I might have argued for spending a little less time on Ulysses, say, in order to make room for Toni Morrison, maybe, or James Baldwin (or Tolkien)). Of course, anyone putting together a series of lectures like this would make slightly different choices, and certainly none of Weinstein's were bad. I wish they had sometimes been a little less on the nose, though someone without my background might be better served with the on-the-nose-ity displayed here. In any case, a great course. Recommended.

5307. Morning, Noon & Night Finding the Meaning of Life's Stages Through Books, by Arnold Weinstein (read 1 Sep 2015) The author is a professor of comparative literature at Brown. In this book he talks about books (and a few movies) in relation to the youth, maturing, and decline of humans.. About 75% of the books he discusses I have read but some of them I read as long ago as 1948 and so I could not appreciate his discussions as well as if I had been a student in his course and had read the book getting ready for his class. His comments are usually enlightening but sometimes I could not get too excited about what he had to say. I read the book in four days and that was probably too fast.

I should have taken notes, but I didn’t want to be back in English literature class; I wanted to read this just for enjoyment. Sometimes I did feel as though I was back in a high school or college class, but I’d probably enjoy the classes given by this author.

So, childhood, falling in love, old age, and their experiences; that’s what’s concentrated on in this book.

I’ve read most of the books mentioned, which is atypical for me with these types of books about books, so that made reading this more interesting. The books with which I was not familiar, enough was said about them so that I could understand why they were being included. In fact, I got a couple spoilers, but I don’t really mind in this case.

Reading this was a bit of a slog at times, but overall very engrossing.

But, I think this is the kind of book, given the personal nature of how books touch us, that everyone has to write for themselves.

I appreciated that a wide range of types of books and their characters, classics to modern, are mentioned.

The biggest flaws of this book for me were that most not my own most influential works were not included (interestingly some were important to me when I was younger but no longer resonate as strongly), and also I think the characters/books written about were a tad too male centric (probably not as much as my perceptions indicated), and most definitely there was a deplorable lack of children’s literature, which has been so formative for me from age two to the present, and presumably the future too. There are many child characters talked about, but not children’s books.

I found the old age sections rather depressing; especially the life not lived parts, although, thank goodness, there is almost ample humor expressed throughout. Interestingly, I found these works just as sobering when I was young as I do now, perhaps more so.

King Lear (old section, naturally) resonated more with me when I was a teen than it does now. Oedipus too. Re Lear, my father was alive then (oh, those daddy issues sure come up in that play!) In my teens and twenties I got so much from these books. Perhaps I would again, perhaps even more deeply, but even if I should, I’m not likely to revisit them now.

I got a kick out of the last section in the part that says it’s so hard to imagine some old characters young and some young characters old; that is often so true.

There is a relatively short bibliography for a book of this type. The index is good except that I wish each characters could be found by first name too, not just by last name only; both would have been ideal. I didn’t read the entire index but assume all the works mentioned are there by title.

As I read, I often thought of MY books that fit this discussion. That was fun, and a worthwhile pastime, but I couldn’t rate this book with more than 3 stars because the author and I are just different enough. If I’d read this as an autobiography and not as a book about books, hoping to find something wonderfully new for me, I might have rated it higher.

I won this from Goodreads’ First Reads giveaway program and I am glad that I read it.

6/4/11 - I loved his commentary on [b:Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close|4588|Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close|Jonathan Safran Foer|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1165446871s/4588.jpg|1940137]. I actually got a bit misty eyed.

Arnold Weinstein was the indispensable guide through my reading of [b:Ulysses|338798|Ulysses|James Joyce|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1279244701s/338798.jpg|2368224]. I'm so excited about this First Reads win!

I've only read the section on Ulysses, but I loved it so much that I purchased a copy of it for my own library. I'm sure it will be an immense help when I attempt to tackle Proust and Faulkner later this year.

The first book I won through Goodreads.

