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    Words Made Fresh: Essays on Literature and Culture
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    Words Made Fresh: Essays on Literature and Culture
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    Words Made Fresh: Essays on Literature and Culture
    Ebook228 pages3 hours

    Words Made Fresh: Essays on Literature and Culture

    By Larry Woiwode

    3/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Larry Woiwode frames this new collection of essays in the language of the incarnation, the event that shows “how a metaphor of words could contain the lineaments and inner workings of a human being.” The essays that follow do just that. Through the medium of literary analysis, cultural reflection, and personal memory, they trace Woiwode’s work and thought as well as that of the vivid human beings he depicts.  

    These essays, all revised and reworked since their original publication, include reflections on Scripture translation, the place of religion in education, how John Updike’s work reflects the theology of Søren Kierkegaard and Karl Barth, and the difference between the news as delivered by CNN and Bob Dylan. Woiwode ranges over these topics with deliberate thoughtfulness, a Christian engaged with the wounds and gifts of the world. He also does so with the care of a writer for whom “the Word is home.” The shape of that Word sets the pattern for what he has written here: not “a set of rules to regulate social behavior,” but “an ordering of stories . . . with glimpses into character.”  

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCrossway Books
    Release dateJun 29, 2011
    ISBN9781433527432
    Unavailable
    Words Made Fresh: Essays on Literature and Culture
    Author

    Larry Woiwode

    Larry Woiwode was a Guggenheim and Lannan Fellow, recipient of the William Faulkner Foundation Award and John DosPassos Prize, a finalist for both the National Book Award and the Book Critics Circle Award, and has received the Medal of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters “for distinction in the art of the short story.” His work has been featured in publications such as The New Yorker, The Washington Post, Books & Culture, and The Atlantic. He was Poet Laureate of North Dakota, Writer-in-Residence at Jamestown College, and author of Words Made Fresh and Words for Readers and Writers. 

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    Reviews for Words Made Fresh

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    • 4/5
      Larry Woiwode bestows on us ten thoughtful and fearless essays in “Words Made Fresh.” He tackles subjects as disparate as education, faith, the role of place in artistic inspiration, John Updike, William Shakespeare, and Bob Dylan. And throughout, he poses questions and conundrums, expresses doubt and hope, and passes judgment in a graceful, even-handed way. Right out of the box he gives us a hint of the depth and unblinking earnestness we will encounter in each piece. In “Guns & Peace: An American Icon,” we find a startlingly frank questioning of his own motives when attending to a mercy killing of a deer after an automobile accident. The physical description of the landscape and his perception of it is stark and memorable – perfect. In “Homeplace, Heaven or Hell: On the Order of Existence” he launches a theme to which he returns again and again in other essays: the role of the childhood home in the creative process. He handily debunks the big-city critics and guardians of orthodoxy who would label a writer from the hinterlands as “regional,” which when they use it is nothing but pejorative. He flips the table over on them, saying not only is region and homeland important in the creative process, but an accurate and faithful attachment to it is a prerequisite part of any great art. He applies this principle in turn to such diverse writers as John Gardner, John Updike, and Shakespeare. Mr. Woiwode holds with John Gardner that true fiction must have a moral element, that the author’s intent regarding the moral issues propounded must be clear and that lessons and ideas flowing from the action must point in the right moral direction. Mr. Woiwode several times avers his service to Scripture, and always admits that this places him far outside the mainstream of academia. Well, not outside the mainstream, diametrically opposed to it. I am aware of the “on the outs” status of Christianity in current “correct” thought; Mr. Woiwode, while staking his ground squarely and usually straightforwardly, fails in main to acknowledge the cynical and exclusionary way in which the vast community of honest, self-avowed Christians of the U.S. were hoodwinked into supporting illegal and immoral schemes hatched by administrations enjoying their very support. The long, elegiac piece on Updike (“Updike’s Sheltered Self: On America’s Maestro”) deserves a broad audience. Written to the highest standard of critical essays, this comprehensive appreciation gave me more pause and more food for thought than anything I have read, ever, on Updike. Unified, persuasive, well-paced, even-handed, this is the main attraction of this collection. The treatment of Gardner’s “Mickelsson’s Ghosts” is an outstanding example of what I aspire to on the “Deeper Appreciations” pages. (It embarrasses me for you to look at them now. I am substantially re-writing the “Housekeeping” essay – and hope to fashion an actual conclusion for it.) I need to get to that piece and see what Mr. Woiwode’s fussing about.Enlightening, thought-provoking, well-written in the extreme, Mr. Woiwode does himself, his faith, and his craft proud. This is an important collection for anyone interested in today’s literature, thought, education, or culture. It’s only too bad Mr. Woiwode’s faith puts him in the wilderness of “incorrectness.”
