It fascinates me how many different ways there are to think about writing.
Fellow #writers, do any of you resonate with these words by William Gass, in a 1976 interview in The Paris Review?
https://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3576/the-art-of-fiction-no-65-william-gass
If not (and I suspect it's "not" for most of you), what *would* you say motivates your work? Has it always been this way, or have your motivations changed over time?
Someone asked me a few weeks back what my favourite novels were. Then I had a Bad Time harassed on the street & forgot. 🙃 So many! How to choose?
Brothers K is one I feel too personally to rank; others include The Sea, The Sea; Light in August; Middlemarch; A Cure for Suicide; Golden Notebook; Anathem...
But for exquisite books? Top 3?
The Name of the Rose
The Years of Rice and Salt
One Hundred Years of Solitude
Books that seek wholehearted immersion will always win my heart.
Y tú? 👀
#Books
@MLClark Oh dear, you've opened up a can of worms here. My top three are probably:
*The Master and Margarita by MIkhail Bulgakov (barely beating out The Brothers K for favorite Russian novel)
*Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon (which has its problematic moments, as I think we've discussed before)
*Alice in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
The Name of the Rose is up there in my heart as a former medievalist.
Poetry is a different matter, and a different list.
@stephen_a_allen Oh, The Master and Margarita is a WONDERFUL contender for top prize. What a brilliant juxtaposition of narrative constructs - so rich in discourse that every reader seems to come out with a different interpretation of what is being deconstructed, what condemned, & what remade. As good lit should do!
:) I will look forward to that poetry list in due course!
(Your email was a lovely gift this week, BTW. Thank you for that joy. Reply forthcoming - but gratitude in abundance now!)