New forms in literature come from crossing genres or elevating trash.
(This is something I’ve ignored and wish I hadn’t.) No writer should ever have to hesitate for an instant over what the rule to be kept or suspended is. Grammar and composition skills should be fluent.
The main benefit of a university, to me, would be the possibility of a mentor, which Gardner mentions not at all.īut after that, there’s lots of good suggestions and directions and food for thought.Ĭhapter 2: Basic Skills, Genre and Fiction as Dream And as for spotty information, that seems like more a fault of youth or lack of reflection in the individual than something that can be blamed on not attending classes. Gardner’s stance has less weight in our “information age,” where one can air out all sorts of arguments online and receive points and counterpoints until the wee hours of the morning. That without a formal education one’s information is spotty, as it never had chance to air and grow among peers. He puts out arguments against his opposition, those in favor of experience outside of the classroom, saying that without formal education, one never fully understands the other side of one’s argument, never understands that the argument is an old one (all great arguments are), never understands the dignity and worth of the people one has cast as enemies. Gardner’s ideal of Literature requires a formal education to enable penetration into that lofty sphere. Because I learned of writing first from Henry Miller, who agrees with Gardner that there are no aesthetic rules and so everything is open to be broken, but who disagrees with his solemnity and exclusivity.
This seems to me a gentle form of insanity. Gardner considers writing to be an art with a capital “A.” Likewise, he writes of literature with a capital “L.” He writes as if Literature were a locked up secret, tucked in some dusty cabinets in some university, where standing guard are the purveyors of Literature, those lucky few initiated into its secret rites. It’s a good time for me to pick up The Art of Fiction, considered to be among the best writing on writing fiction since its publication in 1983.Ĭhapter 1: Aesthetic Law and Artistic Mystery
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