me is what it’s about
I like to feel that novelists are seriously dedicated to their art, which means doing a lot of reading and thinking about the novel. Sometimes it seems like writing novels has become a contemporary form of expression, expression of self. Much like being a Renaissance gentleman writing a sonnet. It’s seen as a thing that anyone with a reasonable amount of education can do, and it’s your duty as a citizen to write a half-dozen novels.
Do you think a lot of people see it that way?
Yes, I think self-hood, expression of the self, me, is what it’s about. Now, when you’re reading a master, when you’re reading James, you do feel you’re in the hands of someone who’s given his life to this, and a colossal intelligence, and a highly informed intelligence. That’s true of Conrad, too.
I read a lot of the beginnings of contemporary novels. I get sent hundreds of them. I always read the first 10 or 20 pages. Well, sometimes not 10, sometimes one and a half. It’s rare that I feel that sense of being in good hands. It’s almost impossible to find.
Ian McEwan, Salon interview
[x]#1175 fan maandag 11 april 2005 @ 10:18:37
