All Fields, Big and Small

I'm open to all styles of writing; they all have their time and place. What I was really protesting yesterday was not so much the snarky style of writers like Lorrie Moore or David Foster Wallace; I was protesting something like the lack of humor within that sarcasm. Humor that would break up the monotony of the sarcasm, so to speak. Similarly with Jhumpa Lahiri, I would appreciate a poetic description of something that would break up the earnestness of her focus on the characters and their problems.

They're all very decent writers; I just can't get excited about them. But then, I haven't been truly excited about any contemporary fiction writer.

We need writers who explore a variety of mental and emotional terrains in their writing, and aren't afraid to experiment with style, subject matter and form...overall, I find contemporary fiction writing anything but adventurous. At this crazy, stultified moment in our culture we should throw ourselves open to all fields, big and small--and somehow, as William Carlos Williams put it, "break through to the one word necessary." That's just not happening in much of the fiction-writing I'm reading.