The Elegant Variation: DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE

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April 16, 2004

DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE

I just wanted to clarify a wee bit on Wednesday's posting about art and politics. In true blog fashion, the post was a bit hurried and stream of consciousness and as I read the responses it's generated (and I am delighted, by the way, at how seriously and intelligently my inchoate ramblings have been continued elsewhere) I'm prompted to add that when I say "political art" I don't necessary mean The Feminist Novel or The Ethnic Novel, et alia, all of which we have in abundance (and a good thing, too). Rather, what I'm thinking about is art that will one day serve as a portrait of today's tumult. I understand where Ed is going with, say Margaret Atwood, but I don't know that people will read Cat's Eye to get a view of late 20th century Canada the way one reads Musil to get a sense of the collapse of pre-war Mitteleuropa or Bulgakov to experience the absurdity of Stalinism. We may differ on this point but my feeling is we're living through some exceedingly serious shit, and I'm looking for the creative engagement of said shit. As Dan pointed out in his comments, it was probably hard for artists in pre-war and inter-war Germany to avoid the subject, but I suppose I'm hoping that we won't need to get to that stage here before these issues are taken up by writers.

As for Kevin's post, which Dan has effectively demolished, perhaps I should clarify that what shut me down was the tired use of all the familiar right-wing hobgoblins - when multiculturalism (which certainly has been carried to its own excesses) is used as a straw man (sorry, straw person) for everything from bad literature to high gas prices, well it's just not an argument that speaks of a deep engagement with a question. Any post that posits "egalitarianism" as a bad thing doesn't seem worth taking up.

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Boys, a story by Carol... [Read More]

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One writer who has been engaged in writing in response to the things that are going on, especially the Bush administration, is Carol Emshwiller. Her story "Boys" is available here, and is just one example of the work she's been doing lately around this. I think Carol's war stories will stand the test of time and illuminate the current unpleasantness in continually interesting ways as said time passes.

Trying to think of others, but Carol's the only person who immediately leaps to mind as consciously doing this and doing it well.

Posted by: Bondgirl | April 16, 2004 at 07:48 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

April 16, 2004

DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE

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MY NOVEL

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TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
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SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

April 16, 2004

DISTINCTION WITHOUT A DIFFERENCE

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Comments

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MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism