Tag: writing

The individual who does not read fiction usually considers literature to be futile and incapable of having a practical influence on his life. But whether he knows it or not, to deprive oneself of literature is to deprive oneself of the apprehension of possibilities, which practically means limiting one’s own life. Still in practical terms, the illiterate will always distinguish himself by taxing the old as new, and by standing in front of an infinity of trivialities without knowing how to react.

The false writer gives up his individuality in order to please, and for this he receives the prize of social acceptance. He is false, firstly, because he does not assert himself, and secondly, because he believes that social acceptance is a prize. How much easier things are for the true writer! He sees the dilemma as a wonderful win-win situation: he affirms himself by displeasing, and thus receives the benefit of social rejection.

The least that is expected of a writer worthy of the name is to consider as an insult the mere conjecture of these adepts of modern social engineering, who think they have the right and the power to determine how others should express themselves. Because this is exactly what the language police deserve: absolute and utter contempt, which must be extended to the writer who submits to it, who humiliates himself by adapting to the sudden and delirious dictates of half a dozen clowns who believe they are powerful enough to subordinate literary traditions that go back centuries and will go on for many more.

More unjustifiable than the obsession with originality is the embarrassment arising from the realization that what was said now had already been said a long time ago. What to say? The author who, recording his own impressions, notices something that has already been noticed before, instead of being embarrassed that he was not the first, or that he did not know the primary source—which is often untraceable—should be satisfied with having come to the same conclusion through direct perception, rejoicing as do those who find something in common in the other.