Flannery O’Connor on Human Nature

“The serious writer has always taken the flaw in human nature for his starting point, usually the flaw in an otherwise admirable character. Drama usually bases itself on the bedrock of original sin, whether the writer thinks in theological terms or not. Then, too, any character in a serious novel is supposed to carry a burden of meaning larger than himself. The novelist doesn’t write about people in a vacuum; he writes about people in a world where something is obviously lacking, where there is the general mystery of incompleteness and the particular tragedy of our own times to be demonstrated, and the novelist tries to give you, within the form of the book, the total experience of human nature at any time. For this reason, the greatest dramas naturally involve the salvation or loss of the soul. Where there is no belief in the soul, there is very little drama. ” FLANNERY O’CONNOR

SOURCE: The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor, available at Amazon.com.

The Almond Tree, poem by D.H. Lawrence

THE ALMOND TREE (Excerpt)
by D.H. Lawrence

Here there’s an almond tree — you have never seen
  Such a one in the north — it flowers on the street, and I stand
  Every day by the fence to look up for the flowers that expand
At rest in the blue, and wonder at what they mean.

Photo: “Almond Tree” by Kristina Oda, OdaPhotography, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Find prints at etsy.com.

John O’Hara on F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Fitzgerald was a better just plain writer than all of us put together.”

JOHN O’HARA writing to JOHN STEINBECK,

SOURCE:  The Selected Letters of John O’Hara (1978)

F. Scott Fitzgerald hears from his editor, Maxwell Perkins

F. Scott Fitzgerald was living in France when he completed The Great Gatsby in the fall of 1924. He mailed the manuscript to his publisher, feeling confident that the novel lived up to his vision for something “new..beautiful…and intricately patterned.” Since transatlantic mail traveled slowly, Fitzgerald had to wait nearly a month for a reply. Listed below is an excerpt from the initial response that Maxwell Perkins, Fitzgerald’s editor at Scribner’s, sent from New York.

Nov. 18, 1924

Dear Scott:

I think the novel is a wonder. I’m taking it home to read again and shall then write my impressions in full —but it has vitality to an extraordinary degree, and glamour, and a great deal of underlying thought of unusual quality. It has a kind of mystic atmosphere at times that you infused into parts of “Paradise” and have not since used. It is a marvelous fusion, into a unity of presentation, of the extraordinary incongruities of life today. And as for sheer writing, it’s astonishing…

With congratulations, I am,
Yours, 

Maxwell E. Perkins

Illustration: Opening section of The Great Gatsby in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s handwriting.

Roald Dahl’s Dream in a Bottle

The BFG by Roald Dahl is one of my all-time favorite books for the story, characters, and amazing use of language. The book was inspired by a little girl named Amy, who sent Roald Dahl a bottle of colored water, oil, and glitter — saying it was “dream in a bottle.“

The incident sparked Dahl’s imagination, resulting in the novel The BFG (a.k.a Big Friendly Giant) — and he wrote Amy the following letter to thank her for the inspiration.

 

The Almond Tree, poem by D.H. Lawrence

LETTER FROM TOWN: THE ALMOND TREE (Excerpt)
by D.H. Lawrence

Here there’s an almond tree — you have never seen
  Such a one in the north — it flowers on the street, and I stand
  Every day by the fence to look up for the flowers that expand
At rest in the blue, and wonder at what they mean.

Photo: “Almond Tree” by Kristina Oda, OdaPhotography, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Find prints at etsy.com.

BFG by Roald Dahl and A Dream in a Bottle

I love The BFG by Roald Dahl — it’s one of my all-time favorite books for the story, characters, and amazing use of language. The book is beautiful, charming, imaginative, and surprising — a true classic.

Tonight, I learned something that endeared the book to me even more (if that were possible). Apparently, a little girl named Amy sent Roald Dahl a bottle of colored water, oil, and glitter — saying it was “dream in a bottle.”

The incident sparked Dahl’s imagination, resulting in the novel The BFG (a.k.a Big Friendly Giant) — and he wrote Amy the following letter to thank her for the inspiration.

E.L. Doctorow Tries to Write Absence Note for His Daughter

In a Paris Review interview conducted by George Plimpton, novelist E.L. Doctorow discusses some of his writing challenges — including trying to write an absence note for his grammar-school-aged daughter. I loved the humor here!

INTERVIEWER: You once told me that the most difficult thing for a writer to write was a simple household note to someone coming to collect the laundry, or instructions to a cook.

E. L. DOCTOROW: What I was thinking of was a note I had to write to the teacher when one of my children missed a day of school. It was my daughter, Caroline, who was then in the second or third grade. I was having my breakfast one morning when she appeared with her lunch box, her rain slicker, and everything, and she said, “I need an absence note for the teacher and the bus is coming in a few minutes.” She gave me a pad and a pencil; even as a child she was very thoughtful. So I wrote down the date and I started, Dear Mrs. So-and-so, my daughter Caroline . . . and then I thought, No, that’s not right, obviously it’s my daughter Caroline. I tore that sheet off, and started again. Yesterday, my child . . . No, that wasn’t right either. Too much like a deposition. This went on until I heard a horn blowing outside. The child was in a state of panic. There was a pile of crumpled pages on the floor, and my wife was saying, “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe this.” She took the pad and pencil and dashed something off. I had been trying to write the perfect absence note. It was a very illuminating experience. Writing is immensely difficult. The short forms especially.

INTERVIEWER: How much tinkering do you actually do when you get down to nonhousehold work—a novel, say?

DOCTOROW: I don’t think anything I’ve written has been done in under six or eight drafts. Usually it takes me a few years to write a book. World’s Fair was an exception. It seemed to be a particularly fluent book as it came. I did it in seven months. I think what happened in that case is that God gave me a bonus book.

Photo: Skobrik, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

John O’Hara Offers His View of F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Fitzgerald was a better just plain writer than all of us put together.”

JOHN O’HARA writing to JOHN STEINBECK,

as quoted in The Selected Letters of John O’Hara (1978)

Flannery O’Connor on Human Nature

“The serious writer has always taken the flaw in human nature for his starting point, usually the flaw in an otherwise admirable character. Drama usually bases itself on the bedrock of original sin, whether the writer thinks in theological terms or not. Then, too, any character in a serious novel is supposed to carry a burden of meaning larger than himself. The novelist doesn’t write about people in a vacuum; he writes about people in a world where something is obviously lacking, where there is the general mystery of incompleteness and the particular tragedy of our own times to be demonstrated, and the novelist tries to give you, within the form of the book, the total experience of human nature at any time. For this reason, the greatest dramas naturally involve the salvation or loss of the soul. Where there is no belief in the soul, there is very little drama. ”

FLANNERY O’CONNOR

The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor is available at Amazon.com.