Comparison of styles

During class, we often joke about the majority of us not enjoying Agee’s book, and to be honest, I feel that I am one of the majority. That being said, I have found myself questioning many things in the book—not the least of which is Agee’s sanity. What has puzzled me most about the book is the conflict of styles between Walker Evans and James Agee. Before beginning the work, I imagined the two would be working towards a common goal with roughly congruous methods to their craft, but that does not seem to be the case.

As Professor Irmscher’s handout of Evans’s untouched photographs, the family did not appear to be as pitifully unhappy as the ones contained within the work would lead a person to believe. Evans seems content to go against Agee’s words, “’Above all else: in God’s name don’t think of it as Art” (12). By taking the time to stage people and places for his photos, Evans is not trying to be real; he is attempting to create the mood that will satisfy his financial backers. Even within his photos, Evans takes the time to crop them into his vision.

Unlike Evans, Agee tells and experiences everything. As an example of his extreme eye for detail and completeness, reexamine the piece discussed on the blog last week or just randomly select a spot in the text relating to the families and read that. Agee’s method for telling the story of the Dustbowl families seems to center around realism, but at times, this becomes counterproductive. The immense depth of details related by Agee makes finding the important and touching bits nigh impossible. Returning to the scene of the fireplace, I find the detail given by Agee saying that “are in part by memory, in part composited out of other memory, in part improvised, but do not exceed what was there in abundance, variety, or kind” important (176). Agee’s focus on reality seems jaded when these comments are made. On one hand, his credibility becomes flawed because a reader is unclear on what is real, and on the other, a reader trusts him more for acknowledging his flaws.

I don’t really have a preference towards one method when comparing Agee and Evans, but I believe the differences are worth noting when trying to understand the work.