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E. L. Doctorow

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Reporting the Universe (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies) Paperback – September 30, 2004

by E. L. Doctorow (Author)

3.7 4 ratings

Part of: The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies (17 books)

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"The writer," according to Emerson, "believes all that can be thought can be written...In his eyes a man is the faculty of reporting, and the universe is the possibility of being reported." And what writer worth his name, E. L. Doctorow asks, will not seriously, however furtively, take on the universe? Human consciousness, personal history, American literature, religion, and politics--these are the far-flung coordinates of the universe that Doctorow reports here, a universe that uniquely and brilliantly reflects our contemporary scene.

Review

“Whether he's contemplating the irony of our "God-soaked country" being officially secular, or his father's love of Edgar Allan Poe, "our greatest bad writer" (for whom he was named Edgar), or deriding the "mendacity" of politicians, Doctorow is here, as in his fiction, a wordsmith of the first order. It's a pleasure to read these essays--some autobiographical, some literary, some dealing with issues of the day--full of memorable phrases and evocative images, as well as incisive ideas.”―Publishers Weekly

“As Reporting the Universe (the phrase is Emerson's) unfolds with its piquant and enlightening blend of the personal, the aesthetic, and the political, Doctorow uses the axis between the secular and the religious to take measure of the transcendent powers of literature and key ethical issues in post-September 11 America. As he forthrightly contrasts the rigidity of fundamentalism with the fluidity of intellectual and artistic explorations, Doctorow, who always works on deep, even mythic levels, creating brilliant arguments out of breathtaking metaphors, perceives great danger in the current blurring of the line between church and state, and in the enormous influence of corporate interests on governmental policy. Ultimately, this potent collection of elegantly distilled essays offers a fresh perspective on our species' capacity for both the sublime and the horrific.”―Donna Seaman, Booklist

“Doctorow's essays...start as a personal memoir, and unfurl into a sharp look at the state of America, its soul and its literature, all perceptively portrayed via one another. On the way through this fascinating mélange, Doctorow illuminates the business of writing and reading, the two central occupations of his own life, through which his America appears framed.”―A. C. Grayling, Financial Times (UK)

“Elegantly written and bracingly thoughtful.”―Peter Terzian, Newsday

“There hasn't been such a generous batch of essays in the decade since his own Jack London, Hemingway, and the Constitution.”―John Leonard, New York Review of Books

“Doctorow's nonfiction has a distinctly Emersonian approach, attempting to delve beneath the visible to find a soulful center, albeit primarily a secular one.”―Art Winslow, Chicago Tribune

About the Author

E. L. Doctorow held the Glucksman Chair in American and English Letters at New York University.

Part of series

The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in American Studies
Print length

144 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harvard University Press
Publication date

September 30, 2004
Dimensions

5 x 0.31 x 7.5 inches
ISBN-10

0674016289
ISBN-13

978-0674016286
See all details

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harvard University Press (September 30, 2004)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 144 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0674016289
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0674016286
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 5.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 0.31 x 7.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,149,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #18,724 in American Literature Criticism
- #30,164 in Author Biographies
- #77,555 in Writing Reference

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3.7 4 ratings

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E. L. Doctorow

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E. L. Doctorow’s works of fiction include Homer & Langley, The March, Billy Bathgate, Ragtime, The Book of Daniel, City of God, Welcome to Hard Times, Loon Lake, World’s Fair, The Waterworks, and All the Time in the World. Among his honors are the National Book Award, three National Book Critics Circle awards, two PEN/Faulkner awards, the Edith Wharton Citation for Fiction, and the presidentially conferred National Humanities Medal. In 2009 he was short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize honoring a writer’s lifetime achievement in fiction, and in 2012 he won the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, given to an author whose “scale of achievement over a sustained career [places] him . . . in the highest rank of American literature.” In 2013 the American Academy of Arts and Letters awarded him the Gold Medal for Fiction.

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Too much in too little

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2011

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E.L. Doctorow shoehorns a lot into this slim book, including snippets of memoir, thoughts on writing and storytelling, and ruminations (lectures, even) on how to live in a country with a secular religion in which ever-decreasing numbers of its citizens believe and in a world with ever-increasing fanaticism and fundamentalism.

Doctorow is somewhat of a polymath, with an impressive depth of knowledge in fields like physics, history, religion, and philosophy, as well as literature. He also is a serious and original thinker. Thus, regardless of what you think of his fiction, reading his essays is not a waste of time. But in REPORTING THE UNIVERSE (a title derived from an essay by Ralph Waldo Emerson) Doctorow tries to cover too much in too little space. When he goes beyond memoir, his ideas need more development and explication. In addition, at times the author's voice becomes cranky or curmudgeonly, and on a couple of occasions his lecturing tone comes too close to becoming a hectoring tone.

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pulling cheek swirl better shake up

why be snide?

Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2018

The ideals that drive imaginations to produce anything that makes readers want to part with their money now seem to be subject to a portion of society that wants everybody to learn, first and foremost, don't talk back. Expecting people to expect everybody to find unity in normal positions got to the breaking point of dimorphism special weapons with an atomic age flash at Hiroshima, followed by a global wave of sentiment which was bombed a few days later with eldritch pnagasaki. Doctorow mentioned an Israeli prime minister assassinated by religious fanatics who thought accommodation with their enemies would steal a thousand years from the Ezra lessons already planned for an area of new settlements to live in their own religious ideas. I once spent a year in Vietnam with free fire zone ground combat operations to demonstrate that no agreement to stop the torture of prisoners applies to Hungarian gangsters building the most powerful weapons for global superpower status.

Moral sense took a sharp J. F. cave blinders approach to you all know me in the I'm Jack Ruby days that remain shrouded in what nobody should know. Neutron stars plowing into each other to produce more gold for our universe are not as close to earth as sinking ships.

Reviewed in the United States on May 6, 2014

Slow reading in parts. Read it twice and believe it's well worth the thought it provokes. Good and original advice to the young writer.

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Parts are very good

Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2005

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but parts are tedious. He makes some good points and the writing is rather entertaining in parts, but as a whole it seems to keep bogging down and becomes a difficult read. It starts with his early life which is rather fun to read but progresses to a series of lectures on the relationship between reality and theology. Although some of his points are good, others seem to get lost on tangents. I am glad I read it, but doubt I will pick it up again or recommend it to a friend.

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