James Wood, the sincere, somewhat old-fashioned, unpretentious yet high-minded New Yorker literary critic, spoke at the Harvard Book Store recently about his new book, How Fiction Works.
Click here: 
to listen (30 minutes).
Also… ThoughtCast will be interviewing Wood shortly – hooray! – and we’re interested in your input! We’d like to discuss, among other topics, different kinds of literary creativity. What makes a great critic, rather than, say, a great novelist, or poet? What does the critic look for? How personal is the art of criticism, and how much a matter of taste – or instinct? Just how ‘creative’ is it?
Please add your thoughts in the comments section below, or email them to feedback at thoughtcast dot org!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Spectacular talk, thank you for posting it!
I’m writing from Auckland, New Zealand. Consequently, I’m not privy first hand to the cutthroat jealousies etc of the New York literary scene. There was an exceptionally sardonic review of Woody’s new book in the New York Times. I’ve bought the book, and the review bore scant correspondence to the work. What was going on here, a literary version of Newton’s Third Law of Motion?