    • 4/5
      Review originally published on Read Handed.Words Made Fresh: Essays on Literature and Culture by Larry Woiwode is made up of ten essays on various topics centering around "literature and culture." True to the subtitle, over half of the essays are literary criticism, touching on a wide range of authors including Shakespeare, Wendell Berry, John Updike, and John Gardner. Other essays discuss guns, education policy, Christianity, and Bob Dylan. Each essay has been published elsewhere at some point, some as long as 35 years ago, but all "have been revised or reworked and otherwise brought up to date, so that the words forming the phrases and sentences and thoughts in the paragraphs... have, indeed, been refashioned, made fresh" (pg. 13)Words Made Fresh is slim, but dense. The essays are written with the expectation of an educated audience and some assume the reader has previous knowledge of the subject matter. Having never read anything by Wendell Berry or John Gardner, I was a little lost in those essays as Woiwode discusses specific works in detail.That said, the essays each gave me food for thought and sparked good conversations.One of my favorite essays is "Deconstructing God: On Views of Education". This essays brings forth some controversial topics, as often happens in any discussion on education policy. The first paragraph sets the tone for the essay as a whole: "Lately America seems not a brave new world, as seekers of the sixties hoped, but a fussy, old-fashioned, exclusive suburb. One can enter only with an armload of correctness. And no religion, please - mostly meaning no Christianity. And so this residence of exclusiveness that is the new America has become, along with politics of the proper kind, the new religion - America devolving into the decadence, delirium, and financial chaos of the state-manufactured standards of Imperial Rome" (pg. 127). A little heavy-handed, perhaps, but nonetheless a sentiment with which many Americans agree. Woiwode argues the importance of bringing religion back into education. He quotes Alexis de Tocqueville observing that the "religious atmosphere was the first thing that struck me on arrival in the United States" and the fact that "liberty was tempered by a common morality", in other words, "while the law allows the American people to do everything, there are things which religion prevents them from imagining and forbids them to dare" (pg. 128). Woiwode asks: "How can you teach not only literature and history and social studies but art and music and law and philosophy, all of which are derived from or informed in the West by the Christian tradition, without admitting the Christian faith exists, or referring to the source many of these writers and composers and visual artists explicitly honor or portray in their work?" (pg. 137). I agree with many of Woiwode's points in this essay, but not his ultimate conclusion that home-schooling produces citizens that are better-adjusted and more prepared for the world than their "other-educated" counterparts. One could argue against Woiwode (though the essay format saves him from formal rebuttal) that if home-schooled children do appear somehow superior, it could very well be more because of the child's parents than his or her mode of education. By default, home-schooled children have involved and intelligent parents. More often than not, the children of involved and intelligent parents are going to do well no matter where they're educated because they (or their parents) will likely seek out the best educational opportunities available in that situation, whether in public school, private school, home school, or some other arrangement.In all, Words Made Fresh is an excellent, and challenging, collection of essays from an author with clear biases in favor of Christianity, sustainability, and some aspects sixties culture. Though the essays have been "made fresh" some of them still smack of earlier days, not least because the writers Woiwode chooses to highlight are ones popular with a reading generation that came to fruition in the sixties and seventies.I recommend this book to those with some knowledge of literary criticism who want to exercise their minds and delve into weighty topics, but only if the author biases I mentioned won't bother you.
