Technology as Nature is a very interesting blog that always offers food for thought.
To be a great writer you nearly have to have lead an interesting life,
says the blog’s author in a recent post. I always make an effort not to find out about the lives of writers I like, so I’m not sure how true that is. Let’s join forces and share what we know about the lives of authors whose work we enjoy.
Jane Austen definitely had the most boring life ever.
Anthony Trollope held a demanding full-time job while churning out one lengthy novel after another.
Maybe somebody could see Dostoyevsky’s life as exciting due to his gambling addiction but I see it mostly as miserable and drab. Endless poverty, endless efforts to pay the bills. Sounds very unenviable.
Juan Goytisolo narrates his life in a way that makes it sound fun but, as for actual events, I don’t know. He traveled a lot, so maybe that counts.
Hemingway’s life was fun but I don’t consider him a good writer.
Of course, Cervantes had a life and a half, so in his case the quoted statement bears out.
My most favorite writer in the world, Volodimir Vinnychenko, had a fascinating existence. He went from a family of illiterate starving workers to become the Prime Minister of the Ukrainian Republic and the most famous Ukrainian writer of his time – and all that without any formal schooling.
Do you know about anybody else’s life?
The reason why I’m getting so hung up on the linked post is that I just discovered that the Russian poet Lermontov owned two slaves. To me it means that I will not be reading this particular poet aloud to Eric. And I really liked his poetry. But now it’s all spoiled for me.
Some people know how to narrate the most trivial, insignificant little events in a manner that makes them sound fascinating. And then there are those who experience fascinating things but don’t know how to put them in words in a way that would make anybody interested in reading about them.
Clarissa's Blog 
How does one go about living a life and a half?
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🙂 🙂 There is no such expression in English, is there? 🙂
I was trying to say that he had a very full and exciting life where many things happened.
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Ah, I knew what you meant. I guess I’d meant to say, how can I go about living a life and a half?
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Cervantes’s life was filled with excitement but probably not extremely happy or comfortable. I don’t know, I prefer adventures of the spirit to any real ones. 🙂
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I don’t think you need to have an interesting life. I think you need to be a great witness to everyone else’s lives, though. Even if you’re just reading the paper and then piecing together things into fictional tapestries. (Take a piece here and a piece there, then weave things together.) The most important thing is to have insight into the human condition — even if that means completely making up something or using fantasy/sci-fi elements. It will ring true if there is insight, even if the whole thing is imaginary.
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Agreed. Thumbs up!
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I agree. I lead a boring life. However when I do talk about my past, people prick up their eyes/ears and read/listen on. So, maybe I do have somewhat of an interesting life to other people.
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I think it depends on the subject of the writing. Is the writing about general Ideas, like Plato’s, which are unconnected to our earthly lives, or some general moral idea or worldview, or about a specific time and place with its’ specific problems and author’s offers of solving them? To write about the latter, an author must know the social reality well and in most cases personal experience (of observation / contact) is required, imo.
I was fascinated by the unusual English of Jane Austen’s works, so read most of them. However, her subject matter is as limited as, I suppose, her life has been. Her heroes all belong to a very specific social class with very specific concerns. At the time of colonialism and other important events, they care only about their little bubble world (*) of marriages and money considerations, and are (to me) boring.
Emily Dickinson and Christina Rossetti also led sheltered lives. They produced famous poetry, but open to them topics were limited because of their living conditions.
I love realistic literature and to be capable of criticizing society, it helps if an author has varied life experience. Jack London and George Orwell had interesting lives. Without his experience of colonialist rule (“Shooting an Elephant” essay) and without studying the lives of the poor, Orwell wouldn’t be capable of writing his numerous essays and several of his books, which I also consider wonderful literature. George Bernard Shaw had a less interesting life, but was a political activist, who cared to study not only middle-high classes’ lives and so, unlike Austen, wrote not only about them.
(*) In the novels. In the real life they surely cared about British empire too.
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// To me it means that I will not be reading this particular poet aloud to Eric. And I really liked his poetry. But now it’s all spoiled for me.
Is Pushkin OK? Don’t remember Lermontov’s poems for children, but Pushkin’s are popular.
Btw, you strongly feel about authors’ private lives, but aren’t the messages in their works at least as important? “Cinderella” f.e. is a patriarchal fairy-tale. If you see the message and dislike it, isn’t it spoiled for you too?
