Re: Ideas, finite and infinite
Camille Scaysbrook (c_scaysbrook@yahoo.com)
Wed, 18 Aug 1999 16:42:43 +1000
This is a quality I've noticed in all the best writing I've ever read -
that it seems to be what's going on *between* the lines that is the true
success - and true meaning - of the writing. This, I think, is the one
thing that cannot be manufactured, it comes from the elusive Something that
separates a good artist (or piece of art) from a great one. Catcher is one
such work to my mind, and Katherine Mansfield is another such writer.
Perhaps the reason Salinger's later work is comparitively non-satisfying is
that *nothing* seems to be left between the lines, he scrapes out every
piece of dirt and every stray hairpin from every little crack and puts 'em
on display!
Perhaps what I'm saying is that great pieces of art have some amount of
adaptability built into them, either consciously or subconsciously - which
goes back to what Scottie is saying. Catcher, while set in the 50's, will
always be a resonant story, whereas, say, `Absolute Beginners', a book that
is often compared to it, will not. The best comparison would be
Shakespeare, whose works, while firmly and obdurately set in and produced
for English Elizabethans, is infinitely adaptable and will never lose its
overall meaning to the ages.
Camille
verona_beach@geocities.com
Ed Fenning wrote:
> Hi Camille,
>
> Though you are absolutely right about this dilemma, the optimist
> in me has found many writers who have been able to overcome what can
> indeed feel overwhelming. If I’ve read something that has made me take
> pause, because I’ve been moved by the what the writer was trying
> express, then, I think they have communicated successfully, not only
> their insights and ideas, but all the inclusive subtleties and/or
> implications that do make the work’s quality infinite.
> What immediately sprang to mind was a very short story, from some
> years back by an Australian writer, about a grown daughter and her
> father going to visit the mother in the hospital on a rainy night.
> For me, the subtleties of each person’s perceptions of what went on
> that evening, their emotions, remembrances, and personal history; were
> conveyed in an immediate and timeless manner by the author.
>
>
> This is just off the top of my head at work. I’ll have the author’s
> name, story, and anthology title, to post tomorrow.
>
>
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