Status
Available
Call number
Publication
McSweeney's (2008), Edition: McSweeney's, 200 pages
Description
A series of linked essays in praise of reading and writing, with subjects running from ghost stories to comic books, Sherlock Holmes to Cormac McCarthy. Throughout, Chabon energetically argues for a return to the thrilling, chilling origins of storytelling, rejecting the false walls around "serious" literature in favor of a wide-ranging affection.
User reviews
LibraryThing member keywestnan
When I was a college student in the 1980s, Michael Chabon's first novel, "The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," came as a huge revelation and a relief. Until then, I had feared that our generation was going to be led by the likes of Bret Easton Ellis and Tama Janowitz. This was not a good feeling.
Reading
Now we have Chabon's first book of nonfiction, a collection of essays in which he comes clean with his real literary love: what is condescendingly called genre fiction, otherwise known as stories people actually want to read.
This is in contrast to the higher brow reading matter that often feels like the literary equivalent of vitamins and wheat germ. You know it's supposed to be good for you, but it's not much fun to take in.
"Maps and Legends" is not a manifesto. It's an essay collection. But it has a common thread running throughout: Chabon's love for the written word and defense of forms that have been dismissed into genre ghettoes not worthy of the attention of our finest writers.
Because this book is a collection of essays written for different occasions and differing publications, it varies quite a bit but it's all pretty easy going down. I liked his essay about golems, but it didn't resonate for me nearly as strongly as his piece about "Norse Gods and Giants" - now known as "D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths" - which Chabon loved as a child. My sister taught me to read from that book and I can still see the illustrations of the cow licking the universe into existence, and the three Norns, who are sort of like fates, spinning strands of yarn that represent human lives. I won't even go into the trickster god Loki and his repellent ship covered in toenail clippings.
Other pieces in "Maps and Legends" point to new reading opportunities currently buried in old anthologies, particularly a ghost story writer named M.R. James, whom Chabon refers to as "the other James." Henry gets all the love now but back in the day it was M.R. who got the readers and Chabon thinks he should get some back. "For the central story of M.R. James ... is ultimately the breathtaking fragility of life, of 'reality,' of all the structures that we have erected to defend ourselves from our constant nagging suspicion that underlying everything is chaos, brutal and unreasoning." That sounds like real literature to me.
As a still-recovering English major I particularly appreciate smart, appreciative, nonturgid literary criticism. I still don't get why anyone wants to spend her life in the field of literary studies merely to tear apart her subject. Chabon not only loves literature, he wants to be read and understood and not just by a few PhDs who have learned a particular incomprehensible ugly jargon. For that, I thank him. And I hope he helps a new generation love their literature without shame. I'm going to do my part by looking up the works of M.R. James.
Reading
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"The Mysteries of Pittsburgh," on the other hand, gave me a very good feeling. It was the same feeling that helped make me an addicted reader in the first place, of not wanting to put a book down, refusing to set it aside for a meal or sleep. Now we have Chabon's first book of nonfiction, a collection of essays in which he comes clean with his real literary love: what is condescendingly called genre fiction, otherwise known as stories people actually want to read.
This is in contrast to the higher brow reading matter that often feels like the literary equivalent of vitamins and wheat germ. You know it's supposed to be good for you, but it's not much fun to take in.
"Maps and Legends" is not a manifesto. It's an essay collection. But it has a common thread running throughout: Chabon's love for the written word and defense of forms that have been dismissed into genre ghettoes not worthy of the attention of our finest writers.
Because this book is a collection of essays written for different occasions and differing publications, it varies quite a bit but it's all pretty easy going down. I liked his essay about golems, but it didn't resonate for me nearly as strongly as his piece about "Norse Gods and Giants" - now known as "D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths" - which Chabon loved as a child. My sister taught me to read from that book and I can still see the illustrations of the cow licking the universe into existence, and the three Norns, who are sort of like fates, spinning strands of yarn that represent human lives. I won't even go into the trickster god Loki and his repellent ship covered in toenail clippings.
Other pieces in "Maps and Legends" point to new reading opportunities currently buried in old anthologies, particularly a ghost story writer named M.R. James, whom Chabon refers to as "the other James." Henry gets all the love now but back in the day it was M.R. who got the readers and Chabon thinks he should get some back. "For the central story of M.R. James ... is ultimately the breathtaking fragility of life, of 'reality,' of all the structures that we have erected to defend ourselves from our constant nagging suspicion that underlying everything is chaos, brutal and unreasoning." That sounds like real literature to me.
