Stylish Introduction

Good morning fellow close readers!

I was so impressed with the writers named yesterday when we introduced ourselves. How exciting that we are such a well read bunch, and what an ambitious list for future reading!

I hadn't wanted to be repetitive, so I didn't name drop Nabokov yesterday, although he is one of my favorite writers of all time. I love how he uses sound in his writing to heighten each syllable of every word, almost calling into question the accepted meanings of the words. This contributes to the physicality of his prose. When I read Nabokov, I feel the language moving in my mouth, inhabiting my body, and grasping at my heart. Also, his vocabulary is astounding, and allows him to make surprising juxtapositions of words.

I also have read a bunch of Milan Kundera, and I find his style reminiscent of Nabokov. I love the philosophical, metaphysical comparisons Kundera is able to make through the mundane lives of his characters, and the politics of his writing.

This summer I read Independent People by Haldor Laxness, and I thought it was really beautiful. In the same way that I thought Ian McEwan was able to capture the youth and innocence of Briony in the passage we read yesterday in his language and syntax, Laxness' prose style changes throughout the course of this epic in order to capture the points of view of different characters, and the experience of different generations. I find it really incredible when an author is able to capture the point of view of a child in his writing. Even though I am not far from my own childhood, I was astonished by the truth in Laxness' characterization of the little boy in the story. It brought me back to how I had experienced the world as a child.

I realize that I read a lot of writers in translation. This is partly because I have come across and gravitated toward writers from other linguistic and cultural traditions, and partly because I am interested in pursuing literary translation myself. I wonder what the translation process does to the style of the writer being translated when I am unable to appreciate what the translator has done due to my own language barrier. I am often impressed by the universality of translated writer, which I think lies in their specificity about their own cultures and points of view, rather than an effort to appeal to some larger idea of the human condition.

Finally, I wanted to mention Zora Neale Hurston, who I admire greatly as a stylist. For the same reasons that I admire Hurston, I admire Lovelace, who I mentioned yesterday. Both writers are able to manage the tension between spoken and written language, between creole language and the more "legitimate" or established literary language. They affect an interaction between the mother tongue and its evolutionary children through time.