Wednesday, February 3, 2010

What indecision?

I finished Zadie Smith's perfect essay on David Foster Wallace's Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, and just last night I read Wellington's Frostbite: A Werewolf Tale. (I think I may have mentioned starting that one.) Before that? Shteygart. Today I ordered a (used, these are frugal times) copy of Whitehead's Sag Harbor. And Joe Hill's Horns is the literary event of the year, for me, I'm thinking. What does any of this signify?
Am I a reader of wide taste? Does this mean easy, or even no, taste? What does this say about me as a potential writer? (I say potential because, though I feel I have it in me to write, do I really? What does potential even mean?) Will I feel bored/unsatisfied writing literary fiction? Will I feel like a hack writing horror? Is there any way to even begin combining the two without seeming like an utter shit? Is it moral, in the Wallacian sense, to even contemplate doing it? I guess the first thing to do this to come up with some use, some allegory for horror fiction. And then some reason for wanting to tie it into a more intellectually demanding form of writing, aside from "formal stunt-pilotry." After all, isn't that what I would be trying to achieve? A look-ma-no-hands literary ease?

2 comments:

  1. Are you writing for the reader or for you? Reading, for me, is an escape. A book is something I can turn to so that I can feel at ease. What ever the book is about, it is exactly what I need at that moment. Don't second guess feelings. Believe that what ever you decide to write is what someone will need. If even one person reads what you have written and it has helped them in some way, it doesn't really matter what "kind" of book it is.

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  2. I've gotten this kind of advice before, but that doesn't mean that it isn't enlightening every time I hear it, especially when it's put so eloquently and simply. (I guess I should post it on my writing desk somewhere, haha.)

    But, yes. Thank you for reminding me. I've always read what I read in an attempt to feel less alone. Maybe I should start writing in that spirit. :)

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