Warning: Softboiled reminiscence.
When I was in college, my instructor in creative writing
brought to class a Conrad passage very similar to the one
Miker quoted and, after reading it, triumphantly asked the
class:
How would you improve on this?
[This instructor was of the minimalist (Ray Carver)
school.]
Nobody said anything until I (emboldened youth) said:
Nothing. It's brilliant.
Instructor: Don't you think the sentences are long and
convoluted? Don't you see how it drips with adjectives and
adverbs?
Emboldened youth: No. They are very clear. (Class beginning
to wake up.)
Instructor (almost shouting): Do you think Raymond Carver
would write something like this?
Reckless youth: No. I don't think Carver COULD have. Carver
bores me. Conrad is cool. He had interesting things to say.
You can't say them better than he said them.
My assignment: To rewrite a couple of pages of Conrad in the
minimalist style.
What I turned in: The two pages, unchanged, with a note
saying "This editor has no suggestions".
My instructor, who was also a good man, loved it. He never
again brought up Conrad as an example of bad writing.
He also had this animosity towards the writing of Thomas
Hardy. I can't understand why.
I still love Conrad *and* Carver (I grossly exagerated in
order to make a point, the lowest kind of youthful rethoric
to be found anywhere. Well, there goes any nobility of
character you might have suspected in me.)
Best,
MrT
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