Peter,
Not sure I have anything to say that hasn’t been said already. I second Jason Topp’s and Colin Macqueen’s comments early in this thread (of which I have admittedly read only part).
I think the unfortunate fact (for you, and perhaps for many others) is that few people want to think as deeply about GCA as you do ... and fewer still have the experience to imagine that others will benefit from their thoughts ... and even fewer still have the need and energy to write up what they think. Thoughtful, informed, frank criticism is hard!
Best,
Dan
P.S. I recently read a piece of extraordinarily frank (or at least brutal) commentary, from James Baldwin in 1948:
“A REVIEWER handed a James M. Cain novel to discuss finds himself confronted by several problems, not the least of which is the necessity of squaring with his conscience the fact that he is discussing Mr. Cain at all. What, after all, is one to say about such persistent aridity, such manifest nonsense? Mr. Cain is no novelist: he has, indeed, his first sentence still to write; he has yet to achieve his first valid characterization. For me, at the top of his amazingly overrated form, as in The Postman Always Rings Twice, in Double Indemnity and Serenade, he was, when not downright revolting, obscurely and insistently embarrassing. Not only did he have nothing to say, but he drooled, so to speak, as he said it. It seemed much kinder, really, to take no notice of him, to adopt with him that same fiercely casual, friendly air, assumed, let us say, when visiting two otherwise harmless people who are, however, shamefully addicted to early-morning drunkenness.”
Couldn’t agree less x- and I know you are not seeking brutal commentary. But ... who cares what I think?