As a still-recovering English major I particularly appreciate smart, appreciative, nonturgid literary criticism. I still don't get why anyone wants to spend her life in the field of literary studies merely to tear apart her subject. Chabon not only loves literature, he wants to be read and understood and not just by a few PhDs who have learned a particular incomprehensible ugly jargon. For that, I thank him. And I hope he helps a new generation love their literature without shame. I'm going to do my part by looking up the works of M.R. James.
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LibraryThing member Girl_Detective
Chabon’s writing is challenging in an energizing way, spurring this reader on to further thought, related reading, and flights of fancy. I was reminded of the essays of dear, departed David Foster Wallace–erudite AND entertaining, though Chabon’s book has far fewer footnotes. I’m not sure
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the book would be as entertaining to non-geeks, but I found a great deal to appreciate. Show Less
LibraryThing member delphica
(#11 in the 2009 Book Challenge)
Over the years I've grown so nervous about essays on literature written by authors whose fiction I deeply like, because it can be so disappointing if it doesn't work out. Sometimes when I read them, and realize the author and I have very different viewpoints about
Grade: A
Recommended: He talks about how many of these things impact his own writing process, so excellent for anyone who likes Chabon's novels and would like to know more about their genesis.
Over the years I've grown so nervous about essays on literature written by authors whose fiction I deeply like, because it can be so disappointing if it doesn't work out. Sometimes when I read them, and realize the author and I have very different viewpoints about
Show More
reading and literature, it feels like rejection. Personal rejection. So it was with great nervousness I started this, and right in the introduction, he breaks out with "Like most people who worry about whether it's better to be wrong or pretentious when pronouncing the word 'genre,' I'm always on the lookout for a chance to drop the name of Walter Benjamin." Talk about a kindred spirit moment, I think that myself at least twice a day! Except he was talking about "The Storyteller" and I usually have "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" in mind so you can see I have a totally healthy and normal set of boundaries and won't go off stalking Michael Chabon like a crazed ... well, stalker. Topics of the collected essays include golems, Sherlock Holmes, the His Dark Materials series, Cormac McCarthy, and comic books.Grade: A
Recommended: He talks about how many of these things impact his own writing process, so excellent for anyone who likes Chabon's novels and would like to know more about their genesis.
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LibraryThing member anyanwubutler
Sixteen essays on the nature of Chabon‘s and other genre fictions. The essay on McCarthy‘s The Road, I didn‘t read, as I haven‘t yet read the novel. The cover is one of the best and most unusual I have ever seen: the outside has an ancient Greek ship in teal, alongside a sea monsters. Then
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there‘s a green jungle scene with Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson, a cracked up biplane and Tarzan. Inside that cover is a tan desert scene several ragged adults and a parent, an ill or dead child and a shopping cart, a cowboy on a horse, Napoleon, a golem, and Thor at the top watching it all (on all the covers?) and inside that the hardcover with Michael Chabon‘s name, the “o“ is a sun peaking out over all the covers, with “Maps and Legends” (a cut out from all the other covers) as a big gold ‘X.’ Chabon‘s point, is that genre fiction is just another way to tell stories and as valid, such as it is, as any other fiction. “Imaginary Homelands,” or the ideas that lead to The Yiddish Policemen’s Union came from a Yiddish phrasebook for a country that never existed, where Yiddish is the primary language. In “Trickster in a Suit of Lights; Thoughts on the Modern Short Story” Chabon writes: “Entertainment has a bad name. Serious people learn to mistrust and even to revile it. The word wears spandex, pasties, a leisure suit studded with blinking lights… The brain is an organ of entertainment, sensitive at any depth, and over a wide spectrum. But we have learned to mistrust and despise our human aptitude for being entertained, and in that sense we get the entertainment we deserve. I’d like to believe that, because I read for entertainment, I write to entertain.” Show Less
LibraryThing member zaareth
Chabon's essays on other writers verge on the purple - always a danger with his prose. But once he starts writing about his own works (about half way through) the quality of the work picks up. His essay on superhero costumes is the one exception to this rule - it is quite good.
LibraryThing member LaurieRKing
Essays and insights into one of the most fascinating literary minds of our time.
LibraryThing member livebug
Maps and Legends, by Michael Chabon, whom I love, was excellent, if a little reference-heavy. Happily, I'd read all the books of his own he discusses in these essays, and much of the other literature as well (His Dark Materials and The Road, anyway, and Will Eisner stuff). I found this non-fiction
This should be read solely for the tale of Michael Chabon accidentally pissing off the universe of Yiddish speakers.
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to be very straightforward and clearly written, whereas sometimes I find M.C.'s fictional prose to be a bit dense. Like, for instance, the serialization of Gentlemen of the Road? Come again? I felt like I was just learning English. Not so with this book. I felt perfectly proficient in the language, thank you very much.This should be read solely for the tale of Michael Chabon accidentally pissing off the universe of Yiddish speakers.
