It's interesting how Zadie attacks Eliot's central tenet in his essay by saying, "Literary success, or failure, depends not only on the refinement of words on a page [referring to Eliot’s idea of the supremacy of the craft], but in the refinement of a consciousness, what Aristotle called the education of the emotions.”
Not everyone, in her view, can write that novel. But I don’t think that Eliot was completely negating the personal. What he was saying, and which Zadie overlooks, is that even when one has had the kind of life that should propel one to write, say, Ulysses, it would not happen unless the germ of talent exists. Zadie is driving the essay on a different track to Eliot. She is presupposing the writerly gift.
It's interesting how Zadie attacks Eliot's central tenet in his essay by saying, "Literary success, or failure, depends not only on the refinement of words on a page [referring to Eliot’s idea of the supremacy of the craft], but in the refinement of a consciousness, what Aristotle called the education of the emotions.”
ReplyDeleteNot everyone, in her view, can write that novel. But I don’t think that Eliot was completely negating the personal. What he was saying, and which Zadie overlooks, is that even when one has had the kind of life that should propel one to write, say, Ulysses, it would not happen unless the germ of talent exists. Zadie is driving the essay on a different track to Eliot. She is presupposing the writerly gift.