"Oh, how I mourn her passing"
February 18, 2015 10:49 AM Subscribe
Traces of Mavis. David MacFarlane writes about the life and work of Mavis Gallant for Canadian magazine The Walrus.
...an aspiring novelist once pressed Gallant for advice, which she stubbornly refused to give. She could have said something—anything, almost—to satisfy the would-be writer. But she wasn’t the kind of person who did that. ... How to write? This was not, as far as Gallant was concerned, an uncomplicated question. It was also a question that, were it to be answered meaningfully, would require more soul-searching, more thought, more self-analysis than she would want to undertake in front of a stranger. It’s easy to imagine how the question could come across as rude or impossible to answer—or both. Besides, she firmly believed that writing could not be taught. But the young author persisted. “All right,” Gallant finally said. “Here’s some advice: never drink cheap wine.”
She found reality extraordinarily tragic, and because of that, very funny
I wish I could have met her. I'll try to find some of her books. Thank you for this post.
posted by spacewaitress at 12:48 PM on February 18, 2015
I wish I could have met her. I'll try to find some of her books. Thank you for this post.
posted by spacewaitress at 12:48 PM on February 18, 2015
Walrus wordslinger wistfully worships "writer's writer." We wonder why.
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:19 PM on February 18, 2015
posted by charlie don't surf at 6:19 PM on February 18, 2015
I.... what a strange comment.
Why shouldn't he admire her, wistfully or otherwise? And the whole "writer's writer" thing-- that's the term for somebody who is so skilled, who pulls off such astonishingly accomplished work that those who write for a living or as an avocation, who have studied how prose works and how fiction works, who are less easily impressed because they see the mechanics and devices behind the lines and paragraphs and plots and effects still find a sense of wonder at the quality, the imagination, the sheer craft of those who do it so exceptionally well.
I don't wonder why? Why do you? And are you having an outbreak of alliterative disease?
posted by jokeefe at 7:19 PM on February 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
Why shouldn't he admire her, wistfully or otherwise? And the whole "writer's writer" thing-- that's the term for somebody who is so skilled, who pulls off such astonishingly accomplished work that those who write for a living or as an avocation, who have studied how prose works and how fiction works, who are less easily impressed because they see the mechanics and devices behind the lines and paragraphs and plots and effects still find a sense of wonder at the quality, the imagination, the sheer craft of those who do it so exceptionally well.
I don't wonder why? Why do you? And are you having an outbreak of alliterative disease?
posted by jokeefe at 7:19 PM on February 18, 2015 [1 favorite]
I learned little about her writing abilities. I did, however, learn much about the author's ingestion, and eventual expulsion of a steak tartare. I wonder why.
The tortuous tartare topic did not seem to have any relevance to the subject, nor did it work as a metaphor. But this is a common problem with litterateurs, writing about a subject, but making themselves the object of the story.
And yes, writers writing about writers and writing, often incites my alliteration.
posted by charlie don't surf at 12:40 PM on February 19, 2015
The tortuous tartare topic did not seem to have any relevance to the subject, nor did it work as a metaphor. But this is a common problem with litterateurs, writing about a subject, but making themselves the object of the story.
And yes, writers writing about writers and writing, often incites my alliteration.
posted by charlie don't surf at 12:40 PM on February 19, 2015
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posted by jokeefe at 11:05 AM on February 18, 2015