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LibraryThing member Asperula
I love Michael Chabon novels, so I had high hopes for this collection of essays. I loved this book best when he wrote about his own evolution as a reader and a writer. The genesis of his works is apparent.
LibraryThing member jasonlf
At their best, these essays are superb. Would particularly cite the opening essay ("Trickster in a Suit of Lights" which focuses on the modern short story, and laments the increased divergence from its roots in ghost stories, adventure stories, and the like) and the closing essay/fiction ("Golems I
In between, many of the essays focus on particular books or authors. When you have read/like them, they can be extremely good (the essay on His Dark Materials is fascinating, describing it as coming from the Christian tradition while most other fantasy is from the Norse), in some cases they serve as a good introduction to an author you may read little or none (e.g., "The Other James" about M.R. James), but in many--especially the ones about comic books I have never read--it is less interesting.
Overall, the goal of the book is to defend genre fiction--and especially comic books--celebrating the "trickster" in literature who entertains with well shaped stories with good plots, interesting characters, and leaving the reader uncertain what is real and what is a trick. And it was successful in achieving this goal.
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Have Known" which seamlessly weaves autobiography with invention to describe Chabon's encounters with three golems that shaped his subsequent life and trajectory, with a particularly richly drawn fraudulent writer/Holocaust survivor).In between, many of the essays focus on particular books or authors. When you have read/like them, they can be extremely good (the essay on His Dark Materials is fascinating, describing it as coming from the Christian tradition while most other fantasy is from the Norse), in some cases they serve as a good introduction to an author you may read little or none (e.g., "The Other James" about M.R. James), but in many--especially the ones about comic books I have never read--it is less interesting.
Overall, the goal of the book is to defend genre fiction--and especially comic books--celebrating the "trickster" in literature who entertains with well shaped stories with good plots, interesting characters, and leaving the reader uncertain what is real and what is a trick. And it was successful in achieving this goal.
Show Less
LibraryThing member LaurieAE
This collection of essays has moments of brilliance...and then some "just good" essays. I especially loved the essay about his childhood in Columbia, Maryland, a planned community much different than the rest of late 1960s - early 1970s America. The essay on Cormac McCarthy is wonderful and made me
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almost want to read another of his works, but I'm not quite convinced. I do want to read the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Pullman. Overall, I am very glad that I read this work. Show Less
LibraryThing member simchaboston
There's no denying that Michael Chabon cares very deeply about literature in general and genre fiction in particular, and his enthusiasm for storytelling is contagious. However, I have to admit that I didn't connect with some of the pieces, having never read anything by Cormac McCarthy, Will
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Eisner, etc. -- which I admit is my fault, not Chabon's. However, it would have behooved Chabon to recognize that not everyone would know the authors he was extolling/critiquing, and only the pieces about Arthur Conan Doyle, Philip Pullman and M.R. James are long enough to give non-fans a real sense of those writers' qualities. His more general essays about fiction are fine, but my favorites are the autobiographical pieces, as those gave some real insights into his background and favorite themes, and also tend to be more revealing and funnier (along the lines of his later collection "Manhood for Amateurs"). Show Less
LibraryThing member jawalter
Not all of this was new to me, but I've got somewhat of a soft spot for Chabon's ruminations on genre fiction. The man makes a good argument about how foolish it is that some writing can be considered Literature, while other writing is condemned to be thought of as little more than a childish
Nevertheless, he feels a bit like a mad prophet shouting in the desert. Capital-L Literature ain't going nowhere.
As the book proceeds, the essays become more and more personal, as Chabon comments on his own writing, fears, hopes, and dreams. At times, this seems to stretch the boundaries of his self-defined "Maps and Legends" framework (intentionally, perhaps?), but it also renders the book more effective and affecting.
The essays are all pretty short, which does offer the advantage of keeping the author from belaboring his points overmuch, but at the same time, I would have liked him to comment in more detail on some of his thoughts.
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diversion, merely because of the subject matter.Nevertheless, he feels a bit like a mad prophet shouting in the desert. Capital-L Literature ain't going nowhere.
As the book proceeds, the essays become more and more personal, as Chabon comments on his own writing, fears, hopes, and dreams. At times, this seems to stretch the boundaries of his self-defined "Maps and Legends" framework (intentionally, perhaps?), but it also renders the book more effective and affecting.
The essays are all pretty short, which does offer the advantage of keeping the author from belaboring his points overmuch, but at the same time, I would have liked him to comment in more detail on some of his thoughts.
