I’m always on the lookout for good books on writing, so when Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing was recommended to me by a trusted friend, I slid it on my Christmas list. If you’re unaware, Merton was a converted Catholic who later became a monk. (His Seven Story Mountain is considered a spiritual classic, though I haven’t read it.)Stardate 8.14.1948
I haven’t read enough to properly evaluate this book, but his journal entry, from August 14, 1948 (p 102) was perfect:
“Dylan Thomas’s integrity as a poet makes me very ashamed of the verse I have been writing. We who say we love God: why are we not as anxious to be perfect in our art as we pretend we want to be in our service of God? If we do not try to be perfect in what we write, perhaps it is because we are not writing for God after all.
“In any case it is depressing that those who serve God and love Him sometimes write so badly, when those who do not believe in Him take pains to write so well. I am not talking about grammar and syntax, but about having something to say and saying it in sentences that are not half dead. Saint Paul and Saint Ignatius Martyr did not bother about grammar but they certainly knew how to write. . .
“The fact that your subject may be very important in itself does not necessarily mean that what you have written about it is important. A bad book about the love of God remains a bad book, even though it may be about the love of God.
“There are many who think that because they have written about God, they have written good books. Then men pick up these books and say: if the ones who say they believe in God cannot find anything better than this to say about it, their religion cannot be worth much.”
Gulp!
Was that written in 1948 or 2008?
The previous generation of Protestant writers seemed/seems happy with a good idea or a transcribed sermon being call a book. I’d include the Max Lucados and John Maxwells, as well as the vast majority of Apostolic authors, in this definition. (To his credit, at least Rick Warrens Purpose-Driven Life didn’t feel dictated.) Many would better fit as long-form magazine writing.
That might explain why so many Apostolic books actually fall under “self-help” and the loosely defined “inspirational” categories, despite protestations to the contrary. The thought of art or exceptional writing is subservient to spreading “the message” (and maybe making an extra buck). It might also explain why so many of our books are written by preachers and their wives.
Being the younger generation, we have to be different. We know it takes more than 7-10 days to write a real book. Probably this is due to our superior educations (something we should be eternally thankful for), and broader experiences at a younger age (thanks to the hard work of the previous generations). The beauty of a book is the personal interaction with the experience only the written word can create.
What Matters Most?
Yet do we allow that superior knowledge to stifle our dreams, obstruct our ideas, and prevent us from actually sitting down to write because we know how hard it is to write a real book that aspires to art? Shame on us. There’s a happy medium between the two mindsets.
I’d posit that, as much as we’re lacking first-rate writers, we’re also lacking first-rate critics, people passionate enough about writing to trumpet authors to the wider public. It is often the respected critic(s) that save the toiling artist from obscurity. (Faulkner’s career was literally saved by one of those thick Viking Portable Library’s edited by Malcolm Cowley.)
I'd posit it will take many Apostolics making contacts in the publishing world through writing conferences and seminars to achieve recognition. Some will need to lead (online?) writer's groups. Others will have to sponsor writing contests with monetary prizes. A few will need to choose writing/ criticism/ editing as their calling and achieve success, then invite a few more to join them. Just the fact that Word (and Notes) continues a dialogue on these topics is a necessary first step.
Remember: it’s always only a handful that redirect the tide of history. What part would you like to play?
Labels: Critics, Merton
I’m always on the lookout for good books on writing, so when Echoing Silence: Thomas Merton on the Vocation of Writing was recommended to me by a trusted friend, I slid it on my Christmas list. If you’re unaware, Merton was a converted Catholic who later became a monk. (His Seven Story Mountain is considered a spiritual classic, though I haven’t read it.)
