Though I spend little time over on Twitter these days, I was drawn in this week by a bizarre controversy touched off by Aaron Gwyn, who has become something of a talented literary imp on that platform in the last couple of years.
I keep thinking about this. There's something fundamentally narcissistic about wanting others to read YOUR work but not having the time or inclination to read anyone else's.
To amplify your point, I would say that anyone who does not read for pleasure should stop writing right now—the world has no need of your contribution. Loving reading and literature is the only reason for writing, with no significant exceptions. When I was a mentee, I hung on every word of my mentor, wrote everything down, read everything he recommended. A real writer is invariably apprenticed to the greatest writers of all time. That any piece of writing has a chance of lasting a thousand years is what makes it such an awesome undertaking.
It is sort of shocking, really. To have a fanatical love for a particular writer that demands that you study how he makes you feel what it is that you are feeling with his words, that correspondence is everything. I was once young and crazy about James Cain. He began a novel with: "They threw me off the hay truck at noon." Man, I ate that shit up.
No kidding? He could do that. He was fast. I also had a poet mentor, pretty famous, who talked a lot about speed in a poem. Nowadays I think a lot about how to slow things down as well speed things up in the timing of a sentence. I stupidly wrote Cain back in those days, telling him that he was an American master, and I was shocked when he wrote back and asked me what I wanted. I was so embarrassed I didn't have the nerve to respond. I think he died not long after.
I once had a rather obnoxious (adult) student who wanted to write about transatlantic slave trade. I asked him what historical research he had done, and he scoffed at me and said he wasn't interested in such. I told him no one would trust his fiction without an understanding of history. After sending me a snarky email, we never communicated again. LOL. It is pure laziness when folks who call themselves writers do not read often and widely. It would be like me calling myself an actor when all I do are soliloquies in front of my mirror while never watching a film or taking an acting class.
Aha! House of Mirth is my favourite too - haven’t heard of Roman fever so will seek it out. I’m currently reading her brilliant unfinished last novel The Buccaneers as finished by Marion Manwaring - she did an outstanding job. Of course I also love Jane Austen but Wharton is more savage and funny. I would love to have met her; I would like to have BEEN her. The fact that she could see her own social class so very clearly in all its weakness and vanity thrills me. What a mind! And no thanks to her beautiful yet vapid mother and weak father!!
Charles. Yes, yes and yes!! My favourite writers vary from time to time. Was recently blown away by Lesser Ruins by Mark Haber. I adore anything by Edith Wharton. Anything by the great non fiction historian William Dalrymple. Just finished reading George MacDonald Fraser’s Quartered Safe Out Here and he is quite brilliant. Etc etc. My husband reads to me for an hour minimum every day while I knit and learn. I read most evenings for hours and before bed. I read Substack posts for at least an hour every day. And I write and write and write. And my style is absolutely influenced by those I read. How on earth can one even start to write without reading constantly and well??? My God the human species sometimes depresses me!!!
It's hard to do better than Edith Wharton! I was always a fan of House of Mirth and recently taught her "Roman Fever" in an American Lit survey. The students loved the twist ending.
I became skilled at the guitar because I spent countless hours alone in my room learning to play it between 18-25. By 30, I had friends who had always wanted to play but still could not. They touched it for 10 minutes maybe every six months. Still couldn't play the opening line to Ripple or Wish you Were Here because they never touched it. Can't imagine it's much different for writing. It's amazing what takes off on that platform.
I got into a similar argument with an ex-partner. I asserted that art was the product of creativity AND craft. Some mastery of both was required. They asserted that creativity was sufficient. That we must acknowledge.and honor any creative endeavor performed with integrity. I tried to make the point that while I might be required to honor their creative integrity, I was not required to appreciate or “like” art created without craft. Or as you say, without “difficulty”.
I keep thinking about this. There's something fundamentally narcissistic about wanting others to read YOUR work but not having the time or inclination to read anyone else's.
spot on!
To amplify your point, I would say that anyone who does not read for pleasure should stop writing right now—the world has no need of your contribution. Loving reading and literature is the only reason for writing, with no significant exceptions. When I was a mentee, I hung on every word of my mentor, wrote everything down, read everything he recommended. A real writer is invariably apprenticed to the greatest writers of all time. That any piece of writing has a chance of lasting a thousand years is what makes it such an awesome undertaking.
Absolutely. It's a bizarre cultural mutation. Also, just laziness.
It is sort of shocking, really. To have a fanatical love for a particular writer that demands that you study how he makes you feel what it is that you are feeling with his words, that correspondence is everything. I was once young and crazy about James Cain. He began a novel with: "They threw me off the hay truck at noon." Man, I ate that shit up.
Haha. I use that first line from Cain when I teach workshops on strong openings.
No kidding? He could do that. He was fast. I also had a poet mentor, pretty famous, who talked a lot about speed in a poem. Nowadays I think a lot about how to slow things down as well speed things up in the timing of a sentence. I stupidly wrote Cain back in those days, telling him that he was an American master, and I was shocked when he wrote back and asked me what I wanted. I was so embarrassed I didn't have the nerve to respond. I think he died not long after.
I once had a rather obnoxious (adult) student who wanted to write about transatlantic slave trade. I asked him what historical research he had done, and he scoffed at me and said he wasn't interested in such. I told him no one would trust his fiction without an understanding of history. After sending me a snarky email, we never communicated again. LOL. It is pure laziness when folks who call themselves writers do not read often and widely. It would be like me calling myself an actor when all I do are soliloquies in front of my mirror while never watching a film or taking an acting class.
Awful stuff.
Aha! House of Mirth is my favourite too - haven’t heard of Roman fever so will seek it out. I’m currently reading her brilliant unfinished last novel The Buccaneers as finished by Marion Manwaring - she did an outstanding job. Of course I also love Jane Austen but Wharton is more savage and funny. I would love to have met her; I would like to have BEEN her. The fact that she could see her own social class so very clearly in all its weakness and vanity thrills me. What a mind! And no thanks to her beautiful yet vapid mother and weak father!!
Charles. Yes, yes and yes!! My favourite writers vary from time to time. Was recently blown away by Lesser Ruins by Mark Haber. I adore anything by Edith Wharton. Anything by the great non fiction historian William Dalrymple. Just finished reading George MacDonald Fraser’s Quartered Safe Out Here and he is quite brilliant. Etc etc. My husband reads to me for an hour minimum every day while I knit and learn. I read most evenings for hours and before bed. I read Substack posts for at least an hour every day. And I write and write and write. And my style is absolutely influenced by those I read. How on earth can one even start to write without reading constantly and well??? My God the human species sometimes depresses me!!!
It's hard to do better than Edith Wharton! I was always a fan of House of Mirth and recently taught her "Roman Fever" in an American Lit survey. The students loved the twist ending.
Yes to all of this - I've been running a writing clinic for a while - and thankfully all the participants are quite well-read.
Not sure how you could even approach being a writer without being a full-time reader.
Great post.
I became skilled at the guitar because I spent countless hours alone in my room learning to play it between 18-25. By 30, I had friends who had always wanted to play but still could not. They touched it for 10 minutes maybe every six months. Still couldn't play the opening line to Ripple or Wish you Were Here because they never touched it. Can't imagine it's much different for writing. It's amazing what takes off on that platform.
It's nuts.
I got into a similar argument with an ex-partner. I asserted that art was the product of creativity AND craft. Some mastery of both was required. They asserted that creativity was sufficient. That we must acknowledge.and honor any creative endeavor performed with integrity. I tried to make the point that while I might be required to honor their creative integrity, I was not required to appreciate or “like” art created without craft. Or as you say, without “difficulty”.