Tuesday, January 29, 2008
Hope Found
For the longest time I considered myself to be a student of classicism, addicted perhaps insalubriously to the 18th and 19th centuries, with the occasional Elizabethan foray. I adhered to such a regiment with an almost self-righteous conscience, touting the Emersonian concept of language degradation in a contemporary world of imbecilic vernacular, slurs, and abbreviations. Indeed I had despaired in the present and sought refuge in antique pages, unknowingly blinding myself to the hope that still remains for modern literature. I haven’t given it a chance, but am now more open minded, thanks to my wonderful aunt who introduced me to Jeanette Winterson. By contrast to previous dabblings in Steven King and Jonathan Franzen (who seem to sacrifice elegance and sublimity for plot-twists and length), Winterson is a remarkable change of pace, putting art and language alongside plot and context at the forefront of her work. Her words are purely brilliant and strangely memorable, the kind of poetic prose that stays with you well after closing the book. Someone in a previous post wrote about pretty sentences – Winterson is a goddess of the sentence aesthetic, and I too have underlined the near entirety of her novels as testament of her skill. Evocative, sophisticated, and legendary, Winterson gives me hope for the modern craft, but she is almost too good. It seems futile to aspire to her greatness. Is she a blessing or a curse?
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After you "urged" me to read her works, I "goggled" her name. You enjoy her prose, why? What does she have, in terms of literary skills, than a writer like King doesn’t have?
Where a writer comes from does matter. She is from England. You imagine also in terms of "visual experience," what it may mean.
Now, I don't know much about Jeanette Winterson yet, but I love listen to music and I can tell you that English singers or, even better, English song writers write differently from Americans.
Indeed, English language (spoke in England) is different from the American-English. When, for instance, I listen to Elton John’s music or I read his songs, written by Bernie Taupin, they are much more close to my way to “feel” and "see" the world, than an American author may be. Language, culture, heritage, and sense of place are fundamental for the success – success, not necessarily in terms of money - that a writer may achieve. Taupin’s lyrics are poems. You should listen to a least a few of them to see what I mean. And what a coincidence, juts today I was thinking I wanted to give you some songs he wrote because I am sure you would enjoy them.
I am a little bit - just a little but!- obsessed with language differences, translations, “translation of myself” – and so on. But because I suppose you were born in America (and I don’t know what level of experience you have with a foreign language, so I may be wrong in saying what I am going to say), you may not notice the difference, in terms of meaning, imaginary, etc, between a language and another. Just to give an example, for me to say “spaghetti,” or “red sauce,” has a deeper meaning than the sense you may give to those terms; moreover, for me, “spaghetti” have a different taste, scent, etc. I can give another concrete example. Today, in our blogging class Dr. Harrison spoke a bit about cliché. As usual, he gave us to write a flash blog, then he asked us to check on our brief written to see if there was any cliché. He mentioned a couple cliché that first I didn’t even know they existed, second I didn’t understand what they meant. I didn’t check my flash blog, because OF COURSE I couldn’t catch any cliché. I am not from here, and I don’t know any cliché!
Your writing reflects your own experience. This is why I struggle so much in writing in my American-English. Thank god, though, most of you Americans understand me, but those few who point out about my silly errors of mechanic knock me down, completely. Now, it can be enhancing or it may become a barrier. It is, as we say in Italian, un’arma a toppio taglio! (That is, something that may result positive or negative depending on the circumstances).
You are among those Americans who see Winterson as a great writer, but I am sure many – and I say, many - other Americans will consider her “too much” (too much effort, energy, too much whatever... to enjoy her works).
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