Quoteskimming

[kellyrfineman]

It's a term I've just coined to describe what I'm about to do: Gank a few writing-related quotes from here and there.

Here: From the book Possession by A.S. Byatt, which I read this week and which nearly made me decide that I should never try to write anything because, damn, Byatt's one creative, smart writer

Comments

[jamarattigan]

Thanks for these very thought-provoking quotes, Kelly. I'm still trying to get past the thing about poets writing for the life of the language, and novelists for the betterment of the world. I'm with you. It's overly simplistic. Also demeaning to poets. It seems wrong to weigh one art form against another. Each expresses essential truths via different means. Any novelist who thinks he/she writes "for the betterment of the world," is too full of himself. In my humble opinion, every writer writes to be heard and understood. One really cannot control whether the world will benefit or not.
I'm also guessing that Byatt hasn't read the HP books. She's jealous.

[kellyrfineman]

Jealous she may be, but there's no denying her spectacular writing talent. The thing is, most poets DO write for the life of the language (if they're any good, that is). But so do great novelists, I believe. They make sure to use proper tenses and to go for the juicier words, instead of the simple thrift-store variety

[jamarattigan]

Will definitely check out the other passage on reading you recommended. Perhaps I did misinterpret since the passage was out of context. I'm thinking now that someone whose talent is that spectacular is bound to have blind spots. Yet somehow I sense her condescension toward the HP books, so she is taking a superior attitude. What does she say to those readers who love both her work and HP? Again, the issue of being too judgmental. It's the old literary vs. popular fiction debate. Both are valid forms, which serve different purposes and appeal to different tastes. One is not better than the other, just different.

[kellyrfineman]

Yeah -- I'm in that camp. Love-love-love HP, can't say fully how truly wonderful Possession is (and how intellectual it is). But Byatt is a novelist, and only wrote poems for Possession because she needed them (there's an interesting essay about how she came to write the novel on her website).

I suppose I'm easy -- I like good, well-crafted commercial stuff as well as high literature (and if I had to pick one, it might be the former). Kinda like I enjoy junk food, home cooking and gourmet stuff -- different, but all good in its own right.

Great quotations

[jeannineatkins]

Thanks so much! I agree with you that I couldn't adhere to the one about poets writing for language, and novelists for the world, but as you said, it does make you think. It sounds like a line that would be great to throw into a class to get discussions rolling.

But my favorite quote was Austen, "not at all in a humour for writing." It's nice to have company!

And I do like your quoteskimming!

Re: Great quotations

[kellyrfineman]

Me too -- I like the word, and I like the act. I believe I'll try to do it weekly from now on, just because it's so much fun!