    • 4/5
      Engaging collection of essays from a fine writer. Woiwode tackles guns, Wendell Berry, education, and literature, among other things. I found the first several essays paled in comparison to the later ones - sis more generally cultural pieces come across as the considered opinions of a cultured man; his essays on literature and literary figures have the stamp of authority. Woiwode is at his best in the field of American literature, and his writings on Gardner and Updike were tremendously helpful. I can't imagine not reading the works that he highlights. The book itself is an unusual step for the Christian publisher Crossway, but may be one of the most beautiful books (in terms of physical craftsmanship) that they have ever issued. A stimulating and worthwhile read.
    • 2/5
      This book was okay. I usually enjoy collections of essays like this one, but, as other reviewers have pointed out, the efforts here are very uneven. There are some excellent pieces, some decent/average pieces, and some downright awful pieces. Woiwode's take on many issues is interesting, though flawed, but his writing is what makes this book most difficult to recommend.
    • 5/5
      There is Truth, insight, even freshness, in this collection of Larry Woiwode’s essays, just as its title promises.I’ve known of Woiwode’s writing for some time, but had not read him before getting an advance proof to review. Now, having sought out and accepted a chance to read these ten, mostly short pieces (the longest 20, 42 and 30 pages each; the others, 14 pages or less), I’m intrigued by what I find.Less than two dozen pages into the book, I was moved. I’m predisposed to share values that are plainly evident here; but Woiwode’s frank discussion of his Christian faith, its centrality for him and his family’s life, and the reality that not everyone else would approve, afforded a welcome context and perspective for understanding his remaining essays, both as they each were originally written, and as reworked for the present volume.Two quotes from Woiwode’s second essay (“Homeplace, Heaven or Hell? On the Order of Existence”) in particular still resonate:“In the first sentence of The Closing of the American Mind, Allan Bloom states, ‘There is one thing a professor can be absolutely certain of: almost every student entering the university believes, or says he believes, that truth is relative.’ Albert Einstein said, ‘The theory of relativity refers to physics, not morals.” [p. 29? p. 25 in Advance Proof.]“If values evolve from traditions and common sense, then when values start clashing, we need a judge or referee, as we do when we turn to a dictionary to define words. Otherwise, any individual value is as valid as another. Without an outside guide we’re in Babel, where everyone is talking nonsense, because everybody is using words that have meaning only to themselves, and, as Einstein has pointed out, ‘It is easier to denature plutonium than to denature the basic evil nature of man.’” [p. 34? p. 30 in Advance Proof.]A second, significant aspect of the anthology that I find appealing is Woiwode’s take on aspects of contemporary American letters and society. I wasn’t expecting reflections on Wendell Berry, John Gardner, Reynolds Price, and John Updike (each admired, warts and all); but having five pieces devoted these authors, offered through the lens of Woiwode’s experience and perspective, was a delight in itself. The remaining essays concern guns as “an American Icon”; places we would identify as “home”; religion in contemporary education; news media, or – more accurately – a lack of news in the media; and the abiding nature of Shakespeare and his plays, four hundred years later. These are not necessarily topics I would have sought out (even if I do concur), but they’re nonetheless rewarding for Woiwode having shares his thoughts. Some of the essays, particularly the shorter ones, are quick and easy to read, but Woiwode doesn’t shy away from approaching complex ideas. The longest and most demanding essay is an extended treatment of Updike’s life and work, in all its variety, inconsistencies, and ambiguity. That Woiwode would venture thoughts on spiritual, even metaphysical, aspects of Updike’s work in a (relatively) small format seems to be an impressive undertaking itself.As with any anthology of pieces written over time, then later assembled and presented as a single volume, these essays don’t form a coherent whole, united by a common thread or thesis woven through them. As discrete works viewed together, they do give a picture of Woiwode’s particular interests and progression over thirty years, and a framework for further reading of his earlier work. That’s another way in which this little volume offers Woiwode’s “Words Made Fresh.”
