July 14th, 2010

New Literary Critic

Yes, I am aware there is another CanLit deba(te/cle) going on right now, and of course I am following it even though I find it depressing. Smart people *are* making astute points, but when it’s criticism of criticism of criticism, I find it hard to believe their efforts aren’t better spend elsewhere.

Thus, I won’t link to it, in case you are as-yet undepressed (I just checked and googling “literary debate canadian” doesn’t bring this one up–it’s mainly Canada Reads, though the first one is about the Salon des Refuses!)

Instead I’ll just share this nice little short-story shout-out from my current most favourite band, The New Pornographers. Since I think AC Newman is a genius, it makes me happy to think he likes the thing I do. And I think he describes it pretty well, too:

You always love short story form
The science behind it, the hidden doors

(from MY Shepherd on the album Togetherness)