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LibraryThing member Gregorio_Roth
(A Short Review for a great book.) Great Read. Chabon an explorer of all genres of fiction, a great story teller, shares his map to Fictional Worlds: "It is along the knife border land between these two kingdoms, between the Empire of lies and the Republic of truth, more than any frontier on the
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map of existence, that Trickster makes his Wandering way, and either comes to grief or finds his supper, his treasure, his fate." 222 Show Less
LibraryThing member Cheryl_in_CC_NV
We've got a kind of 'doth protest too much' thing going on here. Chabon claims to be writing simply to entertain, but his essays and novels are filled with literary allusions and philosophical stratagems. I only managed to get through two of these, though I skimmed most of the rest. I did not feel
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enriched, nor as if there was anything truly illuminating or even all that evocative here. I'll continue reading him, as I've loved some of his other works. But I won't expect to be pleased with every one of them. Sorry. Show Less
LibraryThing member bookwyrmm
Chabon's essays on writing - both his and others' - shows a deep fascination with golems and comic books
LibraryThing member SESchend
Great book of essays made all the more wonderful by an incredibly artistic triplicate dust jacket.
LibraryThing member john.cooper
Interesting opinions and baffling appreciations, collected mostly from magazine pieces. The autobiographical pieces are sure to be interesting to those curious about how Chabon got his start, and his takes on Philip Pullman and Cormac McCarthy are well-argued and stimulating. On the other hand, his
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paean to the cartoonist Howard Chaykin seems entirely unjustified on the basis of the one page of Chaykin material supplied here, and there are times when he comes off as more than a little smug in his intellectual self-assurance. A mixed bag. Show Less
LibraryThing member nosajeel
At their best, these essays are superb. Would particularly cite the opening essay ("Trickster in a Suit of Lights" which focuses on the modern short story, and laments the increased divergence from its roots in ghost stories, adventure stories, and the like) and the closing essay/fiction ("Golems I
In between, many of the essays focus on particular books or authors. When you have read/like them, they can be extremely good (the essay on His Dark Materials is fascinating, describing it as coming from the Christian tradition while most other fantasy is from the Norse), in some cases they serve as a good introduction to an author you may read little or none (e.g., "The Other James" about M.R. James), but in many--especially the ones about comic books I have never read--it is less interesting.
Overall, the goal of the book is to defend genre fiction--and especially comic books--celebrating the "trickster" in literature who entertains with well shaped stories with good plots, interesting characters, and leaving the reader uncertain what is real and what is a trick. And it was successful in achieving this goal.
Show More
Have Known" which seamlessly weaves autobiography with invention to describe Chabon's encounters with three golems that shaped his subsequent life and trajectory, with a particularly richly drawn fraudulent writer/Holocaust survivor).In between, many of the essays focus on particular books or authors. When you have read/like them, they can be extremely good (the essay on His Dark Materials is fascinating, describing it as coming from the Christian tradition while most other fantasy is from the Norse), in some cases they serve as a good introduction to an author you may read little or none (e.g., "The Other James" about M.R. James), but in many--especially the ones about comic books I have never read--it is less interesting.
Overall, the goal of the book is to defend genre fiction--and especially comic books--celebrating the "trickster" in literature who entertains with well shaped stories with good plots, interesting characters, and leaving the reader uncertain what is real and what is a trick. And it was successful in achieving this goal.
Show Less
LibraryThing member wjohnston
A nice little collection of nonfiction from Chabon, including some autobiographical, reviews, thoughts on writing, and thoughts on genre.
LibraryThing member Ranjr
I came to this book thinking there would be a little more analysis, there was none. He starts with the reason we read, listen to music, watch movies, and tell stories: for entertainment. Entertainment that is a necessary and inescapable part of the human condition even if it is masked with ironic
Most of the essays read as ‘I like this’ and goes on unanalytically about how he first experienced it and what he has since gleaned from the experience since but in a very well-written and entertaining way. He also talked about how sometimes his entertainments (comics, YA books, etc.) and stories told to him tied into his work as a writer on occasion.
I did enjoy the book. It was a smooth read all the way through with the last essay being my favorite, Golems I have Known. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with a passing interest in comics, short and pulp fiction, and golems or for just the sheer entertainment value.
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enjoyment. The fences that separate high brow, low brow, and even pop simply don't exist. It is all entertainment and someone can find joy in it if not any kind of meaning, deep or otherwise.Most of the essays read as ‘I like this’ and goes on unanalytically about how he first experienced it and what he has since gleaned from the experience since but in a very well-written and entertaining way. He also talked about how sometimes his entertainments (comics, YA books, etc.) and stories told to him tied into his work as a writer on occasion.
I did enjoy the book. It was a smooth read all the way through with the last essay being my favorite, Golems I have Known. I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with a passing interest in comics, short and pulp fiction, and golems or for just the sheer entertainment value.
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2008-05-01
Physical description
200 p.; 8.75 inches
ISBN
1932416897 / 9781932416893