    • 2/5
      This was my first encounter with Woiwode. I do not think that I will bother with any more of his books. The blurbs praise Woiwode as a gifted writer whose prose reaches the heights of poetry. I concur that he is poetic, but I found his prose, at times, to be awkward and forced. Because of his habit of inserting very long parenthetic comments in the middle of sentences, I found myself having to read some sentences three or four times to make sure that I understood what he was saying. Many of these parentheses were so poorly constructed that they were laughable. For example in The Gospels of Reynold Price, Woiwode writes:"It was in Palestine, in a vision, that Price was healed of the worst effects of the spinal cancer that should have done him in through a manifestation of the presence of Jesus..." 79"The spinal cancer should have done him in through a manifestation of the presence of Jesus"? Of course, he means that "Price was healed...through a manifestation of the presence of Jesus." In another essay, Updike's Shelterd Self, Woiwode writes:"Couples illustrated the power of the pen over the sword; a year after it appeared, and was reissued in paperback in a choice of colors, magenta or cobalt, or baby blue and pink, as if reaching to both sides in a display of the two, theologian and hedonist, of its author, the sixties began to give and crack." 105I am still not sure how "of its author" functions in this sentence. If you know, please let me know.I was frequently frustrated with his almost trite use of word play and redundant use of synonym. To give a few examples, also from Updike's Shelterd Self, Woiwode mentions "the vacuum of its contentless emptiness" (96) and "the collapsing couples coupling in Couples" (98). I do appreciate that Woiwode exposed me to Wendell Berry and John Updike. I have not yet read either of these two and Woiwode whetted my appetite. Overall, however, I closed the book frustrated, disappointed, and glad it was over.
    • 3/5
      I was back and forth on this as I read it, definitely preferring some of the essays to others. I've never read Woiwode before, and I'm not sure if this was the best introduction to him. For some other authors, David Foster Wallace springs to mind, but I also had good luck with the Jonathan Franzen collection, their essays can be a good intro to their style and favorite subject matter. For others, they may be a clearinghouse, odds-and-sods place to go find more of their work when you're already a fan. I think that this may be more of the latter. The title says that it is essays of literature and culture. I found the essays on literature to be stronger than those on culture. Like Woiwode I am a Christian, and the shared faith brought an interesting perspective to the literature of Gardner, Updike, and Shakespeare. I don't think he twisted them to his ends too much or judged them too harshly, as can be the case whenever authorial perspective enters in. In the essays on guns, the news, and especially public schools, I was less impressed. He often got an aggressively defensive, even paranoid view of the academy and the government's attitude towards Christianity. The language is often beautiful, but the ideas are either muddled (to me) or don't quite hold up (to me). His discussions of Gardner and Updike intrigued me enough to want to go read more of them, which is an accomplishment, but I'm not sure they make me want to go read more of Woiwode.
    • 3/5
      Whether it was the overkill of fiction you have to read as a college English major, the fact my first career was as a newspaper reporter or a combination of both, I haven't read a whole lot of fiction in the decade since I graduated from college. The ratio between non-fiction to fiction books I've read in that span is probably something like 30:1 at this point. But reading Larry Woiwode's book "Words Made Fresh" gave me pause to reconsider the merits of fiction and why I fell in love with it in the first place as a reluctant reader in middle school (reading being just as cool as hanging out with your parents) when I was assigned To Kill A Mockingbird in seventh grade English.Words Made Fresh is a collection of Woiwode's essays on literature and culture that he wrote from the mid-1970s to about 2005. The topics range from guns, education, community identity and Bob Dylan to war, Christianity, Shakespeare and Wendall Berry.Though the essays have been reworked from their original presentation, the collection of the essays makes for a somewhat uneven read read. When he's writing about Berry and John Updike, I'm a captive reader being reminded of why I love both authors and literature in the first place. The final treatise on Shakespeare and some of the lengthy material on other subjects don't compel quite as much. But I credit Woiwode - the Poet Laureate of North Dakota - with flipping that literary switch back on in me that made reading the Rabbit series one of the most enjoyable periods of my young adult life and makes every encounter I have with Berry a life-enriching one. It's not hard to figure out why Woiwode is considered a writer for writers and readers - his work here is enough to prolifically inspire both.