A very good prize, all things considered. I enjoyed the discussion of books, and how the related to the musings of the author's life. I haven't read everything the author mentions here, but I was still able to follow along, and I now have a few more things on my to-read list.

This book was a lot like having a pleasant conversation with the author about favorites. Very charming and instructive at the same time. Worth taking a look at.

I am an avid reader in several languages, and I have read extensively the classics from different cultures, so, as you can imagine, I was delighted to know that I was going to get Morning, Noon, and Night. It just seemed perfect, a way to brush up on quality books I had read years ago, or to discover that I should get back to a certain title, or just to get ideas about stories I had not yet read.

I found out that Weinstein has a deep knowledge about world literature, and he has obviously studied it, and felt it. But boy, is he dark. By the time you're a quarter into the book you start to wonder if there is a point to his constant pinpointing of the most disgusting and hurtful parts of each single classic (children being dismembered, sexually abused, famished...). Everybody knows: growing up can hurt, but why does he find only the hurt scenes interesting?

Halfway through the reading you begin to think about Weinstein's students. If they have to go through the same kind of stuff he writes into his book, I seriously think that their love for literature may end up grossly damaged.

The Night part is, of course, as depressing as all the rest. If he cannot see any happiness into the childhood business, he'll varely can find any confort in old age. He does try to insert some not-so-ugly visions of aging; but they lack the emphasis or the passion that goes into the rest of the book. They just give you a lukewarm impression, as if he only got them in there because he needed to provide some valance at the end.

To sum up my thoughts: I am happy that there is a publisher that still bets for serious reading, but I would advise that next time the serious reading should probably avoid depressing the readers. After all people don't buy many books after commiting suicide.

This set of audio recordings represents Part IV of the series on 20th Century American fiction (Great Courses series). Here Prof. Arnold Weinstein (of Princeton University) focuses on three modern writers of fiction: Robert Coover, Toni Morrison, and Don DeLillo. For each writer, Weinstein summarizes their career, and analyzes one novel in detail. For Coover, he chooses The Public Burning, the bizarre and wacky fictionalized satire of US politics, starring Richard Nixon and presenting the public execution in Times Square of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg (for stealing atomic secrets). From Morrison, he discusses Sula, and from DeLillo, his comic post-modernist work White Noise. In the 8th, concluding lecture of this set, Weinstein returns to themes introduced in Part I of the series, taking stock of what he considers to be the “central, ongoing drama” in US fiction throughout the century -- “the interplay of self and world, a dynamic that literature makes uniquely visible.”

As in the three previous audio sets of this series, Weinstein is an articulate lecturer with an engaging and enthusiastic style. Yet in Part IV, I found myself unable to share his enthusiasm for the works discussed. (If anything, I am now disinclined to try Coover and very doubtful of DeLillo. Further, while I appreciated Morrison's Pulitzer Prize winning Beloved, I am not sure that I want to tackle Sula). In addition, I find it hard to articulate take- home messages from these particular lectures. Perhaps it’s the audio format, or even a reflection on me as a listener, but I found the overall themes difficult to hold on to and internalize.

In general, my ambivalence about this set of recordings mainly reflects the choice of works discussed. Granted, any survey of American literature had to reflect difficult choices as well as the author's personal tastes. But readers have tastes too, and I regret that this collection made no mention of John Steinbeck, Sinclair Lewis, Theodore Dreiser, or Ralph Ellison, among many others. (That short list includes two winners of the Pulitzer Prize, two of the Nobel Prize, and a National Book Award winner). One might also wonder at the lack of mention of such figures as Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, Tom Wolfe, Raymond Chandler, and James Cain. Most likely, the academic literati do not consider works of such authors to be sufficiently "serious" -- but what could be more "American" than science fiction and noir crime novels?

In any case, Prof. Weinstein’s goal was to explore some of the major themes in 20th century American fiction, and in this respect this audio series succeeds, and is likely to be of interest to many readers.

