Sign in with Facebook
Loading...
137th out of 738 books
—
374 voters
The Ecstasy of Influence: Nonfictions, Etc.
What’s a novelist supposed to do with contemporary culture? And what’s contemporary culture supposed to do with novelists? In The Ecstasy of Influence, Jonathan Lethem, tangling with what he calls the “white elephant” role of the writer as public intellectual, arrives at an astonishing range of answers.
A constellation of previously published pieces and new essays as pro...more
A constellation of previously published pieces and new essays as pro...more
Hardcover, 464 pages
Published
November 8th 2011
by Doubleday
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
1,923)
This book sparked a few different emotions in me. Some of them good, like a reminder about why I love books so much, and some not so 'nice', like the recharging of the 'punk' part of me that used to write zines and point accusatory fingers at things that annoy me. Many of the essays in this book mix the borders between the personal and the real subject at hand. This is sort of like what DFW does so well (but in a more introspective manner, DFW might have laid bare an image of his psyche, but he...more
29 likes · like · see review
view all 41 comments
Uneven, but worthwhile. Some of this is excellent, and there are some marvelous phrases. When he's talking about books, bookstores, movies...he's great. The prose gets a bit dense in places, but it's rewarding.
But some pieces really don't work. The music writing is as tedious as most music writing; I confess I started skipping, and I rarely do that. All I could think was the Billy Joel line, "You can't get the sound/from the story in a magazine"--and when Billy Joel's lyrics are more insightful...more
But some pieces really don't work. The music writing is as tedious as most music writing; I confess I started skipping, and I rarely do that. All I could think was the Billy Joel line, "You can't get the sound/from the story in a magazine"--and when Billy Joel's lyrics are more insightful...more
I do like these types of books which preport to be more than just a collection of writings by an author in between his novels. I would like to think they are more than just a jaded way of cashing in on a writer's reputation to sell books. My favorite and standard is Jonathon Franzen's How to Be Alone which I truly loved. This book however isn't of that quality. I don't know why I turned to it, his last book Chronic City I did find disappointing, it never really took off in my opinion. I did feel...more
Lethem calls this “an autobiographical montage”, The title comes from an ingenious and infamous essay he wrote in defense of plagiarism in Harpers, consisting entirely of appropriated text and stories. This book is a massive compendium of Lethem’s fanboy obsessions, critical reviews, book introductions, recommendations, and opinions, combined with his memoirs and autobiographical writings, as well as stories that he keeps coming back to throughout his career. He pays tribute to his favorite essa...more
THE ECSTASY OF INFLUENCE: nonfictions, etc. (2011). Jonathan Letham. ****.
This is a collection of previously (mostly) published pieces by novelist Letham, comprising book reviews, movie reviews and editorial pieces. If you haven’t read Letham, you should. Once, by dumb chance, I was in a book store where this young man was signing what was his first novel. It sounded different and just a little outre and I bought a copy. This was my discovery of Letham and his novel, “Gun, With Occasional Music...more
This is a collection of previously (mostly) published pieces by novelist Letham, comprising book reviews, movie reviews and editorial pieces. If you haven’t read Letham, you should. Once, by dumb chance, I was in a book store where this young man was signing what was his first novel. It sounded different and just a little outre and I bought a copy. This was my discovery of Letham and his novel, “Gun, With Occasional Music...more
I devoured this fairly long collection in two days of doing little other than restlessly reading these essays and rereading select passages, armed with a leaky ballpoint pen to underline the many fascinating sections, the names I sort of knew but hadn't gotten around to exploring, the many endearingly awkward sentences.
The experience of reading The Ecstasy of Influence was pretty much the Platonic ideal of reading an essay collection. It's not that the book is perfect, and it's certainly not th...more
The experience of reading The Ecstasy of Influence was pretty much the Platonic ideal of reading an essay collection. It's not that the book is perfect, and it's certainly not th...more
I am a huge fan of Jonathan Lethem's writing. I wrote my master's thesis on The Fortress of Solitude and plan to dedicate a sizable portion of a dissertation chapter to it as well.
That being said, while Lethem's writing here is generally as strong and thoughtfully self-conscious as I like, I think the very format of the book—a bunch of essays and short pieces from a variety of sources—makes for a very uneven collection.
