Cosmic Antipodes: Hawthorne on Inner Truth and Reality

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Hawthorne on Inner Truth and Reality

"It is the unspeakable misery of a life so false…, that it steals the pith and substance out of whatever realities there are around us, and which were meant by Heaven to be the spirit's joy and nutriment. To the untrue man, the whole universe is false,—it is impalpable,—it shrinks to nothing within his grasp. And he himself, in so far as he shows himself in a false light, becomes a shadow, or, indeed, ceases to exist."

—Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter

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Books I've Read This Year (2018)

A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Farewell, My Lovely by Raymond Chandler
The High Window by Raymond Chandler
The World of Null-A by A. E. van Vogt *
The Lady in the Lake by Raymond Chandler
Playback by Raymond Chandler
The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
Dracula by Bram Stoker *
The Little Sister by Raymond Chandler
The Fight in the Fields: Cesar Chavez and the Farmworkers Movement by Susan Ferriss and Ricardo Sandoval
Burnt Offerings by Robert Marasco
Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
The Big Gold Dream by Chester Himes
The Crazy Kill by Chester Himes
Loaves and Fishes by Dorothy Day
Ripley Under Ground by Patricia Highsmith
The Real Cool Killers by Chester Himes
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson *
Rules for Radicals by Saul Alinsky
The Urth of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens *
The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing
Colegio Cesar Chavez, 1973-1983: A Chicano Struggle for Educational Self-Determination by Carlos S. Maldonado
Smiley's People by John le Carré
The Drowned World by J. G. Ballard
The Honorable Schoolboy by John le Carré
"Civil Disobedience" by Henry David Thoreau
Vatnsdæla saga *
The Long Loneliness by Dorothy Day
Call for the Dead by John le Carré
The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Red Harvest by Dashiell Hammett
Street of No Return by David Goodis
The Pastel City by M. John Harrison
The Moon in the Gutter by David Goodis
The Burglar by David Goodis
The Spy Who Came in from the Cold by John le Carré
They Shoot Horses, Don't They? by Horace McCoy
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls *
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
Thieves Like Us by Edward Anderson
Ride the Pink Horse by Dorothy B. Hughes
The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain
Down There by David Goodis
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende *
Pick-Up by Charles Willeford
Nightfall by David Goodis
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
The Killer Inside Me by Jim Thompson
Dark Passage by David Goodis
Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
The Great God Pan and Other Weird Tales by Arthur Machen

Write in a way that draws the reader’s attention to the sense and substance of writing, rather than to the mood and temper of the author. If the writing is solid and good, the mood and temper of the writer will eventually be revealed and not at the expense of the work. Therefore, the first piece of advice is this: to achieve style, begin by affecting none—that is, place yourself in the background. A careful and honest writer does not need to worry about style. As you become proficient in the use of language, your style will emerge, because you yourself will emerge, and when this happens you will find it increasingly easy to break through the barriers that separate you from other minds, other hearts—which is, of course, the purpose of writing, as well as its principal reward. (E. B. White)

The short story writer's task is to invest the glimpse with all that is in his power. He'll bring his intelligence and literary skill to bear (his talent), his sense of proportion and sense of the fitness of things: of how things out there really are and how he sees those things—like no one else sees them. And this is done through the use of clear and specific language, language used so as to bring to life the details that will light up the story for the reader. For the details to be concrete and convey meaning, the language must be accurate and precisely given. The words can be so precise they may even sound flat, but they can still carry; if used right, they can hit all the notes. (Raymond Carver)

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Hawthorne on Inner Truth and Reality

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