Wysock-it. . .oh, wait. . .I used that already.
This is a response to Wysocki’s sticky embrace. Um. . ."Sticky Embrace."
p. 159: Form is itself always a set of structuring principles, with different forms growing out of and reproducing different but specific values.
Nothing specific to say about Wysocki’s argument here, just a sidebar. Many of you know I love House of Leaves. Many of you also know I love Moby-Dick. What interests me about these texts is the way they play with the conventions of the novel, in ways similarly reflected in Hopscotch, Vas: An Opera in Flatland, Pale Fire, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, Deception, If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller. . .several others. I think form is very important but doesn’t always get addressed in criticism; too often, as Wysocki/Sirc/Johnson-Eilola observe, form gets taken for granted. One of the projects that interests me, then, is studying more exactly how form and content relate. I understand this isn’t really a revolution since many scholars are now addressing this question, but I find it of interest to note that the idea of playing with these conventions of textual form, though gaining new attention in light of new media theories, aren’t really that new in and of themselves. The new part, perhaps, is in asking how we relate to the form in our understanding of the text. . .