Full disclosure: While I read about 80% of what is in here, I did not read ev...more
That being said, while Lethem's writing here is generally as strong and thoughtfully self-conscious as I like, I think the very format of the book—a bunch of essays and short pieces from a variety of sources—makes for a very uneven collection.
Full disclosure: While I read about 80% of what is in here, I did not read ev...more
Lethem states in the beginning that often readers get irritated by the self awareness of modern writing. The endless MFA analysing and theorizing about literature is why I didn't major in English lit. While a little navel gazing isn't out of place when reading, the whole "postmodernism" - analysis of analysis of analysis of uber self awareness - the insertion of the author's narcissistic tendencies into the book, if you will - makes me want to spork myself in the eye. Anyway, a couple of good th...more
For me, Jonathan Lethem is very hit or miss. When he sucks me in, I LOVE it. No one I've read can top Lethem's sense of synthesizing different areas of thought in his best pieces. Whether that be literal with the piece herein regarding plagiarism, copyright and theft, or in a strange topical journey through a traffic jam that lasts for days, Lethem shows the depth of his intellectual resources. Which is exactly what leaves me wanting more (or more accurately, less) from some of the pieces that f...more
I came to this book via a suggested reading page in another book, How to Steal Like an Artist, and mistakenly thought that the entire thing might be about people who influenced Jonathan Lentham. In fact, The Ecstasy of Influence is a collection of nonfiction essays about literature, visual art, music and pop culture in general, as well as a couple short stories thrown in for good measure. Lentham is a provocative writer, sometimes serious, sometimes funny, occasionally puzzling to me. The title...more
2011. Non-faction, essays, liner notes, book intros, stories, segues. Jonathem Lethem all the way. Post-modernism is the word. An essayist tiptoes into memoir via (mainly) previously published pieces.
I see below that reviews are mixed for this work in book form. I bought it because the professional(?) reviews on-air and in print rhapsodized over Lethem the novelist, the post-modern essayist, and one reviewer in particular seemed to catch a glimpse of heaven because Lethem apparently swore off no...more
I see below that reviews are mixed for this work in book form. I bought it because the professional(?) reviews on-air and in print rhapsodized over Lethem the novelist, the post-modern essayist, and one reviewer in particular seemed to catch a glimpse of heaven because Lethem apparently swore off no...more
As should probably be expected from a 450-ish page collection of mostly pretty short essays, the quality in this book varied. The title essay, "The Ecstasy of Influence" (it's available online) is a fantastic exploration of plagiarism/influence and hypocrisy, and I found almost all of Lethem's essays on books enjoyable. The stuff about his time as a bookstore clerk confirmed my long-held fear that bookstore clerks really are as judgmental as they seem. The sci-fi and postmodernism stuff was inte...more
I'm not sure why I read this? I mean, ok, there are two reasons why I read it: 1) Because he's writing a book for the 33 1/3 series about Talking Heads' Fear of Music, and 2) Because I watched a bonus feature on the Criterion edition of Bigger Than Life of him talking about the film and really liked what he had to say. However, I haven't read any of his books, which, though only occasionally addressed specifically, hover in the background of this entire endeavor. I read almost the whole thing -...more
I'm posting this same review to Arguably, by Christopher Hitchens.
Because, in a way, I'm cheating a little with this book and Hitchens, since I have not read every word of either. Indeed, trying to do so strikes me as a weird and almost impossible task, since both volumes collect miscellaneous writing over the span of decades. I mean, you can just have too much of one person, talking about pretty much anything that strikes their fancy, all at once.
Having said that, I'll then say that I've liked...more
Because, in a way, I'm cheating a little with this book and Hitchens, since I have not read every word of either. Indeed, trying to do so strikes me as a weird and almost impossible task, since both volumes collect miscellaneous writing over the span of decades. I mean, you can just have too much of one person, talking about pretty much anything that strikes their fancy, all at once.
Having said that, I'll then say that I've liked...more
Lethem describes this volume as a "commonplace" book, and it is indeed a collection of large and small essays, reviews, commentary, and journalism. It should be of interest to anyone who wants to see one of the better writers of the current generation navigate the tough contemporary literary landscape.
