Fiction Gutted: The Establishment and the Novel

The vacuity and unintended irony of prominent critic James Wood's admonishing novelists immediately post 9-11 is striking: "Surely, for a while, novelists will be leery of setting themselves up as analysts of society, while society bucks and charges so helplessly. Surely they will tread carefully over their generalisations. It is now very easy to look very dated very fast." It certainly is. Society hardly started to "buck and charge" helplessly on 9-11. Both long prior to that moment and from that moment on, particular writers have been explaining accurately the sociopolitical context, current events, and their well-known (to some) old and deep roots.

Special “praise” for Fiction Gutted, by Tony Christini:

“…ill written … extended denunciations…”
-Paul Griffiths, Officer of the Order of the British Empire

“…how dispiriting… Dear, oh dear.”
-Robin Durie, Philospher, Senior Politics Lecturer, University of Exeter

“…a curious piece — pedantic and tone-deaf in equal measure — that moves us forward hardly at all.”
-Mark Thwaite, ReadySteadyBook, Founder, Managing Editor

“A deeply illiterate, though hilarious, piece of nonsense by an author who has clearly stuck his nose into the crazy glue of Marxist lit theory and inhaled deeply. Bravo.” 
-The Arbiters of Style, The Abbeville Manual of Style