11:50 -- Franzen still dribbling his basketball down the streets of Manhattan

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#20032167)

the woman keeps looking more and more disturbed as the interview goes on. Franzen refuses to make eye contact with her. she stares quizically during his meandering disquisitions with an expression that seems to ask "who is this jackass?"

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#20032225)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#20032208)

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#29374094)

The picture of the room is astonishing but it really explains, no words needed, the depths Franzen is reaching in his books. I also I like his ability to dwell in the present moment (especially dialogues between characters but other situations too) - I think those are the most attractive and "alive" parts in a book - and this room seems to give him the absolute silence - in every sense - to listen patiently to those frail moments and write them so perceptively.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#20033789)

i'm no athlete but i can shoot a basketball without looking like an alien

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#20039565)

*cannot even bounce a basketball*

*is Franzen*

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#20048906)

in The Corrections there is a strange group of passages where the narrator seems to ridicule the work of the woman who grows fresh vegetable gardens w/ inner-city black kids. he basically says: "these kids are too fucking stupid to appreciate middle class values, and this person doesn't realize the futility of her work." then he turns her into one of the most pathetic, debased characters in modern fiction, whose downfall it is suggested is brought about by her essential naivete (referring back to her judgment re: the inner city kids).

then in Freedom, there is the protagonist's father, Ray, a wealthy lawyer who defends indigent minorities. he is portrayed as massively condescending and hateful towards his clients - though at the same time explaining to his daughter that they are innocent victims of the system. his minority clients are characterized as buffoons, whom Ray, the prosecutor, and the Judge (all white) cannot help joining together to laugh at in one scene. confusingly, the novel uses, for this character's final redemption, the image of dozens of these black people and their families, heads bowed, filing silently and reverently into the *BACK* (the symbolism) of the church at his funeral - like they are straight out of To Kill a Mockingbird.

the elite east coast lawyer is glorified and the blacks are kept firmly in their place, as objects of charity that is an instrument for self-aggrandizement of the white elites.

his portrayal of the Indian girl in Freedom has also been called racist, for being so laughably 1-dimensional.

these are the only minorities in any of his books.

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#22466947)

BOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

C'mon guys let's drown him out

BOOOOOOOOO

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=1880358&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5301927#22544225)