Experiments in Style Special Edition

Featuring a guest post by Yerret Manfreed

In which Terry reveals the answer to last week’s provocation, sneaks in an advert for upgrading to a paid subscription, and hands over the reins to Yerret Manfreed, who provides a review of a recent addition to the world’s literary canon.

Greetings!

First, a quick bit of news: my post, O America, is now open to all. I originally made it available to paid subscribers only, partly because one of the benefits of being a paid subscriber is that you sometimes get to see an article at least a day before anyone else. So if you struggle with delayed gratification, and don’t want to waste time waiting for that to disappear, a paid subscription may be just the thing you need.

Also, I figured that if anyone objected to something I wrote and wished to express their dislike by telling me that I am intellectually challenged, they might as well pay for the privilege.

However, my paying subscribers are a lovely bunch, and thanks to their warm reception of the article I am delighted to subject it to a wider airing.

In the last ‘Experiment’, Top of The Flops, I mentioned that one of the songs featured does actually exist. To my everlasting disappointment, nobody ventured to suggest what it might be. Here is the answer: Medicine Woman, by Robert Finley.

But enough of this persiflage! Let’s get on with today’s ‘experiment’.

Last week I posted a comment on a post by

Silvio Castelletti

:

I enjoy reading lit crit, but came to the conclusion many decades ago that it's mostly a load of bullshit.

The article was called A Better Writer. The text explores the subjective nature of literary merit, focusing on a writer, Jude, questioning the meaning of "better writer" after a publishing house interaction. Jude's novel, featuring a mailman who burns bad-news letters and encounters a professor claiming to be the elusive author Benno von Archimboldi from Roberto Bolaño's 2666, highlights themes of avoidance and suffering. The publishing house's feedback, while positive, remains vague regarding improvement, leading Jude to question the comparability of authors like Handke and Roth. Jude ultimately concludes that the concept of comparative literary excellence is inherently flawed. The narrative uses this discussion to examine the complexities and ambiguities of judging literary quality.

The author’s name is given only as Jude, so his identity remains obscure. Despite numerous rejections, Jude, being a hardy soul, keeps on trying.

My lit crit comment inspired the ire of the writer Yerret Manfreed, who wrote the following letter to me:

Sir

Your ill-considered diatribe against the noble profession of literary criticism has served only to demonstrate your ignorance of the vital role of the critic. Should you be gracious enough to allow me, Yerret Manfreet, to pen a response for public consumption in your so-called newsletter, the ennui that your no doubt mere handful of readers experience upon perusing each dismal edition cannot fail to be dissipated by my inspiring prose.

I await your response.
I remain, Sir

Yerret Manfreed (motto: Aequitas super omnia)

And so, with no more ado, here is Yerret Manfreed’s review of The Secret Miracle, by Jude.

Book cover of The Secret Miracle

Reviewed by Yerret Manfreed

Drawing on the approaches to novel writing developed by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Haruki Murakami, The Secret Miracle’s central character is able to read the contents of letters without opening them. Suspending our disbelief at the possibility of this, we discover that the story is, in fact, a story within a story within a story.

This framing device, with which we are familiar thanks to The Time Machine by Wells, and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, serves to create a structure rather like the labrynth encountered by Lönnrot in Death and The Compass.

Indeed, the text includes 777 lexies and two codes, the proairetic and, of greater importance for the present purpose, the hermeneutic.

Whether or not Barthes would have approved of this extension of the life of the author is a moot point.

At some point, the professor disappears, which calls to our attention the way Webster treats his characters in The White Devil — though mercifully without the implied (and occasionally explicit) murders.

Given that the structure of the book is reminiscent of that of Calvino’s Invisible Cities, some have accused Jude of plagiarism. However, Jude has successfully argued that, as a member of the Oulipo, it was, rather, Calvino who was at fault because of his anticipatory plagiarism.

The question remains, is the actual writing any good? While the treatment may well have been more enchanting in the hands of a better writer, The Secret Miracle is an important contribution to the structuralism vs post-structuralism debate, and as such demands further exploration.

Terry here again. That was Yerret Manfreed proving the case that literary criticism is not a potage of persiflage after all.

If you have enjoyed this, you may be interested in reading the other experiments published so far in this series: Experiments in Style Index.

Please do leave a comment. And don’t forget to read my love letter to America which is now open to all.

Thank you for reading!