On Moral Fiction by John Gardner
In the Daria episode where she was reading this book, she made it sound bad. A writer telling writers how to write.
I really enjoyed this book more then I could have expected. The final two chapters really made me view works of art and artists in a different light when he was talking about the artist being in a level above us mortals to see what is possible. He did have to point out that some people are just crazy, but an artist walking the line to bring their vision to life can be seen and insane or disconnected.
I think the moral aspect, the pointing of the direction of art toward good really appealed to me. I think being a Christian helped me settle in to the book though he makes pains to disconnect religion from the conversation directly and speaks of a bigger purpose or meaning when he talks about what art should be doing.
It’s not a story, it’s an argument for the way things should be and to help guide us in our enjoyment and selection of art to insure the good art continues to be good and the bad art should be allowed to flop.
This is one of the books in Daria’s Reading List that I’m working on getting through.