    • 3/5
      As some reviewers have noted, the title misled me into thinking this book would be about writing, the use of words, and language. I had never heard of Larry Woiwode previous to this experience. He seems to be well-read, as evidenced in his articulate, if sometimes rambling, essays on Gardner, Updike, Shakespeare, and Wendell Berry. I'm not terribly keen on his religious convictions, or his notions about morality as fundamentally linked with religion, specifically Christianity, and it's value in public education. Would Woiwode be willing to follow his own logic as indicated in "Deconstructing God" if it meant that local schools might adopt Muslim or Sikh moral codes? He disdains secular moralism, calling for greater liberty for schools to the teach moral codes of branded faiths. Yet, it seems very clear to me, he has only one faith in mind--his own. How is this different than what he views as a rigid wall keeping religious faith out of schools? The imposition of one's beliefs onto those who believe otherwise has always been the hallmark of Christianity--much to its detriment. People prefer secularism, not because they hold no values or spiritual convictions, but because institutional and political neutrality ensures that everyone can CHOOSE what they believe. To simply replace one tyrant with another is not liberty or academic freedom.Overall, I did not really "get" much from this book, or that which I've read so far. I enjoyed his essay on Berry, and was morbidly astonished by "Guns & Peace," in which there seemed too much of the former and not enough of the latter. I've not read Updike and have vague memories of Gardner, although his essays on Gardner have inspired me take a new look at the author's work. Perhaps, I'm simply disappointed that this book was not what I expected.
    • 2/5
      I was lured in by this title because I love words, I love books about words, I love word of the day calendars, etc. I did not read the description closely enough because it turns out it's not the type of book for me. I have more secular beliefs and cannot find interest in matters religious or spiritual. I can say, however, that it was well written and Woiwode seems articulate and intelligent. While at times the essays seemed to wander, I did particularly enjoy the final essay on Shakespeare. I found it to be thought provoking and a good conversation starter with my English literature teaching friends.
    • 3/5
      It's only fair to start by saying that I don't share Mr. Woiwode's Christian world view. That being said, it's always a pleasure to read an intelligent, passionate writer, even if I don't always agree with him. Which was the case with "Words Made Fresh." There are certainly places of common ground. Even in the essays in this slender volume where Mr. Woiwode and I disagree, it's clear that he has a strong intellect and argues his case well. However, as with anyone who feels passionately about a specific point -- it can began to stretch the fabric of your point out of recognition.So, while I appreciated Mr. Woiwodes essay on Updike, a writer whose work I have never personally cared for, for the depth and richness he was able to bring to my understanding; I had a difficult time with his essay on Gardner, a writer a deeply admire, because we are at opposite poles in our understanding of this gentleman's work.The juxtaposition of the essay on religion in school and Dylan amused me. There was a basic irony in having these two back to back that I'm surprised the author didn't notice. The fact that he didn't notice, and perhaps like all of us, is capable of holding two separate and competing notions firmly in place without noticing their disconnections just makes him human. Having been raised Catholic, I was taught to believe several impossible things before noon every day, so I can understand how the dichotomy slipped by. Still, it amused.His final essay on Shakespeare, for me, was worth reading through the whole book. It was a masterful summation of the arguments why Shakespeare, and not Marlowe or de Vere or some other person, wrote Shakespeare. Please. It was the glovemaker's son from Stratford. While I may cock and eyebrow at some of his conclusions, they are less far fetched than some others I have read and at least Mr. Woiwode is one of the few who does poor Anne justice.The essays are dense. At times, they appear to wander a bit from their points. I found them uneven, not just because I am not, like Mr. Woiwode, a Christian, but because the sway of his powerful intellect sometimes seem to lose its way, and then indeed he lost me as well. But those that are good are very good indeed and I am glad to have read it, especially for the essays on Updike and Shakespeare.
    • 4/5
      This is a thoughtful book. Grounded on the sharing of honest human experience and spiritual insights. It is not a book for the rush reader, it is a book for the reflective reader. I have enjoyed it and will recommend it to friends.
