The Flight From the Enchanter is the Murdoch book that changed my life, maybe because it's feminist in a way the others, having bigger fish to fry, aren't. It's also probably not a complete lie.
Lovely essay. I haven't read Kobayashi, but what he says about pressure makes me think about Stevens, from "The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words": "The mind has added nothing to human nature. It is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without. It is the imagination pressing back against the pressure of reality. It seems, in the last analysis, to have something to do with our self-preservation; and that, no doubt, is why the expression of it, the sound of its words, helps us to live our lives." But this maybe elides the distinction between poetry and narrative, which this poet-novelist often worries at like a dog with a chipped tooth.
I think Kobayashi's idea is very close to Stevens. The difference between poetry and narrative is an interesting one -- I'm not enough of a poetry reader, and certainly not enough of a poet, to feel I can give much insight into that, though I think that Kobayashi would say haiku is certainly an example of pressure turning to epiphanic expression.
Before I started writing fiction I believed that poetry was more ethical, because it returns the reader to themselves; I strongly disliked the tendency of most fiction to flatter the reader's sensibilities, moral or otherwise. I still dislike that tendency but I choose to believe it's canceled out by the training fiction can give us in the perception and appreciation of particulars, and the suspension of judgment.
I can see the same line of thinking re:narrative coming out in Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, and I think you're right. The aspect of flattery is difficult to get around, especially since it has more to do with how we read than with how we write (readers use fiction to flatter their own morality; writers may do the same thing but this isn't so much of a 'problem' with fiction in particular since anyone can have egoistic fantasies). It seems the best counter for that is to avoid reading in solitude and trying to foster a literary community where other people will read and interpret alongside you -- but even then there is the risk of mass delusion. This is one of Plato's problems with writing if I understand Murdoch correctly and I think I'd say there are other genres of written communication (politics or news, for example) where reading-related problems present moral difficulties/distortions.
Thank you for this. I just finished The Sea, The Sea, which I bought based solely on the book cover. Still trying to process it and wondering where to go next with Iris M. Looking forward to taking this journey with you.
The Flight From the Enchanter is the Murdoch book that changed my life, maybe because it's feminist in a way the others, having bigger fish to fry, aren't. It's also probably not a complete lie.
Love Murdoch but haven't read The Sea The Sea yet. Bookmarking this!
Lovely essay. I haven't read Kobayashi, but what he says about pressure makes me think about Stevens, from "The Noble Rider and the Sound of Words": "The mind has added nothing to human nature. It is a violence from within that protects us from a violence without. It is the imagination pressing back against the pressure of reality. It seems, in the last analysis, to have something to do with our self-preservation; and that, no doubt, is why the expression of it, the sound of its words, helps us to live our lives." But this maybe elides the distinction between poetry and narrative, which this poet-novelist often worries at like a dog with a chipped tooth.
I think Kobayashi's idea is very close to Stevens. The difference between poetry and narrative is an interesting one -- I'm not enough of a poetry reader, and certainly not enough of a poet, to feel I can give much insight into that, though I think that Kobayashi would say haiku is certainly an example of pressure turning to epiphanic expression.
Before I started writing fiction I believed that poetry was more ethical, because it returns the reader to themselves; I strongly disliked the tendency of most fiction to flatter the reader's sensibilities, moral or otherwise. I still dislike that tendency but I choose to believe it's canceled out by the training fiction can give us in the perception and appreciation of particulars, and the suspension of judgment.
I can see the same line of thinking re:narrative coming out in Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals, and I think you're right. The aspect of flattery is difficult to get around, especially since it has more to do with how we read than with how we write (readers use fiction to flatter their own morality; writers may do the same thing but this isn't so much of a 'problem' with fiction in particular since anyone can have egoistic fantasies). It seems the best counter for that is to avoid reading in solitude and trying to foster a literary community where other people will read and interpret alongside you -- but even then there is the risk of mass delusion. This is one of Plato's problems with writing if I understand Murdoch correctly and I think I'd say there are other genres of written communication (politics or news, for example) where reading-related problems present moral difficulties/distortions.
Thank you for this. I just finished The Sea, The Sea, which I bought based solely on the book cover. Still trying to process it and wondering where to go next with Iris M. Looking forward to taking this journey with you.