My Love-Hate Relationship with Literary Writing
It’s Pulitzer’s fault
There are times when I pick up a book or open a magazine and enter a world flowing with milk and honey. I get pulled in by the melody of the words, seducing me with each syllable — I’m unable to pull away. It feels … sensual but not erotic, yet I feel my face turning red when attempting to describe how much pleasure I derive from it. It fills my soul with passion and my writer’s heart with eagerness to create. But, sometimes, the writing goes overboard, it becomes so “literary” that it forces me to read the 15-line sentence three times to understand it. What do I feel then? I want to punch the author in the face.
It’s Pulitzer’s Fault
Well, to be exact, it’s Sean Murphy’s fault; it was his article that triggered me. I mean, what in the world was he thinking? I was still holding it together until just over the halfway mark, that’s when this quote by Paul Horgan tipped me over the edge:“[O]ne can hope to be faithful to, but not aesthetically limited by, a physical or social definition of local subject matter”.
Now, before I go any further, I want to refer to an analogy: that literary writing can be like eating out in a fancy restaurant — you have to be familiar with the customs and understand the jargon. It also helps if you have a well-developed…
