MrsHughey.com

Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world

We've just come back from a lovely dinner with PJ at Moonlight Tandoori. YUM. As usual, I overate and am now sleepy.

I am excited about all the new comments and readers I seem to be attracting here. In the last week I have heard from at least 3 readers I'd never met before (via private email). How exciting! It does tend to make me want to write back to them RIGHT NOW, though - which can be bad for the novel.

I'm re-reading _On Writing_, this time with a highlighter, and nearly finished with it (again). There are parts of it - whole sections - that I have read three or four times already. It probably sounds odd or fanboyish, but Stephen King is my muse.

It's not that I'm such a huge fan of his novels, per se, although I do love some of them. Others I've put down without finishing. It's not his books that I'm a fan of so much as his work. I know that sounds like the same thing, but it's not. I have such admiration for his work ethic and his ability. He is supremely talented, yes, but the thing that attracts me to him is that he seems to love and adore writing as much as I do, and in much the same way. The way he talks and writes about writing - as a craft and a trade - really could have come straight out of me. He doesn't write because he HAS to, really. He writes because he truly, deeply LOVES it.

Something that bothers me about King is that so many people who think they are smart look down their noses at people like him and J.K. Rowling. I think that's crap. It's not fair to dismiss a writer because he or she is popular with a mass audience (any more than it's fair to assume they're wonderful because they sell). In fact, it's ridiculous. Sure, there are popular writers who are lousy, but King and Rowling tell a heck of a story. So what if a lot of people like and - gasp! - understand them!

I am, deep in my core, a Romantic. That's with a capital "R". I believe in art as a force, and I, like Wordsworth and Coleridge, believe that art should be available to all comers. I believe that literature is beautiful and can illuminate minds in a very special way. I think it should explore new ideas and reflect the beauty in nature and man.

I don't like the tact that for writing to be "good" or "artistic" or "worthy" it has to go above everybody's head. In fact, this drives me crazy! Writing can be artistic and beautiful (ie. emotional) at the same time. It can be meaningful, multi-layered, and still tell an understandable and enjoyable story. I don't think that a graduate degree and a set of encyclopedias should be a pre-requisite for understanding a book, and so often I think modernist books require that.

I'm just venting here. Sure, there are modern books I like. But I think it's the more Romantic parts of those books that I enjoy. I like the STORY. I like to be emotionally involved with the characters. I like to be pulled into a world and along for the ride. I don't like feeling distanced from the characters or their feelings, or having to interpret every paragraph I read.

I'm afraid that a lot of "literature" has gotten away from telling a good story in order to be "artistic". And I think that makes a lot of it lousy. If you want to write a 500 page book that makes no logical sense and call it art, fine. But put it in a museum and maybe I'll stroll by and gaze at it for a few seconds. I don't want to waste my time reading it.

Posted by Erin at January 17, 2003 09:39 PM