I don’t think not exposing children to problematic fairy-tales is the solution, but agree with desire of some feminist parents to bring children good tales with good ideology in addition. F.e. tales in which a girl does something, except marrying a prince or sacrificing everything for a relationship, as in my favorite Andersen’s “The Little Mermaid”. There are even lists like “100 feminist books for girls” and why not? May be one day you’ll have a suggestion thread for good children books? English speakers could recommend good USA books for kids, other readers – internationally famous and Russian ones. 🙂
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Wait, the Little Mermaid is the most patriarchal tale of all, isn’t it? And obviously I will only be telling Eric stories like Cinderella in my personal retelling: “So once there was a bunch of these weird freakazoids . . .” 🙂
I don’t like Pushkin but we have a huge fan in the house who can’t go an hour without reciting some Pushkin. It’s a good thing because a small boy should definitely hear the tale of the old fisherman.
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Are weird freakazoids the evil stepmother with her daughters, or are Cinderella with the Prince included?
You are not the only one to do retellings:
Fairy Tales: Traditional Stories Retold for Gay Men
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/364250.Fairy_Tales
// Wait, the Little Mermaid is the most patriarchal tale of all, isn’t it?
F.e. “The Ugly Duckling” is also ideologically problematic because of its’ ideas of essentialism: the “duckling” having only ONE group he naturally belongs to, everybody having one natural, determined by biology place, etc. The retelling tries to parody and confront those messages, but why are the originals so much better? I love Andersen, while the parodies are 😦
The not patriarchal and good book is “Pippi Longstocking” and I read a good review of Lindgren’s “Mio, My Son” too.
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And oh God, how I hated the perky Pippi!
I was a weird child.
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// Wait, the Little Mermaid is the most patriarchal tale of all, isn’t it?
Have you liked it before? Now? Despite the message. If yes, why not tell and then tell a fairy tale with another message?
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I hate all Andersen. He is depressing and should not be given to children. Or that horrible Little Prince. Why do kids need this depressing stuff? I hated it in childhood.
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My sister tells me children’s books are a total disaster. She has to change everything in them as she reads aloud to her daughter to avoid stupid and anti-feminist messages.
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May be a thread for your sister’s daughter then? Does she read her only in English or in Russian too? In addition to Brother’s Grimm and Andersen, I absolutely loved П.П. Бажов (“Медной горы хозяйка” and his other tales). He writes about unslaved Russian working people before the revolution, especially the ones with artistic talent. I think his tales are pro-freedom and pro-individuality of everybody, and thus feminist by definition.
From wiki:
Bazhov is best known for his collection of fairy tales The Malachite Casket (“Малахитовая Шкатулка”), based on Ural folklore and published in the Soviet Union in 1939. In 1944, the translation of the collection into English was published in New York and London.
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Yes, these are great tales but they are for much older kids.
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I quite liked Catherynne Valente’s “Fairyland” series. I think it’s aimed at older children though.
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I don’t think these tales do any harm as long as the kids also get to hear/read tales without those particular biases. Parent behaviour has much more of an influence, anyway.
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Oh, I agree completely! As a child, I loved stories about little Lenin to the extent that I stole a book of them once. These days I’m neither a Leninist nor a lover of horrible literature. 🙂
I’m going to avoid these tales for my own sake, not Eric’s because they aggravate me.
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I know this is a side note. But this is in regard to the fairy tale discussion up thread. I grew up reading fairy tales. I loved them and I always knew when an end had been changed or the story wasn’t original. I could just sense that the adults were changing things and it offended me. When I got a little older (maybe 7 or so) I started reading the Andrew Lang renditions (Pink, Blue Brown fairy books etc.) And they portrayed such an exciting world full of magic, adventure, and tragedy, and were so beautifully written and illustrated, that I partially credit those books with making me fall in love with literature and reading.
This isn’t to convince you to read fairy tales to Little Eric. I certainly understand when parents want their children to avoid them. But I just wanted to say they were a source of great joy to me and I consider myself a fairly ardent feminist tpday. So I don’t think the messages really had any lasting or negative effects. All that I really retained as the joy of reading. 🙂
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I am from another culture, but even I recently heard about Andrew Lang’s books. Unfortunately, it’s too late for me, but may be not for Klubnikis and Eric.
Continuing with memories: E. T. A. Hoffmann’s fairy tales were great too, they are the real horror genre for kids. 🙂
Черная курица, или Подземные жители — волшебная повесть для детей Антония Погорельского, написанная в 1829 году.
I believe it sends a great message, not often seen in kids’ lit: somebody not evil, a hero of the story, can do a bad thing, which can never be fixed and somebody else will suffer horribly for it, no matter how good the hero becomes or how sorry he is.
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I liked collections of fairy takes from different parts of the world. My favorite ones were about Hodja Nasreddin.
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// And oh God, how I hated the perky Pippi!
“Malush and Karlson” too?
