Kevin Burton Smith wrote:
> Mark wrote:
>
> Was Hemingway actually a Spanish writer?
Was
> Charlie Chaplin an American? What does make a writer
American? Or
> Canadian or Norweigian or whatever? Where they were
born? Where they
> grew up? Where their stories are set? Where they
live now? Where the
> heart is?
>
> All those things shape a writer, of course, but in
the end a writer
> is just a writer. The writing that really counts is
in their books
> and stories, not on their passports.
Of course that's true, but there's another thing affected by
where a writer works and lives and that's the skill of
observervation. Outsider status can make the writer more
sensitive to the distinct aspects of a culture that insiders
take for granted. Not that it's essential to be an outsider,
or that moving, say, from LA to Kansas City wouldn't
accomplish the same thing, but it probably helped in the
cases you mentioned. By the way, you forgot Hemingway's stint
at the Toronto Star.
While I'm typing, thanks all the corrections to my
observation about femme fatales, and especially all those
examples. Did any of those lovely ladies actually snare our
manly heroes?
Kerry
-- <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<LOOKING FOR FUN>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The evil that men do lives after them at http://www.murderoutthere.com
Literary events in Ontario's Golden Horseshoe and around the world at http://www.lit-electric.com
<<<<<<<<<<<IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES>>>>>>>>>>>>
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