Introductions

doctorthoss · Post by **doctorthoss** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 1:32 am

It seems, after days of wrestling with nigh insurmountable technical problems, that I'm able to post here ... Me in a nutshell:
I write a lot of short fiction, primarily horror and fantasy. I've not published any, but I've published several thousand non-fiction articles in a number of newspapers. Aside from my daily job as a reporter, I teach Horror Literature and Creative Writing at a local high school. As an aside, I've been REALLY pleased to see that we finally have a literary forum -- I think it's been sorely needed for quite awhile.

ophelia · Post by **ophelia** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 1:45 am

You've reminded me of an essay I read last week on a related topic, "Why Literature?" by Mario Vargas Llosa, in which he argues for the preservation of "high literature" in a world increasingly dominated by the soundbite.

Read the essay only if you want someone to piss you off--I literally was writing FUCK YOU in the margins by the end of it, because (though I initially did agree with what I thought his point might have been) by the end of the essay he'd made so many pompous-ass comments about the throwaway meaninglessness of illiterate people and societies without written-word creative works (hi, Llosa, way to discount the entirety of the Storytelling/Bardic tradition, ya fuck) I could no longer pick thru it for the "good" points.

Thank you... I just printed it out and I'll let you know if I'm boiling or not.

JaNell · Post by **JaNell** » Sat Mar 01, 2003 8:46 am

Ladybee wrote:
Read the essay only if you want someone to piss you off--I literally was writing FUCK YOU in the margins by the end of it, because (though I initially did agree with what I thought his point might have been) by the end of the essay he'd made so many pompous-ass comments about the throwaway meaninglessness of illiterate people and societies without written-word creative works (hi, Llosa, way to discount the entirety of the Storytelling/Bardic tradition, ya fuck) I could no longer pick thru it for the "good" points.

<snip>

Literature exists because storytellers can't be everywhere at once throughout eternity.

ophelia · Post by **ophelia** » Sun Mar 02, 2003 10:57 pm

ophelia wrote:
You've reminded me of an essay I read last week on a related topic, "Why Literature?" by Mario Vargas Llosa, in which he argues for the preservation of "high literature" in a world increasingly dominated by the soundbite.

Read the essay only if you want someone to piss you off--I literally was writing FUCK YOU in the margins by the end of it, because (though I initially did agree with what I thought his point might have been) by the end of the essay he'd made so many pompous-ass comments about the throwaway meaninglessness of illiterate people and societies without written-word creative works (hi, Llosa, way to discount the entirety of the Storytelling/Bardic tradition, ya fuck) I could no longer pick thru it for the "good" points.

Thank you... I just printed it out and I'll let you know if I'm boiling or not.

Finished the essay...

This one didn't upset me... I actually agree with many of his points. He believes that Gates's proposed future of electronic literature is unimpressive, at best. I agree. Reading Shakespeare propped upright in front of a glaring computer screen would depersonalize the experience. This would dissolve the romance of "curling up with a good book." Ecologically correct or not, I am in favor of the old-fashioned printed text.

His claim that human expressions such as "eroticism" would not exist if not for literature, is, however, too far-fetched. Literature does not create the human condition, it expresses and celebrates (or unveils) it. Literature does not have the power of creation; literature is a mirror.

I can see how you perceived his essay to be negating towards Bardic/storytelling traditions, but I'm not convinced that this is his aim. He states,

"A community without a written literature expresses itself with less precision, with less richness of nuance, and with less clarity than a community whose principal instrument of communication, the word, has been cultivated and perfected by means of literary texts."

He gives credit to storytelling traditions by emphasizing "the word," which can be oral or written by definition. But he is correct that there is less precision and clarity without the written word. Bardic tales, passed down for years by word of mouth, can lose their authenticity and original intent. Did you ever play "telephone" in elementary school? It's the same idea. The can be no hidden nuance in a story that is unstable, that is told and retold, adopting the viewpoint of its orators and the changing values of the cultures that it travels through. He makes a strong argument for the meticulous nature of the written word. It is fixed, and genuine, and (most often and hopefully) unchanged from it's original objective.

OK, I'll hop off my soapbox, now. I'm too tainted by my distaste for Marxist criticism to be miffed at Llosa's essay. I found it almost refreshing. Thank you for pointing it out to me.

iblis · Post by **iblis** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 1:26 pm

JaNell wrote:
DarkVader wrote:<snip>

And you'll have to tell me what you consider literature. I know what I usually read for enjoyment, though, and I have a feeling that at least iblis may agree with me.

(from Cambridge International Dictionary of English)

literature (WRITING)
noun [U]
written artistic works, particularly those with a high and lasting artistic value
Literature includes novels, short stories, plays and poetry.

from Merriam Webster

3rd definition of literature:
a (1) : writings in prose or verse; especially : writings having excellence of form or expression and expressing ideas of permanent or universal interest (2) : an example of such writings <what came out, though rarely literature, was always a roaring good story -- People>
b : the body of written works produced in a particular language, country, or age
c : the body of writings on a particular subject <scientific literature>
d : printed matter (as leaflets or circulars) <campaign literature>

having broken my knuckles on software documentation myself (and i even used proper caps. :mrgreen:

), i would have to agree with vader here.

as for the topic at hand...

with the exception of non-fiction, on the rare occasions that i do write, they're short stories. my poetic muse is lying in a gutter somewhere, choking on her own vomit.

blackholly · Post by **blackholly** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 1:51 pm

Um, hello. I'm Holly Black and I don't live anywhere close to Knoxville, but JaNell told me to come over here and post anyway. I'm a children's book author who's written one evil young adult novel, Tithe: A Modern Faerie Tale (out now), and part of a series of much-less-evil illustrated chapter books, the Spiderwick Chronicles (first two out in May). I mostly write gothicky urban fantasy.

(And Laura, there is no good reason you should know me, although I was at WFC. I mostly know you from lurking on the SFWA boards.)

____________________
http://www.blackholly.com

keltora · Post by **keltora** » Tue Mar 04, 2003 3:27 pm

blackholly wrote:(And Laura, there is no good reason you should know me, although I was at WFC. I mostly know you from lurking on the SFWA boards.)

____________________
http://www.blackholly.com

Ah, but I looked at your picture on your webpage and would have sworn I had seen you somewhere...

Oh, well.

Yeah, the SFWA sandbox...real fun place to play, except some times there are too many big cats trying to...

You get the picture. :wink:

Laura J. Underwood

Introductions

What do you (primarily) write?

greetings, finally