Lectures in this audio series are as follows:

Lecture 25. The Public Burning: Execution in Times Square
Lecture 26. Robert Coover – Fiction as Fission
Lecture 27. Toni Morrison’s Sula: -- From Trauma to Freedom
Lecture 28. Sula – New Black Woman
Lecture 29. Don DeLillo – Decoder of American Frequencies
Lecture 30. White Noise-- Representing the Environment
Lecture 31. DeLillo and American Dread
Lecture 32. Conclusion—Nobody’s Home

Also included is a 40 page booklet with outlines of the lectures and suggestions for further reading.

Part III of this lecture series on 20th Century American fiction considers four novelists: Flannery O'Connor, William S. Burroughs, Kurt Vonnegut, and Robert Coover. These appear to be unusual and controversial choices for a course of this nature, since according to lecturer Arnold Weinstein, most (or all) are seldom studied or taught at the university level. Particular works discussed in the eight 30- minute lectures include Burroughs' Naked Lunch, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five, Coover's The Public Burning, and various short stories by Flannery O'Connor.

As in Parts I and II of this audio series, Weinstein is clear, passionate, and articulate. However, my reaction to Part III is heavily swayed towards the negative by his peculiar choice of material to cover. The 90 minute discussion of Naked Lunch, left me with absolutely no interest in reading the book; it appears purposefully puerile and vulgar, and I found Weinstein's arguments for its merits to be weak and unconvincing. I had similar reactions to the seemingly pointless violence of the O'Connor stories (i.e., "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Judgement Day") and to the heavy-handed wacky vulgarity of Coover's The Public Burning. On the other hand, I truly loved Weinstein's discussion of Slaughterhouse Five, and appreciate Vonnegut's novel all the more for his insights. Perhaps it's unfair to rate this particular tape set on the basis of its choice of material, but I can't help but think of the fine American writers of fiction who have been excluded in favor of Burroughs and Coover.

The eight lectures in Part III of this audio series are as follows:

Lecture 17. Flannery O'Connor -- Realist of Distance
Lecture 18. O'Connor -- Taking the Measure of the Region
Lecture 19. Willam S. Burroughs -- Bad Boy of American Literature
Lecture 20. Naked Lunch -- The Body in Culture
Lecture 21. Naked Lunch -- Power and Exchange in the Viral World
Lecture 22. Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five -- Apocalypse Now
Lecture 23. Vonnegut's World -- Tralfamadore or Trauma?
Lecture 24. Robert Coover -- Postmodern Fabulator½

This is an interesting book that relates and explores life through books. At first, I thought that Arnold Weinstein would be pedantic and as boring as a textbook. Instead, Weinstein presents an educated and delightful journey into life via literature. I have read about 60% of the works mentioned, and feel compelled to read the other authors. Weinstein's book gives insight into the work of many different writers. I found Weinstein's jumping back and forth into life stages in the flow of the story to be irritating and confusing, at times. A book I plan to reread when I am not as rushed to finish reading.

In Part II of this lecture series on American fiction, Arnold Weinstein focuses on three major novelists -- F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and Zora Neale Hurston. The first two authors are (according to Weinstein) seldom taught in US universities in an ideological age focused on issues of issues of gender, race, and class. Weinstein makes a strong case for their position in the literary canon, noting (for example) of Faulkner that he is quite critical of the racism he depicts, and that Fitzgerald is in some ways unequalled in American literature. Hurston is a more widely - taught writer. Although her writing in the 1930s was strongly criticized by (among others) African - American intellectuals and soon was forgotten, her work was rediscovered in the 1970s, in the heyday of resurgent feminism.

In the first three of the eight 30-minute lectures, Weinstein analyzes Fitzgerald's novel Tender is the Night, a work that he argues has not been nearly as widely read or appreciated as it deserves. Lecture 4 summarizes Faulkner's writing career, and then (through Lectures 5 and 6) focuses on one of his most acccessible novels, Light in August. The last two lectures (7 and 8) explore Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God.

