Writer’s Life « Ruelle Electrique. Friend and inspiration Emily Breunig has initiated a new shared online writer’s space called The Loyalty of Writers, featuring women on writing by writing women. Treat yourself and take a […] Read Article → Excerpt from Post MFA: Covering Residencies on November 20, 2:35-3:35 at Saint Mary’s College of CA originally posted here. Mansfield Studio in the mist at MacDowell Colony On Wednesday, November 20, […] Read Article → By Your Salonniere Teaching in a sense can ruin reading.
Read Article → In the middle of a fantasy come true, your salonniere is almost at the mid-way point of a three- week fellowship at MacDowell Colony for the Arts, the oldest artist’s […] Read Article → Theory Book. Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. 1916. On the Art of Writing. 73, John Gardner. The following interview incorporates three done with John Gardner over the last decade of his life. After interviewing him in 1971, Frank McConnell wrote of the thirty-nine-year-old author as one of the most original and promising younger American novelists. His first four novels—The Resurrection (1966), The Wreckage of Agathon (1970), Grendel (1971), and The Sunlight Dialogues (1972)—represented, in the eyes of many critics and reviewers, a new and exhilarating phase in the enterprise of modern writing, a consolidation of the resources of the contemporary novel and a leap forward—or backward—into a reestablished humanism.
One finds in his books elements of the three major strains of current fiction: the elegant narrative gamesmanship of Barth or Pynchon, the hyperrealistic gothicism of Joyce Carol Oates and Stanley Elkin, and the cultural, intellectual history of Saul Bellow. “It's as if God put me on earth to write,” Gardner observed once. But why specifically Beowulf? Oh, sure. The Art of Fiction by John Gardner - How Not To Write. In this review of The Art of Fiction by John Gardner, I am going to say some very negative things about both the book and its author. This is the third time I’ve read the book and I’ve had a different experience each time I’ve dipped into the pages. Do not let my negative comments dissuade you from reading this book yourself. [Oh, but do read my conclusion at the end for a different take on this.]
Rather, consider them as a less than impartial guide to the text and its effect on one writer’s attempt (and failure) to produce serious literary fiction. John Gardner would likely say that I am simply not cut out to be a writer, but I disagree. Every creative writing student in the United States has read (or was supposed to read) John Gardner’s The Art of Fiction.
From what I can tell though, this book generally inspires one of two feelings in its readers: deep reverential love or outright contempt. But like I said, this third read of the book makes me chuckle. About the Author “Philistines!