Subject: Re: Neat? No?
From: Cecilia Baader (ceciliabaader@yahoo.com)
Date: Sat Jan 26 2002 - 02:08:15 GMT
--- Scottie Bowman <rbowman@indigo.ie> wrote:
>
> Well, no, Cecilia. Master Schemmel has contracted that
> terrible obsessive/compulsive condition, salingeroid ventriloquism
> (where the writer has abandoned the use of his own voice for that
> of another) - a condition I've warned members about on numerous
> previous occasions.
It occurs to me that this criticism is not only true of this story but
also of many post-Salingerian modern writers. (Can we dub this a literary
movement? The Sal-Pals? Er, sorry.) Every writer is influenced by
someone or another. In fact, most of the moderns English-language writers
will probably find their roots in some combination of Salinger, Faulkner,
and Hemingway.
So where, then, does the connection become less influence and more
imitation? Writers, if they've spent any time at it, know that they're
generally repeating what has already been said over and over, ad
infinitum, through the ages. So the key is to say it in an accent that is
different from everyone else's. Someone who can manage that comes along
maybe once in a generation. Have we found this generation's voice?
Something tells me no. Not really. The whole lot of us are a bunch of
Sal-Faulk-Hem clones. Derivative, for chrissakes.
Regards,
Cecilia.
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions!
http://auctions.yahoo.com
-
* Unsubscribing? Mail majordomo@roughdraft.org with the message
* UNSUBSCRIBE BANANAFISH
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Wed Mar 20 2002 - 09:27:54 GMT