Silences

I haven’t blogged in a while. Why not?

It’s a strange thing about bloggers. Some are chatty and prolific, while others fall silent. Some of my favorite bloggers have been silent lately.

I remember Tillie Olsen’s SILENCES, a study of one-book writers and the effect of gender and class on the creation of literature. Critics stated that Olsen should have been writing fiction instead of writing a literary study. But her theories were revelatory and apply to many contemporary writers. Stephanie Vaughan, Elizabeth Tallent, John Thorndike, and Larry Woiwode seem to have vanished from the literary scene. They had a lot to say and I miss their writing. Perhaps publishers don’t bother much with middle-aged writers.

There are so many new writers out there. Sure, they deserve their shot. But shouldn’t there be a place for the talented writers of the ‘80s and ‘90s too?

Not much is happening here. Except for spring, of course.

Recently I’ve read Mervyn Peake’s TITUS GROAN, the first novel in his grotesque Gormenghast trilogy, Thomas Hardy’s pleasant, underrated third novel, A PAIR OF BLUE EYES, and Pamela Sargent’s CLONED LIVES, an out-of-print science fiction novel (the second novel I’ve read about clones, the first being Ishiguro’s NEVER LET ME GO, which was a finalist for the 2005 Booker Prize and one of the best novels I read last year).

Good night and--not good luck--but pleasant dreams.