An Aesthetic Underground: A Literary Memoir
by John Metcalf
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"John Metcalf has written some of the very best stories ever published in this country."--Alice Munro The Argus-eyed editor; the magisterial prose stylist; the waggish, inflammatory cultural critic; the mentor and iconoclast. John Metcalf is a literary legend whose memoir maps the underground he labored tirelessly to establish.Tags
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A must read if you're interested in literary fiction in Canada.
John Metcalf is unknown to the wide reading public, but he is arguably one of the most important figures in Canadian writing post-1960. In short, he has tirelessly promoted the short story in Canada through anthologies, launching series (such as Best Canadian Stories and Coming Attractions) which continue to this day, and he has helped to launch the careers of innumerable writers. If Canada is deemed to excel at the short story (as some say we do), then Metcalf deserves a large slice of the credit.
At the same time, he's made himself unpopular by adopting controversial positions, and then arguing them in terms that are at times more colourful than accurate. He'll adopt show more positions so extreme at times that he can't help contradicting himself: having asserted that Canadian literature sucks absolutely, he'll then praise the work of dozens of writers. Metcalf loves rhetoric; some people, I think, fail to see this.
An Aesthetic Underground is a must-read; you don't have to agree with Metcalf, but he'll make you think seriously about important questions. show less
John Metcalf is unknown to the wide reading public, but he is arguably one of the most important figures in Canadian writing post-1960. In short, he has tirelessly promoted the short story in Canada through anthologies, launching series (such as Best Canadian Stories and Coming Attractions) which continue to this day, and he has helped to launch the careers of innumerable writers. If Canada is deemed to excel at the short story (as some say we do), then Metcalf deserves a large slice of the credit.
At the same time, he's made himself unpopular by adopting controversial positions, and then arguing them in terms that are at times more colourful than accurate. He'll adopt show more positions so extreme at times that he can't help contradicting himself: having asserted that Canadian literature sucks absolutely, he'll then praise the work of dozens of writers. Metcalf loves rhetoric; some people, I think, fail to see this.
An Aesthetic Underground is a must-read; you don't have to agree with Metcalf, but he'll make you think seriously about important questions. show less
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46+ Works 271 Members
Canadian writer and editor, John Metcalf was born in Carlisle, England on November 12, 1938. He attended the University of Bristol and moved to Canada in 1962. In addition to writing on his own, he is the Senior Editor of the Porcupine's Quill of Erin, Ontario and editor of Canadian Notes and Queries. Some of his works include The Lady Who Sold show more Furniture, Adult Entertainment, Kicking Against the Pricks, and Acts of Kindness and of Love. His memoir An Aesthetic Underground was published in 2003. He has won the Canadian Fiction Magazine's Contributor's Prize and the Periodical Distributor's Association Prize. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Awards and Honors
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Literature Studies and Criticism, Biography & Memoir
- DDC/MDS
- 813.54 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American fiction in English 1900-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PR9199.3 .M45 .Z463 — Language and Literature English English Literature English literature: Provincial, local, etc.
- BISAC
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- 46
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- 647,453
- Reviews
- 1
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- (4.50)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 7
- ASINs
- 1
