Til We Have Faces

Literature and music: two things i simply cannot live without. Food and air optional.

theparisreview: “My aversion to describing amorous details in my work is probably that I treasure physical love so highly I don’t want to let strangers in on it. For, after all, when we describe copulation we’re describing our own experiences. I like privacy. I think that other writers should do what they can do, and if they can spend—as one of my American girl students did—ten pages on the act of fellatio without embarrassing themselves, very good luck to them. But I think there’s more artistic pleasure to be gained from the ingenious circumvention of a taboo than from what is called total permissiveness. When I wrote my first Enderby novel, I had to make my hero say ‘For cough,’ since ‘Fuck off’ was not then acceptable. With the second book the climate had changed, and Enderby was at liberty to say ‘Fuck off.’ I wasn’t happy. It was too easy. He still said ‘For cough,’ while others responded with ‘Fuck off.’ A compromise. Literature, however, thrives on taboos, just as all art thrives on technical difficulties.” Anthony Burgess, The Art of Fiction No. 48

theparisreview:

“My aversion to describing amorous details in my work is probably that I treasure physical love so highly I don’t want to let strangers in on it. For, after all, when we describe copulation we’re describing our own experiences. I like privacy. I think that other writers should do what they can do, and if they can spend—as one of my American girl students did—ten pages on the act of fellatio without embarrassing themselves, very good luck to them. But I think there’s more artistic pleasure to be gained from the ingenious circumvention of a taboo than from what is called total permissiveness. When I wrote my first Enderby novel, I had to make my hero say ‘For cough,’ since ‘Fuck off’ was not then acceptable. With the second book the climate had changed, and Enderby was at liberty to say ‘Fuck off.’ I wasn’t happy. It was too easy. He still said ‘For cough,’ while others responded with ‘Fuck off.’ A compromise. Literature, however, thrives on taboos, just as all art thrives on technical difficulties.”

Anthony Burgess, The Art of Fiction No. 48

10 months ago

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    And his use of suggestion is more effective and erotic than many a writer’s expanded sexual details.
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    My aversion to describing amorous details in my work is probably that I treasure physical love so highly I don’t want to...
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