War of the Words : 20 Years of Writing on Contemporary Literature

by Press, Joy

• ISBN13: 9780609808535
• ISBN10: 0609808532
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2001-10-01
• Publisher: Three Rivers Press

Summary

The Village Voice Literary Supplement Twenty Years of: Blasting the Canon Relocating the Cutting Edge Resurrecting the Forgotten * Albert Mobilio on Gertrude Stein * David Foster Wallace on Feodor Dostoevsky * Henry Louis Gates on Langston Hughes * Blanche McCrary Boyd on Katherine Anne Porter * Paul Elie on John Cheever * Bharati Mukherjee on Salman Rushdie * Andrew O'Hagan on Don DeLillo * Michele Wallace on Zora Neale Hurston * Erik Davis on Philip K. Dick * Gary Indiana on Thomas Bernhard * Greg Tate on Samuel Delany * Edmund White on Djuna Barnes * Joe Wood on Albert Murray * Darcey Steinke on William Goyen * Rick Moody on Angela Carter * Walter Kendrick on the Freud Backlash * Ellen Willis on Angela Davis, bell hooks, and Black Feminism * Richard Goldstein on Plague Literature in the Age of AIDS * Thulani Davis on Buppie Writers * Michael B?rub? on Postmodernism * Michael Warner on Queer Theory * Scott L. Malcomson on Whiteness and Anthropology * Lynne Tillman on the Future of Fiction * Dorothy Allison on Anne Rice * Lisa Jones on Black Romance Novels * Geoffrey O'Brien on Classic Comics * Hilton Als on Sammy Davis, Jr. * Greil Marcus on Situationism * Guy Trebay on the Warhol Diaries * Vince Aletti on Physique Magazines * Jonathan Lethem on Science Fiction's Lost Promise * Paul Berman on The Pentagon Catalog * Mark Dery on Apocalypse Culture * Peter Schjeldahl on Dennis Cooper * C. Carr on Kathy Acker * Stacy D'Erasmo on Mary Gaitskill * David Shields on Nicholson Baker * Katherine Dieckmann on Lorrie Moore * Jeff Yang on Chang-Rae Lee * Richard B. Woodward on Jonathan Lethem A forum for writers who want to test the boundaries of the traditional book review, theVoice Literary Supplementis smart, iconoclastic, and accessible literary and cultural criticism at its best. In a collection of some of the finest pieces culled from the last twenty years,War of the Wordspreserves the flavor of this revolutionary magazine and will introduce a whole new generation of readers to the riskiness, urgency, and fun that has always characterized theVLS.

Table of Contents

Introduction	vii
Joy Press
A Short but Sweet Oral History of The VLS	x
ONE Writers Reconsidered: New Takes on the Old Guard	1	(70)
Albert Mobilio on Gertrude Stein	3	(14)
David Foster Wallace on Feodor Dostoevsky	17	(13)
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Langston Hughes	30	(13)
Blanche McCrary Boyd on Katherine Anne Porter	43	(7)
Paul Elie on John Cheever	50	(3)
Bharati Mukherjee on Salman Rushdie	53	(11)
Andrew O'Hagan on Don DeLillo	64	(7)
TWO Rescue Me: Snatching Writers from the Dustbin of History	71	(64)
Michele Wallace on Zora Neale Hurston	73	(11)
Erik Davis on Philip K. Dick	84	(5)
Gary Indiana on Thomas Bernhard	89	(7)
Greg Tate on Samuel Delany	96	(7)
Edmund White on Djuna Barnes	103	(7)
Darcey Steinke on William Goyen	110	(3)
Joe Wood on Albert Murray	113	(16)
Rick Moody on Angela Carter	129	(6)
THREE Signs of the Times: Capturing a Cultural Moment	135	(88)
Walter Kendrick on the Freud Backlash	137	(15)
Ellen Willis on Angela Davis, bell hooks, and Black Feminism	152	(14)
Richard Goldstein on Plague Literature in the Age of AIDS	166	(10)
Thulani Davis on Buppie Writers	176	(10)
Michael Berube on Postmodernism	186	(14)
Michael Warner on Queer Theory	200	(8)
Scott L. Malcomson on Whiteness and Anthropology	208	(12)
Lynne Tillman on the Future of Fiction	220	(3)
FOUR Pulp Friction: Obsessing over Pop Culture	223	(56)
Dorothy Allison on Anne Rice	225	(7)
Lisa Jones on Black Romance Novels	232	(4)
Geoffrey O'Brien on Classics Comics	236	(4)
Hilton Als on Sammy Davis, Jr.	240	(2)
Greil Marcus on Situationism	242	(17)
Guy Trebay on The Andy Warhol Diaries	259	(7)
Vince Aletti on Physique Magazines	266	(2)
Jonathan Lethem on Science Fiction's Lost Promise	268	(6)
Paul Berman on The Pentagon Catalog	274	(2)
Mark Dery on Apocalypse Culture	276	(3)
FIVE Brave New Wave: Spotlight on Emerging Writers	279	(32)
Peter Schjeldahl on Dennis Cooper	281	(4)
C. Carr on Kathy Acker	285	(7)
Stacey D'Erasmo on Mary Gaitskill	292	(4)
David Shields on Nicholson Baker	296	(4)
Katherine Dieckmann on Lorrie Moore	300	(2)
Jeff Yang on Chang-Rae Lee	302	(5)
Richard B. Woodward on Jonathan Lethem	307	(4)
Acknowledgments	311	(1)
About the Contributors	312	(3)
Permissions	315