30 April 2010

Your Dream of Eden

"So long as a man writes poetry or fiction, his dream of Eden is his own business, but the moment he starts writing literary criticism, honesty demands that he describe it to his readers, so that they may be in the position to judge his judgments."

This from the essay "Reading" in Auden's Dyer's Hand which must be accorded as one of the high marks of the form. I'm trying to say I like it, but also that many, many other folks do too. (And I guess you could put it down as something that informs my "dream of Eden".)

Anyway, after years of reading snark and ironic posts on news sites, I've decided that I'd like all writers everywhere to describe their dream of Eden every six months. I'm very tired of trying to guess just what the hell somebody MEANS...I want people to start standing for what they believe and then being open to rational arguments about that position--pipe dream sure but a fella can dream.

Do you know what you mean when you write what you think?

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