> But "craftsman" has been used by critics as a
demeaning
> term for a long, long time.
> When I was a kid, and already a fan of J.B.
Priestley, I
> would get incensed when critics called him a
"skillful
> craftsman". Now I am amused, though I carefully
avoid using
> it when writing criticism. It's a good word that has
been
> spoiled by misuse and overuse.
Ah, yes, Mario, but that stems from the frequent posturing
among some literary critics who imagine writing to be a sort
of esoteric and disorganized "creative process." Whereas real
wordsmiths know first-hand that writing anything of substance
demands planning and structure and orderliness. The artsy
image of a dishevelled ink-stained wretch is far from the
reality of disciplined professional authors' craftsmanship,
dogged persistence, daily word quotas, and repeated
re-writing to finally get the story down right.
-- Sidney.
-- # To unsubscribe from the regular list, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to # majordomo@icomm.ca. This will not work for the digest version. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.miskatonic.org/rara-avis/ .
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 15 Feb 2003 EST