Tart thoughts on the nature of fiction - and some sweet ones, too
Friday, October 17, 2008
Slow Brilliance
An interesting article by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker arguing that to associate genius with precocity is to misunderstand the nature of a certain experimental type of genius. Thanks to Kate Brown for the link.
Fascinating. Gladwell's always persuasive, but I'm not always sure that his choices back up his thesis... and the term "experimental" to describe Fountain's long climb up the mountain seems the wrong one. And are either of those two American writers any kind of genius? Time will tell.
'An analytical, and sometimes funny, take on the world of fiction reading, writing and publishing' - The Cerebral Mum 'Other than the fact that the lady writes well, with insight, empathy and personality, that she speaks her mind and shies not from confrontation when such is necessary and constructive ... there is really no reason for me to visit her blog' - Alan Kellogg
Writer of prose fiction and plays for radio and stage. My short novels Too Many Magpies and the Birth Machine and my collection of short stories, Balancing on the Edge of the World, are published by Salt.
A novella 'Terrific... There's a definite air of menace... It’s very clever indeed and finally, very moving too' - Adele Geras. More reviews on my website.
Short stories 'Quite swept me off my feet... Nothing would have induced me to interrupt Balancing on the Edge of the World by Elizabeth Baines until I'd read them all' - Dovegreyreader
1 comment:
Fascinating. Gladwell's always persuasive, but I'm not always sure that his choices back up his thesis... and the term "experimental" to describe Fountain's long climb up the mountain seems the wrong one. And are either of those two American writers any kind of genius? Time will tell.
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