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From the blog posts, it seems to me that he is not very keen on writing. I could be wrong. But when you start finding an excuse a day not to do what you theoret
by borroka 4y ago
From the blog posts, it seems to me that he is not very keen on writing. I could be wrong. But when you start finding an excuse a day not to do what you theoretically think you should do, maybe the theory is wrong.
Maybe he likes the idea of being a writer, but without being a writer.
Also, writing means many things. There are a lot of books, think of business books, that are written because it is the most effective way to provide a certain kind of information to a wide audience. Watching a video seems like a waste of time before, during, and after.
Reading a book, most of the time, even if the information in it is ridiculous and of poor quality, does not seem like a waste of time.
And there is "writing" like, say, Hemingway, James Salter thought about writing.
Are we talking about "writing" the way Salter intended it or about "presenting information in a book"? Does "I like to write" means "I like to provide information" or it means "I like to use the written word specifically to present ideas"?
Rossellini, the famous director, said that he was not just a film director, but an artist and disseminator using whatever medium he thought was the most appropriate in order to show his ideas or his view of the world.
I have almost stopped reading recent books. I find them formulaic, winking at the "mythical" audience and what they want, which most of the time is cheap entertainment.
There is an author I liked, Adrian McKinty, who had written a series of books set in Belfast at the time of the Troubles. It was a joy to read them. They were erudite and had a great rhythm. But he found himself forced to become an Uber driver to pay the bills--the books were not selling.
Then, with the support of Don Winslow and Winslow's agent, he was able to break through with a book, The Chain, which was so formulaic, poorly written and full of the adjectives and adverbs that make college-educated people drool, that I found it hard to recognize him as the same author of the series set in the Troubles era. It was very good for him and disappointing for me.
I am now reading novels written between the 1930s and the 1960s, and although each decade has its sins, I sense that most authors were not that much concerned about their audience, were not corrupted by literary agents and book clubs, but wrote what they, and not others, wanted to write.
- CA0DA 4y agoWhat books from the 30s-60s would you recommend?
- borroka 4y agoMost of what I read is not in English, which is just my second language. In English, one author I highly recommend reading is James Salter. He had a parsimonious and precise style that, much to my chagrin, went out of fashion when styles of writing either more exuberant or more depressed became the norm. His "A Sport and a Pastime" is a masterpiece. And his collection of essays "Don't Save Anything" has much to teach those opportunists of limited experience and little reading who sell online writing courses and the like.