Roughly 90 pages into a new and much-anticipated work of literary criticism, I finally gave up. The wonder is that I made it that far. The prose is leaden, the analysis uninspired, and the supporting points so obvious they would not be out of place in an undergraduate research paper. This book, though, was written by a distinguished senior scholar and published by a reputable university press; it has been very well reviewed and I had been looking forward to reading it for some time. I slogged through the first insipid half of the book hoping for more meat later on, but then I encountered this passage:
"Morrison's exploration of desire in Jazz reaches its climax at the midpoint of the story when spring arrives in Harlem. This timing strikes the reader as natural and spontaneous because spring in the Northern Hemisphere brings renewal of life on Earth. For young and old Harlemites, spring--perhaps a season of emotion just as autumn is a season of intellect--stimulates one's latent desire."
Then, just in case thick-headed readers have somehow failed to absord the spring = renewal = desire equation, the author adds a paragraph summarizing other literary works that have made the same connection. T.S. Eliot, for instance, in case you hadn't heard, calls April "the cruellest month" but also emphasizes spring's fecundity, while Henry James sends Chad Newsome and Mme de Vionnet out on a boat in--you guessed it--spring!
What we have here is a distinguished scholar telling us that spring is the time when a young man's fancy turns to love, and a young woman's too. Oddly enough, I didn't need to read an expensive hardback book to discover that insight.
But maybe you do. If so, I'd be happy to sell you my copy.
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