    • 2/5
      You might expect this collection of articles and reviews (and one speech) from 1975-2004 to have meandering, disjointed quality, and it does. But certain themes do reliably emerge. These mostly involve distrust or dislike of urban secularists who are "confined to the cities" (Woiwode is from North Dakota, a fact he wears like a badge of simple authenticity) and academics who want to purge all trace of religion (meaning Christianity) from American educational life. He writes about "what I believe is the most important debate engaging America as it enter the twenty-first century -- religion in education" and goes on to criticize "the rights of students" in public schools as "post-modernism in toddler's clothes." He makes some valid points -- an understanding of American history really is incomplete without acknowledging the nation's Christianity, and the U.S. education system really is in the midst of a severe crisis. But those points have been made more effectively elsewhere, and there is an undertone of defensiveness here that makes reading the book a drag. He also hates the term "regionalist" and he defends himself (in the guise of defending Wendell Berry) from it. How much you like this book will probably depend on how much you agree with Woiwode's viewpoint.
    • 3/5
      Larry Woiwode presents a collection of pieces -beautifully wrought if at times weakly argued -that have been published previously through the years and are now tied together under the rubric "Words Made Fresh." Colored by the first and most harrowing reflection on his traumatic killing of a deer, the author moves us through reviews and opinion on John Gardner, John Updike, Bob Dylan and Wendell Berry as well as the Gospel translations of Reynolds Price and the faith of Shakespeare. Woiwode's deeply felt readings of these and other matters are informed by his obvious intelligence and concern for what Hannah Arendt calls"the Human Condition." These are the kind of essays that might fruitfully be discussed by smart high school students as well as critically minded collegians as they begin to learn how to critique an argument. And critique they should - for Woiwode invites us to the table of intellect and it is a table filled with books and ideas. For me, his strongest work is on Gardner and Updike. I have read both through many years and yet I learned a tremendous amount about HOW to approach them in a new and strong reading of their work presented here. I thought his weakest effort was the piece on Shakespeare - though it is certainly well worth reading and thinking about as are all the essays in this book. Finally, I would say that this is the kind of collection that I actually respect as well as enjoy. It seems clear to me that these are the mature and forceful writings of a mind that desires nothing more than to be engaged -argued with - perhaps even wrestled to the ground. Good work -on the whole -good work.
    • 3/5
      A series of essays, a slow and thoughtful read, that requires a bit of dedication on the part of the reader. The author and I clearly do not share a philosophical background, but I appreciate the thoughtfulness that went in to this book.
    • 3/5
      From the back cover: “A collection of essays reflecting on words and places—cultural, spiritual, and literary—that shape us in the image of the incarnate God.”The essays in this collection range in topic from Shakespeare to Bob Dylan, all viewed from a perspective of a modern Christian in an increasingly secular world. The author’s literary heroes (Wendell Berry, John Gardner, Reynolds Price, and John Updike) are given their due; American culture, news and education are examined in their turn; and the quest for home—so much more than a search for a dwelling place—is the thematic lynchpin of the collection.In the first piece, “Guns and Peace,” Mr. Woiwode describes his own relationship with that American icon, the gun, and the change that relationship undergoes after his botched mercy-killing of a wounded deer is witnessed by his young daughter. It’s not just the change in his attitude he describes, but a change in setting that mirrors it: “I grew up in North Dakota, at the edge of the West, during the turbulence and then the aftermath of World War II, which America won in such an outright way there was a sense of vindication about the country’s long-standing love of guns…” from the beginning of the essay, to the end: “I now live in New York City, alone…I can’t refute my heritage, but I doubt that I’ll use a firearm again, certainly not in the city, and, if outside it, only in the direst emergency.” In the afterword, Mr. Woiwode mentions that he has returned to North Dakota, and is reunited with his family. In the following piece, he describes that journey in more detail, and includes the spiritual undertaking that accompanied the move: “Home is the center of rest, the wellspring of consciousness…I began to read Scripture with the regularity I believed a believer should, and tended to believe. In that sense, the Word is home.”Both these pieces are concise, compelling and easily accessible to the casual reader. The literary criticism, however, is less so, to the point that I found myself wondering who Mr. Woiwode’s intended audience was. That he admires the work of the authors in each of these essays is clear; whether the aforementioned casual reader would or should is not. By confining his examination to the theology and philosophy of their writing, Mr. Woiwode may pique the interest of scholars of those disciplines. But such a narrowly focused perspective seems unlikely to cause a reader unfamiliar with those authors to seek them out, or to provide readers familiar with them any illuminating insights.On the whole, the book is thoughtful, deeply-felt, and well-written. If the tone sometimes strays into the overly-scholarly, Mr. Woiwode’s scholarship is sound and thorough: he is clearly as at home with words as he is in the Word.
