Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Time and Place
It takes strength to write, more than to tell, of tragic lives one has known. Especially while one is a participant in tragedies still unfolding.
Noting disastrous personal tensions and human frailties demands disciplining one's emotions; creating a novel from such distress requires a fortitude that challenges one to conquer despair. To do so under threat to personal safety assumes a cognizance approaching grace.
Reading Nadine Gordimer's novels Burger's Daughter, Occasion for Loving, and None to Accompany Me reminds me that it is how one responds to the moral demands of time and place that distinguishes one's work. Doing that well over five decades is remarkable.
Noting disastrous personal tensions and human frailties demands disciplining one's emotions; creating a novel from such distress requires a fortitude that challenges one to conquer despair. To do so under threat to personal safety assumes a cognizance approaching grace.
Reading Nadine Gordimer's novels Burger's Daughter, Occasion for Loving, and None to Accompany Me reminds me that it is how one responds to the moral demands of time and place that distinguishes one's work. Doing that well over five decades is remarkable.
