read OR write
Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Tue, 27 Jul 1999 08:13:32 +0100
Jim just happens to be the latest list I've read.
So I'm not picking especially on him - though
my eyes *do* tend to cross at the thought of
someone finding Jung truer (even 'to himself')
than old Sigmund & the company of Jane Austen,
Willa Cather, Gustav Flaubert, Emile Zola
& Sam Beckett somehow negligible.
No. My first reaction to all this literary delight
is the thought that everybody should really get
out in the fresh air more, meet some girls, polish
the social skills a bit. All this reading in a hot stuffy
room *can't* be good for anyone & often leads
to unwholesome habits.
Worse, it can't be good for one's writing. So many
of you are writers. How can you bear to trudge
through all this stuff by other people? If they're
better than you there will be the ever present
temptation to imitate, coupled with a discouraging
sense of envious inferiority. And if they're not so good,
you will only grow complacent.
I can't remember when I last read a piece of fiction.
In truth, my most reliable reading pleasure lies in
my collection of aircraft magazines & reference books.
Furthermore, I'm not at all sure I believe this story
about what great readers most writers seem to be.
I remember Mike Donleavy saying all he ever read
was the Sears Roebuck catalogue. I know exactly
how he feels.
Scottie B.