curricula & cases
Scottie Bowman (rbowman@indigo.ie)
Wed, 10 Mar 1999 08:04:16 +0000
'…My question is, do we "have to" ascribe the worst
possible motives to an action at all times?…'
Yes, it's a pretty safe guide, Jim. In the undying words
of my hero, Sigmund Freud, most of humanity is trash.
Will's practice of admiring & respecting everybody,
regardless of their merit, is really only for the genuine,
certified saints of this world. Not for the likes of you
& me.
I belong to four other 'literary' groups: the Jane Austen,
the Trollope & the two Hemingways. On only one of these
(Ernest-L) have I ever seen - & then very rarely indeed -
the all lower case posting. It was as striking as a chap
walking into a shop without his clothes. Nudism may be
a fine, natural way of living but encountered in the high
street it does raise a few questions. Or are we to assume
that Salinger attracts a larger proportion of the vegetarian,
sandal-wearing, Foucault-reading, green-ink brigade?
On the question of reading tastes, may I offer a personal
confession?
For years I'd heard Henry James & Marcel Proust
commended by the cognoscenti. Yet I never managed to get
beyond the first chapter or so of either. Then, rather
to my amazement, I read somewhere that Graham Greene
invariably referred to James as the Master. And not very long
afterwards, came across Hemingway's tribute to Proust.
My idolatry of the two modern writers was enough to intice
me into one last attempt at the older boys' stuff. If the two men
whose styles obsessed me had learned from people with ways
of writing so dissimilar, then I should not exclude myself, either,
from those particular classrooms.
The result was predictable. My ears were shut to the recommendation
of anyone who spent his energies teaching rather than writing.
Whereas by identifying with an admired professional I was
able to force an entry into the work of two writers who,
in the end, have given me very great - & repeated - pleasure.
Scottie B.