One reason Lethem is more successful than the rest of us is that he has learned to leverage every aspect of his life and experiences into published writing, some noteworthy, others ephemera. Whethe...more
One reason Lethem is more successful than the rest of us is that he has learned to leverage every aspect of his life and experiences into published writing, some noteworthy, others ephemera. Whethe...more
Lethem is a good writer, no doubt about it. And very smart. And many of the topics he is interested in overlap with things I am interested in, and I enjoyed reading his thoughts on those topics. Other topics that he is interested in are things that I don't really care about -- not to mention that I can only take so many fond reminiscences of growing up in Brooklyn -- and there were essays in this book that I found dull or annoying. But I suppose this is to be expected in a giant book of essays o...more
Lethem's boundless self-obsession and whiningly persistent neediness make this collection impossible to get through, despite the presence of an occasionally decent essay. But the guy's total narcissism just creeps you out after a while. Doesn't he have any friends? Or a decent literary agent? Someone to point out to him that the world might not have been thirsting for his pompously self-important post 9/11 musings, or his pathetic extended whine in response to a negative review by James Woods? O...more
8 likes · like · see review
Lethem divides his collection into ten sections: My Plan To Begin With; Dick, Calvino, Ballard: SF and Postmodernism; Plagiarisms; Film and Comics; Wall Art; 9/11 and Book Tour; Dylan, Brown, and Others; Working the Room; The Mad Brooklynite; and What Remains of My Plan. In addition to the usual sources or original publication--Salon, the New Yorker, various literary magazines--some of the pieces here were written for artists' catalogs, CD liner notes, and blogs.
The best known essay here might b...more
The best known essay here might b...more
3 likes · like · see review
As a teacher, I’m not sure that I’d discuss Lethem’s title essay with any students of my own below the graduate level, since some might see it as an invitation to plagiarize. At the high school and undergraduate level, it’s so important to draw a clear distinction between what’s ok to do and what’s not ok, especially knowing you’ll have to stand by exactly what you said about that distinction if you have to fail someone because he or she plagiarized. But once we get beyond the necessity for that...more
There aren't many authors that can hook me on the first page, much less the preface, much less by writing the truth. It seems to be that I only read nonfiction books if I need information or examples for something I'm writing. This is the exception.
"The Ecstasy of Influence" is one of those books that may be a turning point in life for the reader. I don't know if this is so yet; get back to me in a month.
But Jon Lethem seems to understand that readers first want to be entertained, then told the...more
"The Ecstasy of Influence" is one of those books that may be a turning point in life for the reader. I don't know if this is so yet; get back to me in a month.
But Jon Lethem seems to understand that readers first want to be entertained, then told the...more
Picked this up just to keep the high going after PKD's Exegesis but he had me with the first line of the first essay, "I came from dropping out; the only thing I knew at the start was to quit before they could fire me."
He's not afraid to leave the slapdash bad ones in here and address that, yes, sometimes there are bad ones and (even better) sometimes you have to leave them in there to fulfill a contractual agreement you signed before you knew better. Yes, sometimes we don't know better. It's br...more
He's not afraid to leave the slapdash bad ones in here and address that, yes, sometimes there are bad ones and (even better) sometimes you have to leave them in there to fulfill a contractual agreement you signed before you knew better. Yes, sometimes we don't know better. It's br...more
Apr 24, 2013
Mircalla64 (free Liu Xiaobo)
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
postmoderni
"negoziando la propria individualità in un mondo di altri sé"
"Quello che trovo deprimente è che puoi pagare per avere il tuo lurido nome assegnato a una stella o a un cratere sulla luna che non ti hanno fatto mai niente di male e nemmeno hanno mai voltato lo sguardo nella tua direzione"
"Sotto il tiro incrociato su simboli avulsi dalla nostra identità quotidiana quanto può esserlo una vignetta danese per un iraniano, immagino che ognuno di noi saprebbe elencare alcune delle cose che giacciono tra...more
"Quello che trovo deprimente è che puoi pagare per avere il tuo lurido nome assegnato a una stella o a un cratere sulla luna che non ti hanno fatto mai niente di male e nemmeno hanno mai voltato lo sguardo nella tua direzione"
"Sotto il tiro incrociato su simboli avulsi dalla nostra identità quotidiana quanto può esserlo una vignetta danese per un iraniano, immagino che ognuno di noi saprebbe elencare alcune delle cose che giacciono tra...more
Jonathan Lethem is a fantastically engrossing writer! I'm not just saying that because he took David Foster Wallace's coveted teaching spot at Pomona College. Nor am I saying it because I loved Motherless Brooklyn. I'm saying it because, as I learned by traversing his NBCC nominated (for criticism) The Ecstasy of Influence, Lethem succeeds in getting you to read and care about topics about which you had no previous interest. And that's the mark of a truly great writer!