As with Part I of this series, this collection succeeds in introducing the listener to the sort of perspective to be gained in a university course with an eminent, well- practiced lecturer. Weinstein is an eloquent and engaging speaker, and his passion for his subject is impressive. Having previous read both Light in August (which I liked) and Tender is the Night (which left me entirely indifferent), I was glad to gain benefits of an expert's insights into the major themes and significance of each of these two works. Likewise, I appreciated learning something about Hurston's writing, although I now have no inclination to explore it any further. Listening to these lectures makes clear that there is much to be said for each of the works discussed, and much more than immediately meets the eye and mind. On the other hand, I came away from the lectures with little in terms of easily- articulated viewpoints or descriptions. Most likely, that's my own failing; or perhaps a lecture listened to while driving isn't easily translatable into simple take- home messages. Fortunately, the tape collection comes with a 44 page booklet that outlines the lectures, with supplementary information on the authors and suggestions for further reading.

In this selection from The Great Courses series, Prof. Arnold Weinstein (Brown University, USA) explores great fiction of the 20th century by US writers. Volume 1 (of the four - volume set) consists of eight 30-minute lectures on audiotape (as listed at the end of this review). Also included is a 38 page booklet with outlines of each lecture, a glossary of literary terms, biographical sketches of the writers, and a bibliography of suggested readings. Works of Ernest Hemingway and Sherwood Anderson are prominently represented in this volume, and the novels of many other writers are touched upon: Melville, Hawthorne, Faulkner, Twain, Fitzgerald, Poe, and Vonnegut (among others). Writers of the latter group are considered in more detail in other volumes of this series.

One overarching aspect explored in Volume 1 is the issue of what are the characteristic features of US (i.e. "American") fiction of the past century. Weinstein makes a strong case for the emphasis on freedom and individualism, in contrast to the hierarchical arrangements of society so evident in 19th century European fiction. He traces such themes to 19th century works by Walt Whitman and Ralph Waldo Emerson. Lest one think that he has overlooked the restriction of such freedoms to "white" males, he explores in subsequent volumes of the series the expansion of such freedoms across barriers of race, gender, and class, as the evolution of US society was mirrored in its fiction. Among the writers whose work that Weinstein explores in Volume 1 are some which receive relatively little attention in the academy today, and works that he believes deserve to be read, understood, explored, and taught. Sherwood Anderson's classic Winesburg, Ohio is a case in point, as well as Hemingway's works, which (in his view) are often avoided due to depiction of gender roles and values that are now greatly outmoded.

Listening to this lecture series was quite like sitting in a lecture in a university class (as intended by the publisher). Weinstein is clear, articulate, and passionate. His ideas range freely across the literary landscape, and he illustrates his points by reading excerpts from the works in question. Frequently he calls particular attention to a writer's choice of language, or he rereads a choice phrase so that his listeners fully grasp a point. His lectures are semi- conversational in tone, with inflection and eloquence. I found that listening was an easy way to understand their content. Further, I came away from the experience with a greater appreciation for works that I'd liked (Winesburg, Ohio) and an inclination to explore writers whom I'd avoided (Hawthorne, Hemingway).

Below are listed the 8 lectures in Volume 1:

1. American Fiction and the Individualist Creed
2. The American Self -- Ghost in Disguise
3. What Produces "Nobody"?
4. Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio
5. Winesburg -- A New American Prose - Poetry
6. Hemingway -- Journalist, Writer, Legend
7. Hemingway as Trauma Artist
8. Hemingway's Cunning Art

Aside from the opening essay, this is the type of book that's best sampled in small pieces. There is just so much here about the impact of literature on the everyday life that it would be difficult to take it all in at once.

Post likes this too. I like books about books, but do I really need more of them?

Cait says this might also help with Ulysses.