Same Old Rant
Jun. 7th, 2005 06:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hafoc
It occurs to me that what's wrong with Culture (as I see it) is that somewhere we got the insane idea that it's not supposed to be FUN.
I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo, a fun book indeed. But in the introduction, the translator, Mr. Robin Buss, observes that English 19th Century serious novelists looked down on the "French" novels of Balzac and Dumas. After all, Dumas made the "error" of writing about the unusual, giving us _The Three Musketeers_ and such. While they, the English, used the proper technique of writing about everyday people in everyday situations, thus to better Illuminate the Human Condition. With the result of producing such barnburners as _The Mill on the Floss_ or _The Mayor of Casterbridge._
And that seems to be the attitude yet today. Unless a novel is about nothing in particular, it's no good. We must Illuminate the Human Condition, no matter how depressing, dull, or trite the results may be.
I might respectfully suggest to the literari that, should they wish to have the Human Condition properly Illuminated for themselves, they should do volunteer work in a soup kitchen, hospital, or homeless shelter. Or perhaps take a minimum-wage assembly line job, with no way to get back out. Such experiences will teach them all they ever wanted to know about the Human Condition, and more.
As for me, I have had about as much of the Human Condition as I care to take. As of now, if it ain't fun, I ain't reading it. And I'm not about to apologize for that, either.
I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo, a fun book indeed. But in the introduction, the translator, Mr. Robin Buss, observes that English 19th Century serious novelists looked down on the "French" novels of Balzac and Dumas. After all, Dumas made the "error" of writing about the unusual, giving us _The Three Musketeers_ and such. While they, the English, used the proper technique of writing about everyday people in everyday situations, thus to better Illuminate the Human Condition. With the result of producing such barnburners as _The Mill on the Floss_ or _The Mayor of Casterbridge._
And that seems to be the attitude yet today. Unless a novel is about nothing in particular, it's no good. We must Illuminate the Human Condition, no matter how depressing, dull, or trite the results may be.
I might respectfully suggest to the literari that, should they wish to have the Human Condition properly Illuminated for themselves, they should do volunteer work in a soup kitchen, hospital, or homeless shelter. Or perhaps take a minimum-wage assembly line job, with no way to get back out. Such experiences will teach them all they ever wanted to know about the Human Condition, and more.
As for me, I have had about as much of the Human Condition as I care to take. As of now, if it ain't fun, I ain't reading it. And I'm not about to apologize for that, either.
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no subject
Date: 2005-06-08 12:18 am (UTC)