Fiction writing
Fiction writing has always come from the margins, from the out there, the other place. Whatever it took to please the king, the queen, and everyone of power in between, the "where to" and "to whom" of words are perhaps the easiest to discern. Just look at the envelope. However the "why" of words is not so easily fleshed out. The "what in the world?" in your pajamas and scratching your head in the morning phenomenon -- opening the mailbox to find the multicolored envelope addressed to "The One Who Walks Beside You" has always taken the balance out of everything.
The words and stories attributed to Scheherazade, Aesop, Uncle Remus, any Irishman of the world, any woman, any personage not at court -- all come from the radical position of outsider. Pen in hand for power, for freedom, for fame, for sex, for money, for love -- this is the rhetorical stance of fiction. Sir Walter Raleigh and Andrew Marvell wouldn't have writ a thing if not pushed by ideas embodied in the image of The Muse -- love promised, imagined, or rewarded. And many names of the familiar -- Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Samuel Clemens -- all began as outsiders -- made insiders over time by academics concocting college syllabi.
Literary canon-making is a relatively young human activity -- the idea of literary canon-formation beginning in the 18th century (coinciding with the rise of the English middle class and literacy rates) had an Epic purpose -- to preserve a national identity and a national literary heritage. Post-colonial Americans, English wannabe's for so long, naturally took on the tendency to do the same thing. Coupled with other 20th century historical events, such as The Cold War, the need for a large college educated workforce had increased to the point where the imagined effect of a school textbook had actual worrisome potential. The cannon is in the textbook. Boom go the walls.
The words and stories attributed to Scheherazade, Aesop, Uncle Remus, any Irishman of the world, any woman, any personage not at court -- all come from the radical position of outsider. Pen in hand for power, for freedom, for fame, for sex, for money, for love -- this is the rhetorical stance of fiction. Sir Walter Raleigh and Andrew Marvell wouldn't have writ a thing if not pushed by ideas embodied in the image of The Muse -- love promised, imagined, or rewarded. And many names of the familiar -- Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Samuel Clemens -- all began as outsiders -- made insiders over time by academics concocting college syllabi.
Literary canon-making is a relatively young human activity -- the idea of literary canon-formation beginning in the 18th century (coinciding with the rise of the English middle class and literacy rates) had an Epic purpose -- to preserve a national identity and a national literary heritage. Post-colonial Americans, English wannabe's for so long, naturally took on the tendency to do the same thing. Coupled with other 20th century historical events, such as The Cold War, the need for a large college educated workforce had increased to the point where the imagined effect of a school textbook had actual worrisome potential. The cannon is in the textbook. Boom go the walls.
Labels: Fiction writing
