Interlude 5: some reasons for writing
Interlude 5: some reasons for writing:
Why do people write? Please don’t groan and walk away, get ready to do some thinking. Sometimes they write because they want to capture the attention of others; sometimes because they want to sort things out in their own minds. These are not polar opposites. It’s common for writers to do both, or at least attempt both, at the same time. Indeed it may be true that my distinction is no distinction at all; one has only to consider people who say that they want their letters, diaries or journals destroyed, when they haven’t themselves destroyed them when they were capable of doing so, to realise that writing may be a secretive form of communication even when it appears to be most withdrawn, or private. [read more]
Introduction:
In 1981 Patrick White published an autobiographical book called Flaws in the Glass; the Melbourne Age commissioned two reviews, one of them from Hal Porter, who said, among many things unflattering to ‘Mr White’:
Writers of my sort can be said not so much to read as to examine another writer’s work rather as one car freak examines the vehicle and driving of another car freak. One says, “Splendid vehicle! Superb driving!” Or, “Nice vehicle! Ghastly driving!” Or, “Can’t stand that kind of cumbersomely pretentious vehicle! And what bewildering and erratic driving!”
Hal confesses that the third attitude is his to the novels and plays of ‘Mr White’. I will say no more at this point about Mr White or Mr Porter, but I quote this comparison of writer and car freak because in the essays that follow I am the freak who comments on others of his kind. I know I can’t see my essays as others will see them but I imagine some readers accusing me of many things, and others, well trained, perhaps, in one or another school of literary or social criticism, who will think my observations no more than shallow or ignorant. To such people I can only say that these essays offer whatever it is that a fellow-writer can offer, and don’t pretend to offer anything else.
