It is so very interesting, but is it true? I find myself agreeing with Orwell often in these extracts, but here I was frowning. Are good novels REALLY only written by people who aren't frightened? Could a novelist not be frightened but write in the face of it? I'm thinking maybe of Lowry's The Volcano. There must be others. And I'm not sure about "How many Roman Catholics have been good novelists? Even the handful one could name have usually been bad Catholics. The novel is practically a Protestant form of art; it is a product of the free mind, of the autonomous individual." Was Graham Greene a bad Catholic? What IS a bad Catholic. I grew up as a bad Protestant but then I've never written a novel. Can a novelist not be frightened but write a novel that frightens others? I was frightened by Orwell's 1984. Wasn't he?
I love Orwell’s writing voice. That slightly exasperated tone, the sarcasm humor, the deeply-held opinions and above all the unwavering belief that good people have a duty to maintain standards of honesty and conduct, no matter how appallingly the rest of the world behaves.
Surely a novelist can only write ‘in the face of being frightened’ if he or she is unafraid to express his or her own real but ‘unacceptable’ thoughts, feelings or opinions? If afraid to do this, because of the power of some prevailing orthodoxy, how can you write well?
Great admirer of Orwell, but I wonder why he dismissed American writers of the period. I get the antipathy for Hemingway, but “Grapes of Wrath” had appeared the previous year. It certainly was steeped in the leftist politics of the ‘30s, but it stood well as an account of the suffering of dispossessed Americans in Depression, in much the same way Orwell did with mining families in “Wigan Pier.” Steinbeck clearly wasn’t frightened.
It is so very interesting, but is it true? I find myself agreeing with Orwell often in these extracts, but here I was frowning. Are good novels REALLY only written by people who aren't frightened? Could a novelist not be frightened but write in the face of it? I'm thinking maybe of Lowry's The Volcano. There must be others. And I'm not sure about "How many Roman Catholics have been good novelists? Even the handful one could name have usually been bad Catholics. The novel is practically a Protestant form of art; it is a product of the free mind, of the autonomous individual." Was Graham Greene a bad Catholic? What IS a bad Catholic. I grew up as a bad Protestant but then I've never written a novel. Can a novelist not be frightened but write a novel that frightens others? I was frightened by Orwell's 1984. Wasn't he?
I love Orwell’s writing voice. That slightly exasperated tone, the sarcasm humor, the deeply-held opinions and above all the unwavering belief that good people have a duty to maintain standards of honesty and conduct, no matter how appallingly the rest of the world behaves.
Courage is action in the face of fear.
Great novels are written by authors who are pissed.
The Hemingway approach? Write drunk, edit sober?
The cynical ones. [shotgun blast]
Gotcha. Write drunk, edit sober, publish posthumously.
I would prefer not to idolize suicidal ash-holes who write good fiction. Was trying to be subtle.
Surely a novelist can only write ‘in the face of being frightened’ if he or she is unafraid to express his or her own real but ‘unacceptable’ thoughts, feelings or opinions? If afraid to do this, because of the power of some prevailing orthodoxy, how can you write well?
Great admirer of Orwell, but I wonder why he dismissed American writers of the period. I get the antipathy for Hemingway, but “Grapes of Wrath” had appeared the previous year. It certainly was steeped in the leftist politics of the ‘30s, but it stood well as an account of the suffering of dispossessed Americans in Depression, in much the same way Orwell did with mining families in “Wigan Pier.” Steinbeck clearly wasn’t frightened.
What a great read. So, so intelligent.