Sunday, January 18, 2009
Don't Bother Getting Older
Robert McCrum seems intent to endorse the literary cult of youth by strangling logic and stretching points, listing 7 writers who published in later life as exceptions to his rule ('Let's face, it, after 40 you're past it') and overlooking the fact that of those 13 he says 'prove' it by blossoming young, some - most notably Philip Roth - have in fact gone on to produce major works in later life.
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7 comments:
I noticed that article! And he fails to mention the many children's book writers likephilippa Pearce, Shirley Hughes Diana Wynne- Jones, Ursula le Guin and Peter Dickinson who are producing lots of good work even though none of the above is a spring chicken! PAH is what I say!
Indeed, Adele!
Yeah, what a pointless article, but well done to Diana Athill! Of her work, I have only read Stet, which I loved, and I look forward to this one.
Yes, Nasim, it sounds great.
The point about literary careers having a "ten year lifespan" has some merit (if what you mean is those great periods in a writers life when their best work gets done - there is some merit to this, not for all writers, but for some) - however I'm surprised he hasn't extended the logic to critics, "nah, Observer, I've had my time, you need a younger man", presumably not. And his examples really only showed that literary careers can be caught short by er... death. I'm pretty sure that Keats was moving on to some different and equally valid work; that Fitzgerald was still at the top of his game; and that late Shakespeare was more reflective, and may well have written something different, but valid, had he lived. What was really lazy about the article was that it never got to grips with that "golden generation" - the Amis/Barnes/Rushdie/McEwan group who, by that logic have clearly had their time....
Good point re death, Adrian. But as for the Amis crowd, we surely can't draw this conclusion unless they get really really old and die without producing any more worthwhile work.
Woops, sorry Adrian, that wasn't YOUR argument, you were being rhetorical.
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