I am trying temporarily to escape (look Emily, no split infinitive) from the Greek verb eimi. It calls louder and louder and distracts me.
Do you ever begin to think youself very brave? Very grown-up? Be careful! Suddenly you will be walking down your own tree-lined, safe, sidewalked street and a truck will pass by, a flag pole cable will clink and a dog will bark all at once. Your instincts, which your mature consciousness had thought mastered, will nearly send you scurring under a bush. Primal fear is never very far away. Do sights or sounds frighten you more?
Do you think anyone has ever come up with a good explanation of what creates quality in art? Doestoevsky and Hemingway are so different in style and content, but they are both "good." Is it originality? Is it a distinctive style and mastery of language? Is it the metaphors and philosophical undertones? Is it realism and compelling characters? Is it all of these?
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2 comments:
Michaela:
It is wonderfully fun to irresponsibly split infinitives.
I would answer your question, but I have turned into a mushroom this summer and I no longer have intelligent thoughts.
Definitely - philosophy in literature should be covert. I think that's why I like Hemingway better than, say, Brothers K. Hemingway's philosophy is entwined in his characters, his scenery, his very sentence structure. I am reading "Streams of the Gulf" - or something like that (my mind has never been a precision instrument). It is wonderful. His descriptions of island life are so real - you can feel the sand under your belly, taste the way food tastes differently in the tropics. Hell, I want to write like him. He was so damn good.
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