How Fiction Works — with James Wood

 

 James Wood [30:32m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

James Wood (photo credit: Cade Martin)

James Wood, the sincere, somewhat old-fashioned, unpretentious yet high-minded New Yorker literary critic, spoke at the Harvard Book Store recently about his new book, How Fiction Works.
Click here: to listen (30 minutes).
Also… ThoughtCast will be interviewing Wood shortly – hooray! – and we’re interested in your input! We’d like to discuss, among other topics, different kinds of literary creativity. What makes a great critic, rather than, say, a great novelist, or poet? What does the critic look for? How personal is the art of criticism, and how much a matter of taste – or instinct? Just how ‘creative’ is it?

Please add your thoughts in the comments section below, or email them to feedback at thoughtcast dot org!

Talks@Harvard Book Store Series Table of Contents

• Getrude Stein, Alice B. Toklas & Janet Malcolm!
• Jonah Lehrer on Emotional Hijacking and “How We Decide”
• How Fiction Works — with James Wood
• Harvard Book Store author talks: David Ferry
• Harvard Book Store author talks: Carol Bundy
• Harvard Book Store author talks: Kevin Smokler
• Harvard Book Store author talks: Alan Dershowitz
• Public Media Maverick Jay Allison

Tags: how fiction works, james wood, jenny attiyeh, thoughtcast

4 Responses to “How Fiction Works — with James Wood”

1. podcast com James Wood « ieda’s blog Says:
   November 6th, 2008 at 9:41 am

   [...] o site ThoughCast colocou à disposição aqui pra quem quiser [...]

2. Ramesh Nair Says:
   November 7th, 2008 at 2:09 am

   I’m writing from Auckland, New Zealand. Consequently, I’m not privy first hand to the cutthroat jealousies etc of the New York literary scene. There was an exceptionally sardonic review of Woody’s new book in the New York Times. I’ve bought the book, and the review bore scant correspondence to the work. What was going on here, a literary version of Newton’s Third Law of Motion?

3. Helena Says:
   February 24th, 2009 at 11:59 pm

   Spectacular talk, thank you for posting it!

4. Landet som overså Hamsun « S e l v s a g t – Birger Emanuelsen Says:
   October 17th, 2009 at 9:54 am

   [...] er i ferd med å snu. Det viser også Ken Russels artikkel i The Times. Den britiske kritikerens James Woods nye bok How Fiction Works tar også for seg Hamsun, og Wood skriver: ”There is nothing as terrifying in modern fiction as [...]

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