Alan’s answer to “What’s your advice for aspiring writers?” > Likes and Comments
31 likes · Like
Ah ha, that's funny. I'm great at taking this advice!
Thanks, Alex. I try to amuse--as I argue all great novelists and dramatists do. A novel like All the Light we Cannot See cannot be a great novel. Not amusing, like Austen, George Eliot's Middlmarch, Dickens, Bellow, etc.
Alan, I agree wholeheartedly with that last statement, though I am not sure I have encountered it before. I am the only person I know who really disliked All the Light but was unable to explain why.
What about when Pascal says: “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter" ?
Pascal may have thought he was brief, but les lecteurs modernes font-ils? We/they agree Pascal writes well, but many who write well are NOT famous. Literally, nobody notices their writing.
back to top
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Sasha
(new)
Dec 29, 2014 06:02AM
Ah ha, that's funny. I'm great at taking this advice!
reply
|
flag
Thanks, Alex. I try to amuse--as I argue all great novelists and dramatists do. A novel like All the Light we Cannot See cannot be a great novel. Not amusing, like Austen, George Eliot's Middlmarch, Dickens, Bellow, etc.
Alan, I agree wholeheartedly with that last statement, though I am not sure I have encountered it before. I am the only person I know who really disliked All the Light but was unable to explain why.
Love it! Reminds my of my first legal job in Boston in the Home Office of the insurance company that features the emu: "Doing a good job is like peeing your pants in navy blue trousers: you get a warm feeling and no one notices."
What about when Pascal says: “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter" ?
Pascal may have thought he was brief, but les lecteurs modernes font-ils? We/they agree Pascal writes well, but many who write well are NOT famous. Literally, nobody notices their writing.