    • 2/5
      The essays in Words Made Fresh vary in impact, but generally I'm left with an impression similar to if I'd joined a graduate seminar at the end of the term: discussion is spirited and thoughtful, doesn't always match my thinking but always presented in a considerate way, and is pleasantly provocative. But as I've missed the entirety of the seminar, except this last session, arguments rely a short-hand developed in the previous sessions. The last seminar is a coda, with references to previous arguments and conclusions, many references and terms stand in for entire discussions I've missed. So it is with Woiwode's essays. I don't think I fully appreciate the arguments here, though there is plenty to chew on. I wonder if Woiwode writes for an audience attuned to his shorthand, or if it's only he himself who understands the hyperlinks and traditions behind the quick description or allusion.Particularly strong efforts: "Gospels of Reynolds Price" and "Deconstructing God", though the latter is hampered by untenable arguments from non sequitur or invalid inferences: are all home-schooled children more mature in their interactions with adults, as compared to public school graduates? But these essays are perhaps best understood as careful considerations of Woiwode's viewpoint, and values, and not as theses or arguments for a position.Biggest point: Woiwode's perception that Christians individually face disdain and are held in low esteem, within academia certainly but also in the larger culture, even as that culture is widely regarded to be Christian. Woiwode rails against this situation, and truly it is an odd one. Is it because there is a delay between the cultural anchors in our society, still persistently Christian, even as society's general take on how individuals should conduct themselves has evolved into something ... different, if not exactly anti-Christian? Is it that culture is secular, though grounded in touchpoints which once were theological? Is it a more commonplace divide, and more particular: town & gown, or urban & rural? Woiwode hints at all of these. I'd welcome a more penetrating examination and analysis of this central concern. Perhaps it's enough that Woiwode cast it in such high relief, and prompts reflection on it. My take on these questions of a broad Christian cultural tradition somehow viewing individual Christians with suspicion if not disapproval is simple, perhaps simplistic: - understand the premise of Christianity (both the theology and the community), and take what is of value; - then consider the critiques of Christianity and the negative influence it has exerted over time, and take what is of value here; - from that, build a coherent approach of values borrowed from each; no matter the result isn't a recognised or established position.Standard thesis / antithesis / synthesis. That synthesis, it seems to me, is balanced but not unique: the content could easily build up from any number of other traditions, religious or not. It's worth considering that simplistic approach in more detail, now I've articulated it. And that, I think, is the sort of prompt I look to essays to bring.
    • 4/5
      WORDS MADE FRESHBy Larry WoiwodeISBN 978-1-4335-2740=1Published by CrosswayReviewed by Clint WalkerOnce in a while, when you spend a lot of time out of the suburbs, you happen to drop into a restaurant that you only eat at because you are eager to discover something novel, or because it is your only visible option and you are hungry. And whether it is a small Polish diner in the inner city, or a greasy hamburger joint on the edge of logger country, you discover that in your desire for mere sustenance you have stumbled on some sort of culinary perfection.Stumbling onto WORDS MADE FRESH was just such a surprise. Given to me by Crossway Books via LibraryThing in exchange for a free review, I was not expecting what I received. Crossway Books generally publishes books designed to elucidate basic Christian teachings. And Larry Woiwode was an author I had never heard of before. However, as I started reading, I discovered a highly intellectual, thoughtful read about how certain authors and issues in academic and literary culture speak to a thinking Christian faith.The first few chapters ground the author of this collection of essays in the Western rural landscape of North Dakota. Well travelled and full of insight, Woiwode shares personal reflections from his experience as well as deft analysis of a diverse collection of authors such as John Updike, John Gardner, Shakespeare, Bob Dylan, and Wendell Berry. I especially enjoyed WORDS MADE FRESH’s discussion of rural culture, Western culture and the relationship and the challenges in that culture to living out one’s faith authentically in that setting. My favorite chapter in the book, though, was the stirring argument that Woiwode makes in his essay “Deconstructing God”. Essentially, in this text, Woiwode argues for the inclusion of non-sectarian religious education in public schools, and in a return of schools in many ways to the local community and culture from whence it has sprung. I would recommend this book for anyone who loves literature and the Lord, or for anyone who loves to take time to consider the world of ideas that literature of all kinds leads us to be curious about.