I'm actually plagiarizing m...more
I'm actually plagiarizing m...more
"For if we consent that what appears natural in art is actually constructed from a series of hidden postures, decisions, and influences, etc., we make ourselves eligible to weigh the notion that what's taken as natural in our experience of everyday life could actually be a construction as well." (xv)
"Our language has no choice but to be self-conscious if it is to be conscious in the first place." (xix)
"That's how I regard this fate of ours, drowning in a cultural sea: reasons to be cheerful." (x...more
"Our language has no choice but to be self-conscious if it is to be conscious in the first place." (xix)
"That's how I regard this fate of ours, drowning in a cultural sea: reasons to be cheerful." (x...more
In his introduction, Lethem tips his hat to Advertisements for Myself, lamenting that he was dissuaded from calling this similarly shambling, omnivorous collage of his diverse writings (stitched with new reflections) "Advertisements for Norman Mailer." That cue stands as promise or warning--the book rather brilliantly captures the Mailer mode: endlessly curious, frequently so damned incisive (on subjects so varied--the nature of artistic influence, the pleasures of Thomas Berger, Bob Dylan's aes...more
6 likes · like · see review
As Jonathan Lethem is one of my favorite authors, I was happy to read almost 500 pages of memory, reprinted and unpublished articles and to learn what shaped him into the writer he is today. I especially appreciated the delving into Sci-Fi (Philip K. Dick is another of my favorites and there are whole sections about this man). I also liked his discussions and mentions of his contemporaries like Donna Tart, Don DeLillo and others. Very satisfying read and I took away a lot!
In one of these essays, Lethem says that "the completist's heaven is a browser's purgatory." That pretty much describes this book which I've been slowly reading over the course of the last couple of months. The best pieces are smart and fresh, but they are surrounded by others that don't measure up or have the same heft or resonance.
There are several pieces that I'd highly recommend and would return to: the title piece on plagiarism; an essay on the limiting nature of literary Mount Rushmores, o...more
There are several pieces that I'd highly recommend and would return to: the title piece on plagiarism; an essay on the limiting nature of literary Mount Rushmores, o...more
I was truly not too fond of this book. I give it three stars because my admiration of Lethem and (less than real) feeling of connection to him won't let me give it less. It's a hodge podge of essays, most from magazines. Did he have to put them all in this book? It's overlong and uncentered. It's great for him, as a novelist, that he can get paid to write nonfiction too, but it's not all great for me to read. And for the first time I felt that he writes too much about himself. Can't he stick to...more
There were some sketches of Brooklyn which evoked a sense of place as well as any writing about place I've read....
Some of the writing seems to strain for an effect... in contrast to Motherless Brooklyn, which seemed entirely unaffected. Need to read more by him to get a better read. Not really interested in some pop culture foray, however.
Some of the writing seems to strain for an effect... in contrast to Motherless Brooklyn, which seemed entirely unaffected. Need to read more by him to get a better read. Not really interested in some pop culture foray, however.
KOBOBOOKS
Reviewed by The Independent (2 Mar 2012)
Reviewed by The Independent (2 Mar 2012)
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
![[sic] by Joshua Cody](http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1318967835m/10955055.jpg "[sic] by Joshua Cody")
JONATHAN LETHEM is the author of seven novels. A recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship, Lethem has published his stories and essays in The New Yorker, Harpers, Rolling Stone, Esquire, and the New York Times, among others.
More about Jonathan Lethem...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
“In the sea of words, the in print is foam, surf bubbles riding the top. And it's a dark sea, and deep, where divers need lights on their helmets and would perish at the lower depths.”
—
2 people liked it
More quotes…
