Re: jd is just an author

J J R (jrovira@juno.com)
Wed, 18 Nov 1998 21:10:24 -0500 (EST)

>
>My point was merely, that when you know a lot of personal facts about 
>an 
>author it´s easier to say the he/she wrote this or that piece based on 
>
>a certain life-experience... That is not really the case with 
>Salinger... 
>We know a few things but next to nothing compared to other authors... 
>
>Abra
>

CS Lewis is another one of my favorite authors, and he's one of those
rare birds that is both an accomplished literary critic AND a successful
fiction writer.  He's written essays about reading book reviews that
speculated on the intersection between Lewis's life and his fiction
work--how he let one influence the other.  He said, without exception,
the book reviewers were wrong.  I mean, they NEVER guessed right.  He
didn't know if he was the rule or the exception, but I thought it was an
interesting observation.

It's a worthless enterprise, to me, to try to second guess authors in
that way.  I'd rather just pay close attention to what they wrote :)

Jim

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