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a belated obit for john updike
Feb. 20th, 2009 08:08 pmI missed his actual death, didn't hear about it until someone else told me. I never read any of his books and I doubt I'd like 'em because I doubt I'd like his famous Main Character Type (the white Anglo-Saxon protestant middle-American male, Rabbit) and I made a post snarking about his Widows of Eastwick a few months ago. But I really appreciate some of the things he says:
“I like middles,” he continued. “It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules.”
“Hemingway described literary New York as a bottle full of tapeworms trying to feed on each other. When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas."
If it was only a little to the north of Kansas...
From Colin Blakely's description of his "Somewhere in Middle America" set:
"It is about a group of people living quite literally in Middle America- geographically, economically, politically- at a time when our notions concerning what this means are quickly changing. Having shunned the constant call of the “suburbs,” we live in a small neighborhood close to downtown. Here, the passing of time is defined as much by the rituals we collectively participate in as by the months on a calendar. This work is a celebration of and possibly a eulogy to our way of life."
“I like middles,” he continued. “It is in middles that extremes clash, where ambiguity restlessly rules.”
“Hemingway described literary New York as a bottle full of tapeworms trying to feed on each other. When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas."
If it was only a little to the north of Kansas...
From Colin Blakely's description of his "Somewhere in Middle America" set:
"It is about a group of people living quite literally in Middle America- geographically, economically, politically- at a time when our notions concerning what this means are quickly changing. Having shunned the constant call of the “suburbs,” we live in a small neighborhood close to downtown. Here, the passing of time is defined as much by the rituals we collectively participate in as by the months on a calendar. This work is a celebration of and possibly a eulogy to our way of life."
