Writing Off The Cliff

Writen by Dennis Siluk

Hemingway used short sentences to get his effect and Faulkner used long sentences to get his: both copied Sherwood Anderson, and Hemingway, to a certain degree copied F. Scott Fitzgerald. Some say this is foolish; yet, Fitzgerald had a number of books out before Hemingway had put pen to paper; as Fitzgerald so wisely claimed. Faulkner mixed poetic prose within his writings to get his reader into the narration more—and used craft in most of his work, although his sentences were between 100 and 200-words long, he got what he wanted. Hemingway on the other hand had you stopping ever millisecond to burp. Thus, who is the better craftsman? Is still a debate, although Faulkner is the second most studied writer in the world, only behind Shakespeare? Gertrude Stein used her knowledge of psychology, in her writings to get into persons nerves I think, but she could be a good writer when she wanted to be. She helped Hemingway, as did Fitzgerald, and Anderson: Hemingway not having any college perhaps needed it. She did her sentences upside down, over and out, and threw away the book on punctuation. But it was all done of course with craft and for effect. Nowadays, this is gone, lost, everything is written in such a stale, pale standard way, it is like reading the newspaper over, and over and over. Most narratives are more on the reporting style.

Edger Rice Burroughs, who sold over 50,000-millon books, and wrote about 80, couldn't keep his tenses in its right order, shifting like the wind, but was creative, and that is what sold his books: his constant bombardment of action: people want to escape, they often do not care about a coma or a period, or a tense, only the squirrels in heaven. Faulkner again, did the same, shift his tenses in a paragraph, but with craft; something no one dares to do nowadays. Matter of fact, he had so many errors in some of his books: over 100-in one and 35-in another and many, many more, as you read his first editions, they reedited them in l987.

I had an old timer come up to me the other day at the Cafe, asked me if I felt he could be a writer. He always wanted to be he said. I asked, "What has your friends told you," and he said, "They like the stuff I write," and I said, "Forget standards, there really are none, just make sure it is in good taste, and send it out." You know too many people got their limited ideas on how it should and shouldn't be. Had Faulkner not listened to his friend Mr. Anderson, he'd not have written his 19-books. There are no masters today, none what so ever. It is lost in the past; and very few crafts men. I know of a few, living and still writing. Someone wanted me to make a list of the twenty five best books I've read, and I did. Twenty were in the past, the authors dead, five in the now, or present.

Another person came to me and said: poetry is dead. I had just finished a poem, but he didn't know that, nor was that I a poet. He knew I had written a few books. I said simply, "Don't write any then," and went back to finish my poem. Make life simply. My wife said, the man next door said, "I don't go to church because they are all hypocrites." She said to me: "Does that mean none of us should go because he found some hypocrites?" And I said, "Another squirrel from Heaven." Not sure what motivates people to say such things, except their laziness or lack in capability, and want the rest of us to join them: gloom likes gloom. We have some good poets out there, still some are left in the US, not many, and a few in Peru, and a few in Europe, a few in Japan, and a few in China, Russia likewise, but only a few. I think we listen to too much moron talk and as they'd like to try to persuade you to join the gloom class, don't: that is our trouble. Those who want to write you should put as much craft and spirit and style in your writing you wish; the standards, whatever they are will always be there. Mary Renault, once told a critic, he had not read her enough, or studied enough to be able to produce a proper review of her work, and was simply trying to impress his employer. I got all her books, all 15, and I bought the book the guy produced after reading several of hers, to see if she was correct: and she was. He was a squirrel thrown out of heave, just a trouble maker.

see Dennis' books at http://www.bn.com