    • 2/5
      I was excited by the way this book was summed up. It didn't live up to that praise.Woiwode seemed intent on making sure his readers knew how smart he was, but didn't really seem to have a whole lot to say, in my opinion. He had a lot to say about how Gardner and Updike were two of the more influential writers of our time, and with that, I certainly agree... but I don't necessarily think Woiwode knows *why* these authors are important, other than their vocabulary... which Woiwode seems intent on copying. Don't get me wrong. It isn't just that I thought he was wrong on a couple of levels... because throughout the essays, i found myself nodding just as much as a bit my lips to keep from screaming at the written word. He had some good grasps on how literature and art relate to the world, and how the world relates to literature and art, but his theories behind those thoughts had little depth and insight to them. He can recognize a fair number of relations, but I don't think he had much experience in explaining them.
    • 4/5
      It's hard to say how I felt about this collection of essays. I really liked some of the points brought up by Woiwode, but did not like agree with some of his other points. I enjoyed Woiwode's social commentary on education and the news. I found in that commentary very apt points on how Christianity is viewed by culture. I loved the essay on Dylan. It was short and sweet and hard hitting. I found myself unable to comment on his essays on Berry, Gardner, and Updike to any full extant as I've never read those authors. I did find it hard to follow Woiwode a few times in the Gardner essay as Woiwode would switch from analyzing Gardner to analyzing Gardner's creation Mickelsson without clear transitions. I would be inclined to think this intentional, except that throughout the essay's Woiwode was prone to asides that really broke away from the narrative arc he had going. I found myself thinking that a few of the essay's could have used a strong editor. At times the theology Woiwode discussed seemed to almost get away from him. He would begin an argument or claim an author was making an argument, but then change the direction of the essay without any fully explaining his thought. And lastly, I got fairly annoyed with the motif of "home" in the essays. Woiwode seems to have the idea that the "home" can only be a small town in the Midwest. He, almost, demonizes cities. Over and over again the belief that only when an author or creator is rooted in a family home, which must be in a rural setting, can the author speak truth.This is not to say that I didn't enjoy the essays. I rather did. This is one of those books that I will reread and my opinion of the essays may change with a reread or as I grow older and gain different life experiences. And that is definitely refreshing in modern commentary.
    • 3/5
      A collection of the author's essays. The back cover declares that it is "a collection of essays reflecting on the words and places--cultural, spiritual, and literary--that shape us in the image of the incarnate God."This may be good marketing, but I cannot say that the substance indicates any such coherence. In fact, there seems to be very little coherence in the entire collection; a few are connected by references to the same people, but that's about it.The essays are mostly about writers of literature and the literature they write. The first couple are about the author-- his experience with guns and his sense of home and place. There is then an essay on Wendell Berry, then two on Gardner (one on the man, one on a book of his), followed by an essay on Reynolds Price and his translation work and a multi-part glorification of Updike, Then there is an essay on views of education, then on the state of modern news relative to the influence of Bob Dylan; the collection ends with an analysis of Shakespeare.Half of the essays seem to reveal something about the author's literary opinions; the other half, his religious ones. A few combine the religious with the literary. It seems discordant. The author tries diligently to find faith in authors and literary works glorifying or promoting immorality, but then turns and promotes the advancement of education regarding religion within the public school system. Perhaps the discordance is intentional.I am admittedly out of my "normal" range of reading with such a work; perhaps literature is as fundamental and culture-shaping as the author suggests, but even that seems a relic of a bygone age, now ceded to TV and the Internet. It's an interesting collection of essays. A different way of seeing some things. But it would probably help to have a better understanding of the condition of modern literature to completely appreciate it.