Reading Like a Writer

[cmt2779]

One of the several books I'm reading this week is Francine Prose's Reading Like a Writer: A Guide for People Who Love Books and for Those Who Want to Write Them. I love books and occasionally I toy with the idea of more seriously practicing writing. However, for now I primarily hope that this book will give me ideas for teaching. I'll approach

Comments

[piezocuttlefish]

Prose's apology for fiction is the same as Nietzsche's: "We have art so that we do not perish of truth.". I find that apologue ultimately unsatisfying, for it maligns both life and art. I'm certainly comfortable with the idea of life being a condition for which one needs palliatives, but a more constructive apology is necessary if fiction is to have any sort of legtimacy at all. Any number of worthless things may serve as distractions until death, and fiction isn't somehow saved by being a more widely-appreciated palliative.

[cmt2779]

I agree. This apology represents a part of what literature can do, but there has to be more than that. Actually, the fact that she limits herself to this reasoning actually reinforces for me the fact that, as I argued in the entry, she leaves out a large part of the experience of literature in favor of her own preferences.