On a completely different topic, I have just found this “great” site for paranoid people:
NUKEMAP
1. Drag the marker to wherever you’d like to target.
2. Enter a yield (in kilotons):
3. Click the “Detonate” button below.
http://nuclearsecrecy.com/nukemap/
Seeing one’s city in the dead zone just made me murderous towards the bombs’ creators in no time. It’s truly like an anecdote:
ADvertisement:
If you have low blood pressure. just buy our interactive game… “The Map.”
OR
Feeling stressed at work? No time? Want to see how good your life is in no time?
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I couldn’t identify with Malysh because he wanted a dog. That made him bizarre in my eyes.
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Is wanting a cat more OK? 🙂
Have you never liked f.e. reading books or watching TV about lives of animals? With animal protagonists (realistically described, not fairy tale ones) like in Ernest Thompson Seton’s stories?
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I have a dog phobia of enormous proportions. Other animals are fine as literary characters. But not as live beings in the same room with me. Except turtles and hedgehogs.
I had pet ladybirds as a child. Was obsessed with ladybirds and created elaborate little houses out of sewing boxes for them.
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May be Eric will want one too. Prepare yourself. Nobody said raising a kid is easy. 🙂
If you thought wanting a dog is strange in your childhood, do you think this is connected to autism? Why is it strange, even if you didn’t want one? Btw, I have always been afraid of dogs, but can understand why somebody would want one.
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Eric will have to choose whether he goes without a Mamma or without a dog. 🙂 It’s that bad, seriously.
Dogs stink, slobber, shed hair, make a lot of noise, attack people, they are stupid, dirty, and extremely high-maintenance. How much better are cats who never make any noise to speak of (except in spring). Not that I want cats in my house either.
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There are also Winnie the Pooh and The Moomins ( Mumintroll ) series of books. Supposedly for younger children?
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// I have a dog phobia of enormous proportions.
Were you attacked or just so?
And how have you fed the ladybirds? Тля?
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“Were you attacked or just so?”
– Yes, we had this completely rabid, super aggressive black poodle where we lived that always attacked kids. A fear of a poodle sounds silly but I was 3-4 years old. The poodle looked enormous.
“And how have you fed the ladybirds? Тля?”
– Yes, I gave them leaves that contained these little insects. 🙂
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No, it doesn’t sound silly at all. I am surprised the owners had zero problems and the dog wasn’t poisoned, if it bit kids. 😦
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The owner was a mentally ill person who sicced the dog at kids. There was almost no help for mentally ill people. 😦 😦
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One of the things that worries me about myself is that I enjoy reading literary biographies more than I enjoy the works of the writers themselves. I’m reading two books concurrently at the moment — Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs Dalloway” and a biography of Axel Wilhelm Eriksson, who was my wife’s great great grandmother’s brother-in-law. The first of them tends to put me to sleep. The second I carry on reading when I should have switched the light out. I think it’s because reading about the dull humdrum lives of frictional people isn’t as interesting as reading about the lives of real people.
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PS, I enjoyed Virginia Woolf’s diary more than I’m enjoying “Mrs Dalloway”.
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Was her diary written in a modernist, stream of consciousness style too? If not, it may be the reason.
Began “Mrs Dalloway” and didn’t end because of the writing style.
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I don’t like it because who cares about these ultra-trivial people with their useless lives?
I had to write a paper in college demonstrating why Mrs Dalloway’s life was not trivial. I got an A- but it was a hard paper to write.
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I think Mrs Dalloway is her weakest novel, to be honest.
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I really liked Marechera’s MINDBLAST, because he took a lot of political and artistic risks in writing it and chronicled them. He’s in Zimbabwe and he’s attacking the regime. He’s also homeless and therefore extremely vulnerable. I do wonder whether, when he was drunk and sleeping, some enemy might have stabbed him with an AIDS infected needle, as this the disease from which he died.
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“To be a great writer you nearly have to have lead an interesting life,”
It doesn’t matter what life a writer leads, he reinvents his life and makes it interesting.
Chekhov comes to mind with his short stories and observations of everyday life. It’s his sharp eye that make them interesting.
Philip Roth makes what otherwise would be a suffering drama a comedy, and the strength of his complaint a joy to read.
John Irving, tells the story of the underdog, which surely he was, who reinvents his life in a funny and charming way.
Marques tells the tragedy of latinamerica and humanity, in a poignant way yet we can laugh at it.
I agree with you on Jane Austen, and Hemmingway, they must had led pretty boring lives in spite of the events witnessed as in the case of Hemmingway.
Can’t think of any interesting female writer, perhaps Katharina Hagena.
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Oh well, Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mocking bird. I liked very much her only book! I assume autobiographical of her life in the south, portrays a family life very charmingly in addition to her criticism of society.
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