User:Jahsonic/In praise of secondary literature
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About a year ago I asked myself: "What would I rather do tonight, watch a film or read about films?" And unless there was a really worthwhile film to see, I always preferred to read about films. The same goes for literature, most of the time I would rather read about novels than read the novels themselves. Reading books can be very time consuming. A good solution is to see the movie based on the novel (I have recently watched Claude Chabrol's literal interpretation of Madame Bovary featuring Isabelle Huppert and Time Regained (1999)) by Raúl Ruiz. An even better solution is to read about the novels through secondary sources. I have the secondary literature of people such as Colin Wilson, John Carey, Richard Davenport-Hines and Mario Praz in mind.
Richard Davenport-Hines wrote Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin (1999), an excellent introduction to the gothic novel and the gothic sensibility in general.
Colin Wilson has written at least two books on literature: The Outsider (1956) which tackles the issue of outsiderism in literature and The Misfits: A Study of Sexual Outsiders (1988), which tells the story of sexual outsiderism in literature and philosophy.
John Carey has written The Intellectuals and the Masses (1992), which I read in 2006 and in my opinion, this is the best introduction to modernist literature around.
Mario Praz compiled an excellent introduction to Romantic literature with Romantic Agony (1930).
To top it all off, there was 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, the ultimate bluffer's guide to world literature (from an Anglophone perspective).
In literary theory, the primary source is the novel or poem itself; the secondary source is literature about novels or poems. Most of these secondary sources contain citations and quotes from the primary sources.
In film theory, the secondary source is literature about films. And although there are some excellent books around on films, one cannot (as is possible in secondary sources on literature) include excerpts of films in a book. Basically what we are waiting for are DVD-anthologies that include excerpts and scenes of films, combined with textbooks or voice-over comments.
Some very good examples are already on the market. One can think of A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies (1995), although I haven't seen it. Other examples I have seen and were among the better viewing experiences of last year include Baadasssss Cinema - A Bold Look at 70's Blaxploitation Films (2002) about 1970s blaxploitation films, Easy Riders, Raging Bulls (2003) about New Hollywood, Inside Deep Throat (2005) about the making of Deep Throat (1972) including extensive background information on the mores of the times.
So on my whish list for 2007 are more secondary source material in books and DVDs. [May 2006]
See also
