Etienne and Michael,
I had to think about both your takes on Hemingway, Faulkner,
and Conrad.
To me, they are all three great writers, and all three deal
with the human condition as do all good writers. They simply
deal with different aspects of this vast and complex subject.
Both Conrad and Faulkner attemped to tackle more of the
complexity than Hemingway. But what Papa did he did superbly
in a deceptively spare, but actually stylized, style that was
easy to imitate but damned hard to master.
I'm not sure exactly what Michael means when he says Conrad
wrote about the human condition and Hemingway about humans.
At first glance this seems to me an extremely fine
distinction. The only useful meaning I can glean from such a
distinction, is to suggest that Hemingway deals with
individual people, and Conrad with abstractions in a social
context. Yet Conrad's and Faulkner's characters are as
individually human as Hemingway's, and all three deal with
these individuals in a social context.
I can think of an only too real critical distinction if this
human condition-human schism is looked at in a more extreme
way, because that is exactly what ocurred in American, and to
some extent British, literature after World War Two, but not
in the rest of the world.
Nelson Algren has dealt with this in an essay introduction to
a new paperback edition of his NEON WILDERNESS short story
collection, but I'll give a brief summary. Before WWII,
American lit was almost universally about man in society. But
after, led by such critics as Lionel Trilling and Leslie
Fiedler, it turned sharply inward, dwelling on the individual
angst of a single psyche essentially without any reference to
the social world he or she lived in. We contemplated our
navel, and while doing that presented in a dry external style
in which everything was implied, suggested, but never said.
Chekov became the model but in a more extreme version that
dealt entirely with the internal psychological struggles of
an individual divorced from the world he or she lived
in.
Socially concerned writers from Crane, Dreiser and London, to
the Dos Passos of USA, Sinclair Lewis, James T.Farrell, and
Algren himself were dismissed.
Most of the rest of the world did not do this, especially
Europe and South America. Which is why I tend to read books
from those worlds instead of the literature of my own. As
Algren said, "I could easily find all my books in the
libraries of Europe, but not in the library of the city about
which they were written."
End of tirade, but that human versus human condition,
disturbed me.
Dennis-Michael
----- Original Message ----- From: "E.Borgers" <
webeurop@yahoo.fr> To: <
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com> Sent: Thursday, May 05,
2005 4:47 AM Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Conrad, Hemingway and
Faulkner (was: Dan Fortune series)
> Dennis,
>
> I think that speaking of modern literature, Faulkner
is one of the
> important writers.
> I do not know why, but it seems that he is not
correctly paid his due by
> recent contemporary Aglo-Saxon literary critics and
lit. historians.
>
> I'm glad to hear that you admire Conrad. I share
this with you.
> He's one of the real founders of modern writing and
modern literature.
> His legacy and influence is outstanding.
> Personally I see him *also* as one of the distant
roots of modern noir,
> roots of literary or mystery noir novels. That's a
point of view I
> advocated since quite some time on this
list.
> Conrad can be reread and reared. And
must.
>
> I think that the Hemingway heritage is more strictly
focused on
> minimalization of style and "distanciation",
influencing a lot of
> writers who more or less are using a behaviorist
writing in their novels.
> On the other hand, his often exaggerated stand
proclaiming and
> supporting a "life of action(s)" - and that kind of
views he often
> developed in his novels- is now obsolete, I
think.
>
> Conrad's views and feelings on the human condition,
to the contrary, are
> universal.
>
> E(tienne) Borgers
> Hard-Boiled Mysteries
> http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
>
>
> Dennis Lynds wrote:
>
> >Dear Jacques,
> >
> > .../..
> >So you noticed the touch of Faulkner, did you.
You may be the first one,
or
> >at least the first to mention it. (People tend
to approach experience
and
> >literature with preconceived notions. We see
what we expect to see, what
we
> >want to see, and most readers of mystery and
detctive stories don't
expect
> >to see Faulkner, or for most part want to. Hence
Barzun and Wilson.)
> >
> >But, yes, I have read and reread all of
Faulkner's novels countless
times.
> >There is always more to discover in each one. He
is to me the greatest
> >American writer, and possibly, together with
Conrad, the greatest writer.
> >Conrad was my first great discovery, and to me
it is clear that he must
have
> >been Faulkner's too. It is obvious that Faulkner
owed a large debt to
> >Conrad, and the two of them have been large
influences. Not, obviously,
in
> >style or meter, as you say, but in much else. In
style I am of that
> >generation in which no writer could escape
Hemingway (not even Faulkner
if
> >you read some of his early stories. I recall
one, it's name escapes me
at
> >the moment, that was about WW One, and was
perfect Hemingway.) We did
our
> >best to escape Papa, but it was difficult, and
many potentially good were
> >destroyed by it. I think I succeeded with the
help of Conrad, Faulkner,
> >Hardy, the American proletarian writers, and,
above all, Nelson Algren.
Of
> >course none of that is really for me to say, but
I thank you for noticing
> >the Faulkner in me, I couldn't have a greater
compliment.
> >
> >Best,
> >Dennis-Michael
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
>
>
> RARA-AVIS home page: http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>
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