My last post brought up the discussion of what the responsibilities of the writer are to the reader and oddly enough (and in a completely unrelated book) I ran across the opposite viewpoint and it got me thinking. Yesterday’s viewpoint was unapologetically writer centric and took the point of the grand artist that will let his work stand on it’s own whether it’s understood or not. Mark Harris’ view is one that states “I have written it and now it is your turn to understand it!” The viewpoint that I ran across today? Well…slightly different…
“Often I think we let the writer get away with too much. If the writing is unclear, we’ll read it a second time and make it clear to ourselves and then let the writer off the hook, when, in fact, the writing has to stand for itself…”
Wally Lamb (Novelist) quoted in “Writing Fiction” by Burroway, Stuckey-French; et al (and yes I know it’s bad form to quote a quote)
So the obvious next question is this…who’s right? You have one that has said it’s the writer and one that has said it’s the reader that needs to “grow ears” (Mark Harris’ idea). I suppose I hope that anything I write would stand on it’s own, perhaps not to all persons, but to many or at least those I hope to reach. I am not naive enough to expect that my words being thrown carelessly into the void of the internet would return with a large fan base that suddenly “gets it” enough that I might change the status quo (because as well know…the status is not…quo). I do at least hope, however, that at least a few people will understand it enough to think a bit on it. I write so that I might understand others and be understood by others. Would we expect the painter to be beside the painting at all points in order to explain? Do we expect the writer to stand beside each book and explain? If it’s not sufficiently clear to the reader at what point does that become the writer’s responsibility? I am certainly not in the same world, universe, or even dimension of T.S. Eliot but it seems to me that he is misunderstood by many more than he is understood. Does this invalidate his work? So who’s responsibility is it then? If anyone has any good answers I’d love to hear about it!
