{"id":948,"date":"2006-05-11T10:10:02","date_gmt":"2006-05-11T15:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/25-years-huh\/"},"modified":"2006-05-11T10:10:02","modified_gmt":"2006-05-11T15:10:02","slug":"25-years-huh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/25-years-huh","title":{"rendered":"25 years, huh?"},"content":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, I wrote an insanely rambling piece about the crappy state of contemporary literature<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In that post, I mentioned a conversation I had with an NYU prof (Elayne Tobin) and an author\/critic (David Gates) about what novels since 1980 will become “canonical.” We had slim pickings, supporting my thesis that we live in a crap-era for fiction.<\/p>\n

Well, now the NYTimes has asked a “several hundred prominent writers, critics, editors and other literary sages” to name “the single best work of American fiction published in the last 25 years.<\/a>”<\/p>\n

I don’t think my claim is contradicted at all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few months ago, I wrote an insanely rambling piece about the crappy state of contemporary literature. In that post, I mentioned a conversation I had with an NYU prof (Elayne Tobin) and an author\/critic (David Gates) about what novels since 1980 will become “canonical.” We had slim pickings, supporting my thesis that we live … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “25 years, huh?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-fi","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":214,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/war-literature-and-the-arts","url_meta":{"origin":948,"position":0},"title":"War, Literature and the Arts","author":"Gil","date":"April 1, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a magazine of that title, published by the U.S. Air Force Academy. The new book by Paul West that I published last year was just named Editor's Choice in the current issue. I'm proud of that.Reviewer Lt. Col. James M. Meredith writes, \"Paul West's fiction stunningly and perpetually deals\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7218,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-readercon-2013-monsters-memories-and-mythmaking","url_meta":{"origin":948,"position":1},"title":"Podcast: Readercon 2013 – Monsters, Memories and Mythmaking","author":"Gil","date":"August 3, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 16 - Readercon - Monsters, Memories and Mythmaking \"Readercon focuses on the literature. And the people who come here are really smart. They take science fiction and fantasy seriously as literature. It's always interesting to be on panels. 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Evidently, The\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11912,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-297-shachar-pinsker","url_meta":{"origin":948,"position":4},"title":"Episode 297 – Shachar Pinsker","author":"Gil","date":"November 25, 2018","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 297: Shachar Pinsker \"This is the story of Jewish migration through the lens of coffeehouses.\" Jews have a long tradition with coffee (I can attest!). In A Rich Brew: How Caf\u00e9s Created Modern Jewish Culture (NYU Press), Professor Shachar Pinsker explores the intersection of modernistic Hebrew literature\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Coffee"","block_context":{"text":"Coffee","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/coffee"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0825.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0825.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0825.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0825.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/IMG_0825.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6960,"url":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/podcast-the-importance-of-being-out","url_meta":{"origin":948,"position":5},"title":"Podcast: The Importance of Being Out","author":"Gil","date":"March 30, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Virtual Memories - season 3 episode 7 - The Importance of Being Out It's time for the first double-episode of the season! \"To me, there are two types of YA: one is fiction written with the kid in mind, and the other is where the characters happen to be that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=voyantpublishing&l=as2&o=1&a=B002SQJL9U","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}